It's 2010. A new year, and renewed excitement for fast times: indoor, outdoor, and over hill and dale.
And runners across the country flood message boards with hits and posts oozing excitement about the latest trends: the new training, the new gear -- "Free" (but not the least bit cheap) shoes, supersocks, beltless trench coats, ad nauseum -- the brilliant new coaching minds, and the fresh new talent. All of which buoys our hopes that, indeed, this year will finally be the year for The Breakthrough for US distance running. Or, at least, my running.
But, it probably won't.
Sorry.
There are Four Fundamental Problems with US Distance Running. And until they're recognized, we will never reach our potential. And you will never reach your potential -- no matter the Team, the Coach, the Workouts, or the Gear.
#1 - No One Teaches Us How to Run
How silly. Everyone knows how to run, right? It's just like walking but (presumably) faster, and more tiring.
Wrong. There's a right way, and limitless flawed ones.
Distance running is the only "real" sport where kids are simply not being taught the fundamental mechanics for success.
Take basketball: if a little kid shows up for the first day of practice, chucking the ball, "granny-style" to the hoop, that's a major problem, right?
Here's what the youth basketball coach might do:
"Hey Johnny, let me show you the CORRECT WAY to shoot a basketball!"
He would then demo those correct mechanics and might even use a clever acronym for the kiddies to remember (who else remembers "BEEF" from kid ball?).
Atta boy, coach. But what does the high school, and even college and "professional" running coach say?
"That's OK, Johnny! Just chuck that granny shot up there A FEW BILLION TIMES, and you'll eventually get really efficient at it!"
He/she might even add a few coaching pearls about dedication and perseverance, or a vital importance of weekly session of 50,000 granny shots being the key to "ideal mechanics".
This is unacceptable, and a major reason why the talent in this country fails to develop: the lack of biomechanical emphasis by coaches and runners at every level -- even at the highest professional levels.
Oh sure, there's "steps" and "skips" and "drills" galore for sprinters and distance runners, alike, but find me one coach who knows WHY those are importance -- and their direct application to stride mechanics -- and I'll find a hundred runners who haven't the slightest idea what they do.
#2 - The Fast Kids Become Sprinters, the Slow Kids Are Distance Runners
In the US, when you're considered "fast" as a kid -- in other words, when you possess ideal stride mechanics -- our youth sport system funnels you directly to the sprint coach, post-haste. The slow kids -- with form characteristics ranging from "distance" (in other words -- inadequate hip flexion/knee extension during max velocity running) to "clunky" are diverted to the mile, two mile, or whatever distance is longest. Where, of course, they lack coherent instruction on mechanics.
Thus, the vast majority of our track and field talent pool goes toward sprints, while the remains are swept over to distance.
#3 - The Complete Disregard for the Dynamic Nature of Running Strides
Across the board in all "skill sports" -- basketball, baseball, golf, bowling (and the field events!) -- sports that require rhythmic, multi-directional biomechanical motions -- heavy attention is paid to the complex and painfully frustrating dynamic nature of FORM.
Basketball and baseball players often cite "hot" and "cold" streaks relating to shots, swings, and pitches -- and they'll spend hours refining them. Golfers' swings are broken down in slow-motion with telestrators on TV, pointing out strengths and weaknesses. And field event coaches -- from the hammer ring to the high jump pit -- surround and bombard their athletes with step-by-step feedback and cues for approach and execution mechanics.
What are the runners and distance coaches doing? Fretting about splits and paces, spikes v flats v trainers, "VO2Max" v "Special Endurance II" v "Extensive-Intensive".
All the while wondering why -- after having done the same workouts with the same teammates in the same shoes on the same track -- they're slower and feel worse than a year ago. How is this possible?
Must be the iron levels. Are they eating enough protein? Too much?
No one is asking about their mechanics.
Even keeping all else equal -- coach, training, environment, and gear -- strides change. And, like the golf swing and the jump shot, can change fundamentally (and tragically) by the day, or moment.
This lack of awareness of dynamic nature of an individuals' stride is -- in my professional opinion as runner, coach, and healthcare practitioner -- the single greatest cause of poor performance, lack of career development/progression, and injury, burnout, and, ultimately "retirement".
#4 - The Over-Emphasis on Physiological Distance Training versus Biomechanics
This is a culmination of numbers 1-3. The physiological training aspects of distance running -- base mileage vs sprints vs intervals vs fartleks vs recovery vs altitude vs sea level vs core strength vs weights vs plyometrics -- absolutely dominates coaching theory, as well as internet banter.
A simple word search of the ubiquitous LetsRun message board found the following search results:
TRAINING: 141,000 results
WORKOUT: 35,166
INTERVAL: 6,576
STRIDE: 6,101
MECHANICS: 1,838
That's nearly a 100:1 ratio of training-related v mechanics-related discussions on arguably the most popular distance-running message board.
This is representative of how runners and coaches at all levels prioritize the sport. Attend your state's annual coaches clinics, and I will bet my next paycheck the bulk of discussions will be on training theory, zippy mental tricks or, my favorite -- "My Team Did Really Well This Year, So I'm Gonna Tell You Why We're Good".
To have training theory -- at its current level of hyper-analysis and obsession -- dominate over basic running biomechanics is, by definition, putting the cart before the horse.
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I have resided in Track Town USA long enough -- and interacted with enough elite track and field athletes and coaches -- to have become sufficiently jaded with this flawed approach to US Distance Running.For youth and collegiate runners, it's disappointing to see such glaringly misplaced priorities: obsessing about this training theory versus that, or debating the merits of weights versus plyometrics, static versus dynamic stretching, etc.
Well-known Coach Brad Hudson put it well on his own website, stating (in paraphrase) that distance runners need not obsess about the latest gimmick; they simply need to run more. And while I agree with that philosophy, I'll take it a step further:
Distance runners need to run more with optimal stride mechanics.
For post-collegiate and professional runners, the incredible sacrifices they make to achieve their goals -- all the while ignoring fundamental flaws of stride mechanics -- is simply tragic.
These are people leaving loves ones behind, delaying families and careers, living in near-poverty (often without healthcare, even at the highest levels). Yet they continue to train with often glaring biomechanical faults.
That some of these athletes train and perform at such elite levels with such basic (and changeable) flaws in mechanics is both amazing and, frankly, embarrassing.
Think a Division I or Professional basketball player dribbling a ball with two hands, or underhand shooting free-throws. I put these examples on par with some of the more fundamental (and, shockingly, "accepted") biomechanical flaws, including:
- Trendelenburg hip gait
- Extreme lumbar lordosis ("gut out")
- Inadequate hip flexion/knee extension ("The Distance Stride")
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Why is this a problem? Improper biomechanics result in:- Decreased maximum speed --> SLOWER PERFORMANCE
- Decreased maximum efficiency --> the body absorbs more energy than it transmits --> more tissue stress --> slower recovery --> lower training volume tolerance, or INJURY -- SLOWER PERFORMANCE
Perhaps it is because they are more biomechanically efficient. Pouring in quart after quart of oil every day does not fix the leaky engine.
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In summary, to train so incredibly hard and sacrifice so much -- all the while sporting a significant biomechanical deficit -- is akin to this:
A SPOILER might be vitally important to achieving your top-end speed, but...might you wanna turn that Festiva into a Ferrari first?*****
The solution? Recognition of biomechanics as the most important aspect of distance running. If it's important to analyze and perfect the 13-stride approach in high jump, might the 26,000-step approach to the marathon finish warrant similar scrutiny?*****
NEXT POST: The Solution, with specifics. It's not that difficult. If high school quarterbacks can memorize a playbook, a kid can learn how to put one foot in front of the other.And so can the coach.
