Tips for Budding Posers from a Pose Expert

Tips for Budding Posers from a Pose Expert

 Today’s little Gem is basically a post of NRG’s on the Fetch forum about how to get the basics of running correctly very quickly. This makes a lot of sense to me and actually pleased me greatly because I had already tried some of this a couple of days ago. I tried running up and down the garden in bare feet with very little lean concentrating on making the lightest sensation I could on the balls of my feet. I am going to perfect this, I am determined. The more I learn about efficient running the more I realise that there is to actually learn. Mainly it is about being very patient with oneself and realising that unpicking the habits of a lifetime and substituting them with better habits isn’t an over night process.

No quick fix here, just sign up for the long haul and accept that nothing worth having is easy. The concept is very simple, yet actually doing it is very difficult at times. Balance it against stress fractures and the likelihood of having a running career cruelly curtailed though and it all suddenly looks very worthwhile indeed!

Here are NRG’s words…

 ”People think that they do [understand Pose] but it is only a fleeting understanding of what the final picture could be – it is not the sudden completion of all their jigsaw pieces.

The way to resolve your injuries (assuming its not anything serious like a SF), is to move properly.

Stage1:

Go back to basics. Whilst barefoot, do the Pose Stance and feel the pressure of body weight on your BOF. Remember that pressure sensation. Now change support quickly (ie >180 cadence) gently from one leg to another, but try not to exceed the sensation of more then 1 BW of force on your BOF. Do this by whatever means eg: unweighting, Pulling, bent knees, feeling as if you’re on hot coals, pretend you’re a waiter carrying a tray of drinks which you’re trying desperately not to spill, stay relaxed etc etc etc – its all the same thing as long as you can switch support without exceeding the sensation of 1BW of pressure on BOF. When you can do this pain free for longish periods eg 3-5mins, you’re ready for stage2.

Stage2:

This is the easy bit. Close your eyes, relax, don’t lean but allow yourself to move forward about one or two meters. Now go backwards. Now go sideways. Keep doing this for a few days where you can initiate movement in ANY direction simply by directing your body weight in that direction. But most importantly remember the sensation of 1 BW of pressure on BOF and no more. If you can’t do this then either you’re trying to lean too much – don’t! or you have not mastered stage1 above.

Stage3:

Start expanding your runs to say 5-10meters at a time. So you do COS as per Stage1, allow yourself to move forward slowly eg less then 0.5 meter per second. Then come to zero forward velocity – but keep changing support!

Stage4:

Well that’s upto you – be sensible, remember the BW sensation of no more then 1BW of pressure on BOF and allowing your body weight to initiate forward movement.

For steps 1-3 do not worry about pull direction, posture or anything – just focus on changing support such that you do not exceed more then 1 BW of pressure on BOF.”

Useful Acronyms/Abbreviations

BOF: Ball of Foot

GCM: General Centre of Mass (A couple of inches below the navel in middle of body)

BW: Body Weight

COS: Change of Support

SF: Stress Fracture

JonP’s Advice on Starting the Run

Try this as supporting information to Stage 3 above.

“Add a tiny tiny tiny lean so that your body very lightly rolls forward, then feel like you take the lean away so that you smoothly come to a stop, then tiny tiny tiny lean again (we’re talking moving literally snail pace – literally) to start moving forward, then take away the lean to stop. As you do this you will perceive just how subtle the lean is and get direct feedback of lean/no lean/lean/ no lean. nrg calls this “clutch control” as in a car – and it is exactly that feeling as if you are controlling your lean by letting it out and bringing it in. If you get to a point of easily doing this with loose ankles and effortlessness (while all the time maintaining quick cadence) then your skill level will have jumped a level.”