On Good Form?

On Good Form?

As you probably know by now, I think a lot, especially with regard to running. I spend virtually all my waking hours thinking about it, and when not injured quite a lot of time running. I think one of largest problems to do with running is that most people don’t think of runing as a learned skill. We shall see as the results of the poll come in but I have a feeling that until people think about running in a similar fashion to skiing for instance then lots of people are going to keep on being injured and wondering why.

Too many people think of running as an innate ability and I really wish I had a quid for every time I heard people tell me they don’t think you can “force form” away from what you do naturally or that you have to make do with the running style “you were born with”. It is a very human and arrogant trait. We all think we are very good at what we do especially when we see some measure of success. If for example we have run a marathon in a reasonable time then most of us just think that our running form must be quite good? Well I ran a half marathon in 1:27 which isn’t too bad really but my form was lousy. So lousy in fact that it injured me badly enough to stop me running for some months.

Why is there this weirdness around running? People very quickly accept that you need to learn to ski otherwise you will hurt yourself very badly probably. People wouldn’t dream of jumping out of a plane with a parachute on without some instruction and most people have swimming lessons.

And what about us not being able to change? If I believed that then this blog wouldn’t exist and I would have stopped running because I would also have been convinced that running is simply bad for you.

Running badly is bad for you I hasten to point out. Before you decide that running form cannot be changed I recommend you have a look at this website and read this book (the one about running) in order to understand how our bodies work and how they are actually in a constant state of change. Our bodies constantly adapt to how we use them. This can be good and bad because we are just as good at learning bad ways of moving and becoming comfortable than we are at moving in a way that suits our biological machine and reduces the chances of injury.

I’m just a little tired of how people treat running almost with some sort of derision. Running is simple so it follows that there should be no problem with it. People who “have trouble with their running” are just “bad runners” or have “incurable biomechanical conditions” or just “haven’t got what it takes”.

I will not accept these opinions because they are the opninions of the ill-informed, naive or ignorant – in my opinion of course! I believe we can all run better and and by doing so we can all learn how to maximise our enjoyment of the sport and realise our potential whilst avoiding injury. Sure we aren’t all going to be world beaters but why should that stop us wanting to be the best that we can be for ourselves?