Run for your life Magazine Australia

The upcoming edition of R4YL will be featuring a great article on whether running technique can be taught. I have always found this to be a fascinating topic and particularly for distance running, where the greatest majority of coaches - even very high level coaches - won't necessarily provide feedback on technique and most of the attention to directed towards the specifics of training sessions, volumes, or intensities.
Even without yet reading this upcoming article, what are people's thoughts on whether technique should be taught, or whether we should just allow athletes to run as they naturally do?
Greeny

This is something I wish I'd tried 20-30 years ago! But I reckon we can be taught to use more efficient running technique, just as we can a golf swing or kicking a ball. Might not turn someone into a world-class athlete, but help us achieve our potential.

Looking forward to reading the article.

I'm a big fan of the 'running is a skill' line of thinking. Like with any other skill-based sport or activity, there are better and worse ways of executing that skill.

So yes, running technique can and should (especially for countless modern, Western, recreational runners who have lost touch with this skill), be taught.

I'm not however a big fan of getting overly technical when it comes to teaching running skill. More so focusing on a handful of fundamental principles that will allow us to run better. i.e avoid over-striding, higher step turnover, balanced, tall & upright posture.

Robbo, you are wise beyond your years..... or maybe it is just that Peter Garbutt (author of the upcoming article) and I agree with you.

I certainly think that you can make some of the biggest positive changes by concentrating on those key cores aspects you have mentioned. But I do like to get a little bit more technical.

In Issue 47 or 48, I am going to put down my take on it all, so will be interesting to hear your feedback on that one.

Looking forward to it Greeny. Pete & his team are doing some great work in terms of getting education out there to runners about how to perform the skill of running better.

Yeah its interesting seeing how people respond to being taught about running technique.

While I agree the act of running is a very technical skill, many runners (especially beginners) can stiffen up and lose the flow of relaxed running if they are over-thinking & tensing up while concentrating on their form.

Creating the basic conditions for good running form to occur is a good starting point (e.g upright posture, avoid over-striding) and things can then be tweaked & looked at more in-depth from there.

Robbo, I have found for the more experienced runner technique can be improved by running speed/repetition sessions with a conscious effort on form - running at speed brings out more clearly any poor style or form - I run these speed sessions at 80-85% effort with the focus being on relaxation - eg instead of running 400s at 70 secs they would be in 76-80 range. During these sessions I try to run relaxed with a conscious effort to stay in tune with my body during the reps, focusing on my style including where my head and arm sits etc, and cadence. Found Julian Goater's book an interesting read - he makes the point that the arms are more than just to provide balance. They actually can perform an important role in "pulling U through" at a faster cadence, influencing the movement of the legs. And suggests that distance runners have some focus on their arms during races - I tried this recently and found it worked (17.32 at Newy, Robbo, when still only half fit, and 25 secs better than previous effort). I think it is useful to do weights for upper body & arms - I do - I don't do any weights for legs whatsoever, never have. Mike