Running Form

Form-Running Skills

The following workout should be completed over a distance of 30 yards (90 feet). Each time you run, concentrate on a particular component of your skills as a runner. All of the skills are to be performed at half-speed unless otherwise indicated. Do the form-running skills portion before you work on the sprinting phase of the conditioning program and after you complete the warm-up and stretching portions.

1. Focus and Fix – 2 x 30 yards

Keep eyes focused on the horizontal plane downfield. Avoid an upward or downward head tilt. Fix elbows at 90 degrees. As the arm angle opens (the arm straightens) near the bottom, the arm should slow up. As the arm angle closes at the top, the fist should point high to the sky.

2. Rotate and Pull – 2 x 30 yards

Swing your arm through the shoulder girdle area, remembering to keep the elbows fixed at 90 degrees. To incorporate the strength of the shoulders, you must rotate at the shoulder girdle. Use the shoulder to swing the arm. Pull the fist through the hip pocket. The hard downward and backward action of the arm from chest height, through the pocket below the hip and past the butt, is critical to maximal leg drive. The further the arm is pulled past the butt area, the greater the extension of the leg on the other side.

3. Hammer and Squeeze – 2 x 30 yards

Imagine your back is to a wall with a nail sticking out of it, just below the waist. Now imagine you have a hammer in your hand, and using a downward and backward motion, you hammer the nail with all of your strength, trying to drive it in with one smooth, but forceful, stroke. Snap your wrist so that the knuckles of the hand point down to the ground rather than straight ahead to the finish line. Squeeze the elbows tight to your body.

4. Drive and Hang – 2 x 30 yards

Drive the knee out toward the finish line and then to the sky. Carry the leg forward without an upward pulling action. Knee drive allows hip rotation for greater stride length. Create and maintain a 90-degree angle at the knee in the recovery phase of knee drive. Lead with the knee. Hang your foot and lower leg down and under your knee. The idea is to have your foot land directly under your hip so that the force goes through the body on a horizontal, rather than vertical plane.

5. Snap and Extend – 2 x 30 yards

When the knee is at its highest point in the recovery phase, snap your foot back and under the hip. Any time the foot hits ahead of the hip, you are in a “pulling” rather than “driving” position. As you drive off the down foot, extend the leg. The back leg should achieve full extension before it enters the recovery phase.

6. Three-fourths Stride – 2 x 30 yards

Put all of the skills together.