2 Things to Maintain or Improve Your Running Technique

Summary

• If you want to see good running technique, watch a preschooler run. There are a few big reasons that allow them to run so well.
• Preschoolers have great mobility. Around 1^st grade you will start to see some kids lose that mobility due to an increase in sitting.
• Coaches can help guide your athlete with mobility drills if needed.
• Preschoolers don’t heel strike when running. Shoes have a lot of cushioning on the heel, encouraging for heel striking when running. This can have a detrimental impact on overall running technique.
• Allowing your kids to occasionally run barefoot or use minimal shoes can help maintain the proper technique. Walking barefoot on grass, river rocks, or sand can also help.

Full Transcript

Two things to help with running technique. Now if you don't know what a good running technique looks like, watch a preschooler run. Seriously, watch a three year old run. They've got great running technique and it's not because of all the years of coaching and training they've done as a three year old. It's for these two things which we're going to go over in this video. Hi, my name's David Sabi here with Kid to Athlete to help parents raise happy, healthy, high performing athletes. Now why do preschoolers run so well? Well, they've got the mobility and they use their feet correctly. Those two things alone will help them run beautifully. So mobility, mobility is basically the ability to use the full range of motion, to be able to use your joints freely. And when you watch a preschooler run, they're running up right, nice and tall because they have great hip extension.

They can use their hips properly, they can use their ankles properly and so it allows them to run well. But why do we tend to lose that? Well, if you just look at from around first or second grade, that's usually when running technique starts to go. We've been sitting down in class for long periods of time and so we get tight and it's good for learning in a classroom, but it's not the best for running when you start to get tight. Best thing to do is ask your coach or your kid's coach, "What are the best mobility drills that we can do?" Most coaches will understand that mobility is very important and they'll put it in their warmup or their cool-down. Secondly, preschoolers use their feet correctly. If you think about how they learn to walk, they learn to walk by feeling the ground, and then what that does is it allows them to send signals up the body to trigger a certain muscle groups to activate or relax.

It also helps with balance. Now, as we start to wear shoes, what we're really doing is we're numbing our feet to the ground contact. That won't help when it comes to running. Plus with those large heels, we'll start to use that cushioning on the shoe and heel plants. And so when you start to run planting with your heel, you got to remember that it's not the most efficient way of running because now you have to go, you plant your heel and then you've got to go over your foot. Whereas if you watch a three year old, they're planting with the ball of their foot and then before you know that they're already over their foot. There's no having to take that extra effort, which in the long run makes it more efficient and your athlete's going to have a lot more energy than putting on the brakes every time they land on their heel.

So a couple of things I would recommend is looking into some shoes that have minimal insole or cushioning so that you can actually feel the ground. You can do some barefoot training, which doesn't mean run a marathon barefoot. What it means is you do some strides barefoot. You do some, even just walking, walking barefoot actually will help get the body to understand, "Hey, this what it should feel like. This is what the ground feels like." And I also recommend walking on different terrains. So river rocks, walk on sand, grass, if you're walking on that all barefoot, it's going to really help engage the whole body. So two things I recommend is work on that mobility. Ask your coach, what's the best mobility drills for your kid? Or have your kid ask the coach, "What's the best mobility drills," so that they can work on, so that they don't lose their running technique or that they can improve it?

Use your feet properly would be the second one. Minimal shoes, I would recommend doing some barefoot strides doing some barefoot, just walking on different terrains. Also, very good to do. Use your feet the way they were intended and don't numb it with these large, soled shoes. And watch your running technique improve just with that and basically that's all I have for you for today. I will see you on the next video. If you liked this video, give it a thumbs up, hit that subscribe button and please leave a comment. Let me know what you think. Let me know what you're doing or what you're interested in learning, and maybe we'll see another video on that topic. Until then, I'll see you next time.