Coach, How Can I Run Faster?

I get tons of questions from parents and other people that come into my facility. The most common is: How can I, or my child, run faster? My reply: If you run more efficiently you will run faster.

Running Efficiently
Believe it or not, most people, including athletes, do not know how to run efficiently. That's why performance training facilities, such as Velocity Sports Performance, are popping up all over America. Their strategy is to train athletes on proper muscle recruitment, foot placement, and other speed enhancing techniques.

There are countless things that come into play when running efficiently and they include: proper foot placement, proper knee punch and recovery of your leg (buttkick), arm action, head position, and learning to relax the body - just to name a few. If I wrote them all this log it would turn into a dissertation and I really don't want to bore you with all that scientific information.

For all of you parents who have kids that want to run faster or even if you want to learn how to be a more efficient runner, here are some things that can be done:

Make sure you are driving your knees up when running but not driving up so high that you're driving up above your hip (that's wasted movement). You also want to drive your foot slightly behind your hip so you can fully extend that leg into the ground, absorbing the force. This will allow the body to propel forward. But one thing you must remember: make sure you keep your foot Dorsi-Flex (Pull your toe up towards you knee while running. It allows you to use your ankle and calf muscle as a spring board. What does a spring board do? It shoots you out like rocket.).

Good Training

For more information on Velocity Sports Performance, visit www.velocitysp.com. Its a nationwide franchise.