What's a 'kick', from Running Times online...

Developing a Good Kick

Sage advice from a champion Ethiopian kicker

By Gordon Bakoulis
As featured in the November 2010 issue of Running Times Magazine

What's the best strategy: To try to drop your competition to get into the clear before the final stages, or to use the pacing and the energy of a pack of runners through the early and middle stages, and then attempt to pull away near the end?

The conventional wisdom is that a runner with strong finishing speed should attempt to win with a kick. This was the tactic used by 20-year-old Lelisa Desisa to win the Utica Boilermaker 15K in July, a race on a hilly course, including a downhill finish that can favor a strong kicker.

"I am very confident to run in a pack or in the lead," says Desisa, who had placed third at the Peachtree Road Race 10K on July 4, another close race with a fast finish. That confidence, of course, comes from training -- not just the physical conditioning, but also learning one's strengths and aiming to improve upon weaknesses. In addition, Desisa knew the competition at Utica, and he wasn't fazed by the prospect of a hilly course. "The week before, at Peachtree, I raced against some of the same athletes. I like to run hills and was confident at the start that I would win the race," he says.
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