Good Running Form

From Running Times online…

Spreading the Gospel about Good Running Form

How Grant Robison’s traveling clinics are educating the masses

By Mackenzie Lobby

As featured in the Web Only issue of Running Times Magazine

Until 2006, Grant Robison hadn’t thought much about running form and mechanics. He knew how to run fast, do drills and win races, but other than a passing comment from a coach suggesting he shorten his stride, he had never received any overt instruction on how to run. Despite this, he ran successfully in high school, had a stellar collegiate career at Stanford and eventually toed the line in the 1500m at the 2004 Olympics (3:35.75 PR). In short, he figured out a way to be great, even though his form wasn’t.

While shortcomings in your form may not be the only thing standing between you and an Olympic berth, they could be keeping you from reaching your full potential and staying injury-free. Curt Munson, co-owner of Playmakers, a running specialty store in Okemos, Mich., saw the issue of poor running mechanics come through his door each and every day. This led him to begin drafting a method of coaching runners that would correct these inefficiencies.

After recruiting the expertise of Robison, Playmakers co-owner John Benedict, and several others, Good Form Running (GFR) was born in the summer of 2006. Weekly lunch meetings discussing running research, examining footage of both good and bad running form and sharing personal tales of running successes, failures and injuries helped the GFR team solidify a game plan for educating runners on mechanics. What resulted was a running clinic preaching four main points: posture, midfoot, cadence and lean.

Read on here.