So, you've watched a few of my videos on natural running form and improving your running cadence, a lot of these things like this. And you want to know Well, what does that actual natural foot strike look like? How do I do a natural foot strike? Well, I'm Jesse Funk on this special episode of Runner's High. I'm going to go through some video I recently took a me at the track, and we're going to talk about natural foot strike.
So, you've watched a few videos and you know that put strikes important but you're not sure, does it matter whether you heel strike or forefoot strike or mid foot strike? Well, I'm here to assure you that it doesn't really matter. What's important is that your foot strikes beneath your center of gravity.
So, here in a second, I'm actually going to take you to a screen share, where you're going to jump inside the video editing software that I use for editing many of these Runner’s High videos - bring you. And we're going to take a look at some videos of me both in real time and in slow mo.
Okay. Here we are glad you made the jump. We're here inside my video editing software, Premiere Pro. If you want to know where I am right now, I'm in that bottom right hand corner, I may be covered by the controls on YouTube. But don't worry about it. What's important is this video in front of us a me running, you want to know about that foot strike.
So, in this shot, I'm actually working on something called strides which is a an acceleration to your fastest speed and then deceleration. I do this in kind of a shortened pattern. But you can kind of see, as my speed increases, everything elongates and then comes back down.
So, let's watch through one time, you kind of see me run and then we'll watch the slow down version, and I'll talk a little bit more about what's going on and what we want to look for when you take video of yourself. So, let's take a look at our shot here. See if it'll play.
So, here I am accelerating and then deceleration. It's not anything too terribly fancy. Typically, you're going to be doing strides at full hundred meter pattern. I was trying to do this for another video, didn't quite work out when my mic cut out. So, let's take a look at the slo mo version, you can kind of see a little bit more about what's going on.
What we're looking for is for that foot to come underneath me, underneath my center of gravity. And it may be a little bit deceiving, I'll show you what's going on here in a second. So, here's a slow mo version, slowed down to 30%. I'm just getting going, kind of see me going here. And then I'm going to pause it here in just a second, and right here.
So, foot plant is a full swing here. And you may think okay, but your toe is out in front of you. Where you want to pay attention, hopefully, you can see my mouse, what I talk about in the natural running form do's and don'ts video is that you have a slight lean, and that's what makes it a little bit deceiving to look at.
Look at where the top of my head is and it essentially goes straight down my neck, down to my foot. There's this nice line between where my foot is planting in the ground, and then the top of my head.
So, that's what you want to look for is getting that strike underneath you for your run. When you have it planted in front of you, you're breaking and that's where the heel strike becomes kind of the culprit for this is bad running form. You can technically heel strike and still be okay as long as it lands underneath you.
If you're having trouble with this, and you don't quite know what to do, I actually share in another one of my videos on one simple trick to improve your running cadence, a trick that comes from Ben Yoakam who's a running coach, and he was a D1 decathlete. I actually interviewed him on the Smart Athlete Podcast.
So, if you haven't watched any of those, subscribe to the channel because I interview all kinds of very competitive and intelligent athletes that are not only entertaining like Ben, but share a lot of great information. So, let me go back one more time, let’s watch this slo mo video of me and you get a little bit better idea about what's going on again. So, when I start, I start the lean want to make sure I have my lean going on. Start my run, nice smooth shoulders. Again, foot is planting underneath me.
When you don't have video, sometimes you can get actual photos of yourself and it'll look like you're planting in front so you want to actually get some video if you can and slow it down if possible to really figure out what's going on.
One critique with mind running and this is something I talked about in another video, not necessarily foot strike related, but I can get my neck back just a little bit and be a little bit more in line. But again, want that foot strike right underneath you so that you're not breaking.
So, that's today's video of runner's high here in my office. If you've watched any of the Smart Athlete Podcast you know this is where I hang out. If you haven't watched those, subscribe to the channel, hit that button in the bottom right hand corner.
Stay tuned as I interview both very intelligent and very competitive athletes who share great stories. But as far as running form is concerned, hopefully you've got a better idea how that foot strike should happen.
If you take a video of yourself, let me know, leave them in the comments below. Let's get together and figure out how I can help you with your running form. Send me those videos and maybe I can pull them into Premiere Pro like this and we can slow them down and kind of talk through them and then share those on our channel with other people so they can see maybe what's going on with their running form. I'll see you next time on the next episode of Runner’s High.