Knowing the biomechanics of running and its different modalities is essential to structure and plan your student’s training, whether athlete or recreational runner. Try to carefully understand the mechanisms and muscles involved in running, which muscles are most involved, and the determinants of performance.
As previously stated, the biomechanics of running correctly performed brings benefits, such as:
- Injury prevention;
- Improved performance.
For this, the physical education professional must be aware of the small details of the student’s locomotion pattern.
Care to be taken by the teacher
The teacher must:
- Perform a complete physical assessment;
- Assess the anthropometric profile;
- Carry out a complete anamnesis;
- Listen to all student complaints.
With this in hand, the teacher must structure the training to fill in the gaps, that is, try to work on the deviations, seeking a postural alignment so that there is a lower risk of injury. It is also interesting to carry out a cardiorespiratory assessment.
There are now several fields and treadmill techniques that can be easily performed to estimate the first and second ventilatory thresholds. This also enables maximum oxygen consumption and can establish training based on reliable physiological parameters to bring better results to your student.
In a third moment, film your student running and carefully observe the upper limbs and trunk movements. Small spine rotations are standard, but you should see if they are not being accentuated.
Keep an eye out: If the hands go beyond the body’s midline and leave the sagittal plane, your student may be wasting energy for nothing and becoming less economical, which can influence their performance and overload the spine.
Also, note your student’s stride length and frequency. Less variability of these parameters indicates a more stable and more economical corridor. Longer, less frequent passes are also beneficial. This is because it reduces the number of ground contact events, reducing the burden on the joints.
Also, note the time of foot contact with the ground; for long-distance runners, it is normal for this time to be longer than sprint runners.
But remember, a very long contact time impairs the efficiency of the spring-mass system, and the runner spends more metabolic energy to run and uses little of the elastic energy, which is more economical.
