Stride length – Is it important?

Everywhere I go and almost everything running that I read recently seems to be talking about stride length. (Well not everything, but enough to make me stop and think)

Athletics coaches refer to increasing stride length, books tell you that stretching will increase flexibility and thus stride length.

But no-one tells you WHAT the optimal stride length is. Presumably, if I spend all my time stretching and bounding, I would develop the stride length of crazy legs crane. (a cartoon character – just google for it…)

But would that make me run any faster ?

No, probably not.

It has been taken down now (presumably due to copyright restrictions) but youtube had the final of the 2000 Olympics 10,000 metres.

In probably the greatest race ever, Paul Tergat & Haile Gebreselassie were sprinting for the line.

HG just threw his body at the line and tried to make his legs catch up. Paul Tergat tried to do it on stride length but couldn’t physically move his legs fast enough.

I know they are elite athletes but the principles are the same – you can’t run faster on stride length alone.

So what to do?

Well – Pose running says forget about stride length and focus on leg speed turnover (just like HG)

Have YOU tried it out yet?

Click here to visit Pose Tech E-Store

Tags: Haile Gebreselassie, Paul Tergat, stride length

Category: Theory