sport jester - Well, Finally you contribute something interesting and possibly useful. I looked at the treadmill video and read part of the article, but did not want to pay for the whole thing. I  also watched other videos on running form, I did not know there were so many on u tube. One showed an Olympic athlete running barefoot in a field. At one point she was running along a white line and her foot strikes were all right along the line. There was also another one about using the forefoot to pull you along rather than the push off from the rear foot. Well, the proof is in the pudding, I may try some of these techniques to see if my running gets easier or faster.   I did find this article from the Journal of the Royal Society, again, I just read the following section rather than paying for the whole article.

Using step width to compare locomotor biomechanics between extinct, non-avian theropod dinosaurs and modern obligate bipeds

How extinct, non-avian theropod dinosaurs locomoted is a subject of considerable interest, as is the manner in which it evolved on the line leading to birds. Fossil footprints provide the most direct evidence for answering these questions. In this study, step width—the mediolateral (transverse) distance between successive footfalls—was investigated with respect to speed (stride length) in non-avian theropod trackways of Late Triassic age. Comparable kinematic data were also collected for humans and 11 species of ground-dwelling birds. Permutation tests of the slope on a plot of step width against stride length showed that step width decreased continuously with increasing speed in the extinct theropods (p < 0.001), as well as the five tallest bird species studied (p < 0.01). Humans, by contrast, showed an abrupt decrease in step width at the walk–run transition. In the modern bipeds, these patterns reflect the use of either a discontinuous locomotor repertoire, characterized by distinct gaits (humans), or a continuous locomotor repertoire, where walking smoothly transitions into running (birds). The non-avian theropods are consequently inferred to have had a continuous locomotor repertoire, possibly including grounded running. Thus, features that characterize avian terrestrial locomotion had begun to evolve early in theropod history.

I read the name of this post "the science of training" and I was really interested in reading.  Now I'm just confused.

With all the condescending points aside the main point was that "to run faster you have to change the way you run".. improve biomechanics?  How is this controversial?  Don't most people agree biomechanics are important?  But aren't there other important things that can also improve your running ability (endurance, lactate threshold, vo2 max etc.).  Does the poster not agree these are also important for running?

The poster referred to some of her articles.. most of these are about injury prevention in the army from physical training   https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Veronique_Hauschild  .. none of these are about running at all but are also pretty straightforward and not really controversial either like I was lead to believe.  Also, don't most runners incorporate different layers of injury prevention into their training?

What is the science and industry of training?  What is this post even about?

sport jester - After further thought I have to express some doubts about all your claims. There is no question that improving form leads to better performance. I saw something where they took a champion golfer and a computer analyzed his long drive and made recommendations.. By a slight adjustments to the way he twisted his body he made a measurable improvement in his driving distance. Now, if you take someone who is athletic, but not basically a runner, and teach them to run with a better form I can believe they can have 20% improvement. However, any long distance runner is already devoting 10 hours or more to training every week, an elite may run over 100 miles each week. All that time and miles leads to learning to run efficiently with whatever form seems to work.Of course some still have poor form, but they have trained to be fast anyway, a lot of being fast is just having the guts to run past levels of discomfort that would stop us lesser mortals. Like the pro golfer, I am sure there is room for improvement in anyone's form, but I doubt if it would be a 20% or even 10% improvement. As for the football players, I usually don't follow the sport being something of a nerd, but I did watch the Superbowl and must say I was surprised at how much sprinting was involved.

Your suggestions seem to be that we run with the footstrikes more in line and land on the forefoot rather than the heal. Well the article about theropods said humans "showed an abrupt decrease in step width at the walk–run transition" meaning that we naturally do this anyway and the video of the Olympic runner showed some of us even keep our running footsteps perfectly in line. I know that my step width is very narrow and I often have to run on paths that are like 10 inches wide. As for the forefoot strike, the minimalist movement has been around for years, so that is nothing radically new, and, as the army article you linked points out, it has not really shown to either increase speed or lessen injuries,

 

  Coaching football does NOT QUALIFY YOU AS A RUNNING EXPERT. 

When your students are carrying 150lbs of equipment at 8-10,000ft altitudes in the mountains of Afghanistan and running while being shot at, then their opinion of the skills I teach are the only ones which matter to me. Running up and down a perfectly level surface in cute outfits doesn't even qualify as a sport from my perspective.

Coming home on a private jet isn't the same as coming home in a body bag.

My education is held to much higher standards than yours is. That's not arrogance, it's simply fact.

And if you want the science, the techniques of teaching a lineman are directly applicable to anyone who runs or races on any steep or unsteady terrain. Being able to control an opponent on a field, is no different than carrying equipment loads or being able to run downhill as fast as possible. Generating greater ground force production through improving a player's balance skills has direct connection to improving running economy for distance runners. If you don't get that connection go back to Running 101.

In teaching wide receivers how to improve speed through dinosaur mimicry also decreases the players reliance on arm swing to reach peak speed. Eliminating the need of arm swing improves agility in arm movement and ball catching control.

Speed isn't only about stride length and turnover rates, it's a measure of decreasing wasted energy expenditure of movement regardless of activity anyone engages in.

 I doubt if it would be a 20% or even 10% improvement. 

Your suggestions seem to be that we run with the footstrikes more in line and land on the forefoot rather than the heal.

My best in my studies I did for Nike was a 27% improvement in running speed for a sub-elite level runner for them. If you came to train with me personally, I offer a money back guarantee to increase your speed by 20% or I tear up your check.

I've never had anyone get a refund.

I don't preach forefoot landing. Cats are heel strike runners, while both dogs and horses are forefoot runners. Heel strike runners use the gait form to optimize stride length. Race horses and cheetahs have one fact in common; the same stride length

http://cheetahspot.com/compared.php

Given the size difference between the two, is why I preach heel strike. It's the most efficient way to optimize stride length.

The primary difference is that cats pull their weight, and horses push theirs.

If you want to try it for yourself, I'm the Robert of this story and the masking tape exercise is how I introduce it to private clients.

https://www.military.com/military-fitness/running/evolution-of-learning-how-to-run-distance

Robert is looking for attention.

Robert does this every so often.

This is not worth anybody's time.

He made it to the news recently...

http://katu.com/news/local/portland-independent-researcher-is-helping-rewrite-military-training-manuals

 

Robert's dad was an Olympic coach for Belgium for rowing.

Robert's estranged brother works in the shoe industry and was a chief level executive at KSwiss, Zoot, and a couple other well known companies.  He appears to be normal.  This brother was also a low ranking professional tennis player.

https://www.atpworldtour.com/en/players/erik-vervloet/v327/overview

 

Robert:

communication issues.

logic issues.

lack of social skills.

 

Some of this may not be true.

Some of this is true.

My father was an Olympic coach for Holland, not Belgium.

And if you ask Erik who was his best coach, he'll tell you me

And the interview was about rewriting the training manuals for the Army and Marines. I've also done numerous radio interviews over the years. Originally it was about research I found documenting how video game playing can cut dementia risks in older adults.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171116104955.htm

Funny that you overlooked this one about me:

https://portlandtribune.com/bvt/15-news/18837-on-the-move

Communication issues? Only with those whose egos or livelihoods I threaten...

I joined this site expecting to see some people nerding out about running and hopefully pick up a tip or two l, but boy has this thread completely exceeded my wildest expectations.

For someone who wouldn’t waste their time talking to anyone that’s not an 0-3 or above he’s sure spending a lot of time slumming around these parts....