Racing Faster
One of the first things that most coaches do is try to improve how their runners swing their arms. The idea is that a symmetric, efficient arm swing will make the runner go faster with the same amount of effort. It is definitely the case that more efficient running form leads to faster times. But is making the arms swing like that of a perfect runner the right way to achieve this? After 37 years of running and 30 years of coaching, I have come to the conclusion that trying to make the arm swing ideal is usually a mistake.

How can this be? The answer is that the arms compensate for the motion of the legs. A balance between the arms and legs is constantly maintained as the runner runs. If the lower body is perfectly symmetric, then this will lead to the runner's upper body also being symmetric, and perfect form is best. The problem is that for most runners, the lower body is far from symmetric. Any stride defect in the lower body must be balanced by equal and opposite motion in the upper body. Also, because most runners' arms are smaller than their legs, the amount of imperfection shown in the upper body will be exaggerated compared to the asymmetry in the upper body.

In my own case, I have fairly significant asymmetries in my lower body, and long legs. The combination has led my natural arm swing to be very asymmetric and unorthodox. Nevertheless, I developed a very smooth and balanced stride, and managed a personal best of 30:23 in the 10K. I learned to focus on keeping the lower body smooth, and letting the arms do whatever they wanted to make this happen.

Are runners with imperfect running form destined not to reach the top? Surprisingly, the answer is no. A quick look at recent marathon champions shows that even the very best can have quirky styles. Women's world record holder Paula Radcliffe has a pronounced head roll on every stride, always to the left shoulder. This is certainly to compensate, even though she may not be aware of it, for a small asymmetry in her lower body. Mark Plaatjes, the former men's world champion, had a very odd looking arm swing, and Bill Rodgers, perhaps the greatest American men's marathoner of all time, has what appears to be an unbalanced arm swing.

Look carefully, though, and you will see that all these champions run very smoothly and fluidly. The beauty is below the waist. The leg motion of marathon champions is always beautifully symmetric, and this would not be possible, in most cases, without letting the upper body balance out the stride.

Why then do sprinters, for example, pay so much attention to the fine points of their upper body form? The answer is that, in a short race, the form can be unnaturally perfect without risking injury. Training mileage is short, but intense, and high volume stresses do not have the opportunity to accumulate. In distance running, however, unnaturally perfect form leads to the stride being unbalanced thousands and thousands of times a week, which inevitably leads to injury. In general, the longer the training miles required for the event, the more the runner should emphasize natural running form.

The distance runner's best strategy, then, is to run naturally and freely. This does not mean permitting obvious defects, like keeping the arms totally stiff, or hunching the shoulders, or letting the hands fly far outside the elbows, but it does mean concentrating on things other than how a coach would like the arm swing to look. Instead of trying to make the upper body picture perfect, the runner should instead concentrate on keeping the lower body smooth and fluid. Try to run with a Zen- like flow rather than forcing the stride into a particular form. Each runner has a perfect form, but that form is different for every runner. How the stride feels is a better guide than how it looks. When a runner's form is fully natural, and the runner is fit, the result is an effortlessness that feels so good it is almost addictive.

To summarize, the best policy for any runner is to 1) focus on the lower body rather than the upper body, 2) let the arms do whatever is natural to smooth out the stride, and 3) go with the flow. Running naturally is faster, feels great, leads to fewer injuries, and makes you more in touch with your running.

Roland Rust provides free coaching to a handful of dedicated runners. (His coaching resume can be found at www.runwashington.com/other/rustresume.html. He also does Washington Running Report's runner rankings. Roland can be contacted at rrust9@comcast.net.