Hey guys it's Dr. JP and today we're going to analyze Michael Norman who is
one of the fastest sprinters this year! The clip we will be looking at is during
beginning part of the race where he ran the 400 meter in 43.61
seconds. This time makes Norman the sixth fastest 400 meter runner ever. What makes
this even crazier is that he's only 20 years old and I'm so curious about what
he will accomplish in the future! Anyway, let's take a closer look at his running.
We will first talk about general aspects of his running form like stride length
and stride frequency. Based on a few calculations, he presents with a step
length of 2.29 meters. This is impacted by things like leg length and power
generation from the legs. This is a pretty decent step length; however, to get
a better understanding of what these values mean, let's compare this to
someone like Wayde van Niekerk, the current 400 meter world-record holder.
When Wayde ran the fastest 400 meter ever, he demonstrated a step length at 2.34
meters. This is a very minuscule difference when you compare
both step lengths; however, you might expect Norman to have a longer step
length as he is taller, but then again Wayde van Niekerk has been known to have
an unusually long step length. Anyway, Norman makes up for this in stride
frequency. During this clip, he presents with the cadence of 240 steps per minute
This is incredibly quick and it's actually a slightly higher rate than
Wayde, whose cadence was around 238 steps per minute. Basically compared to Wayde
van Niekirk, Michael Norman relies a little more on his quick cadence for
speed, while Niekirk presents with a pretty long step length while
maintaining a pretty quick cadence as well. Now, let's take a look at Michael
Norman's running form as he runs this race. As you can see, Norman presents with
forefoot landing. This is pretty common in sprinters as its leads to shorter
ground contact times leading to quicker steps. What is more important for quicker
rate of steps is where the foot lands in relation to the body. As you can see,
Michael Norman's foot seems to land very close to the body center of mass. Now, the
closer the foot lands to the center of mass, usually the quicker the person is
able to complete the running cycle, leading to quicker speeds. Now, let's take
a look at the amount of vertical movement that takes place as he runs. As
you can see, even though there's a lot of force generation coming from those legs,
there's not much bounce when he runs. Preventing excessive upward movement
leads to more efficient running. One of the main
reasons for Norman's ability to stay low to the ground is his incredibly fast step
rate... as high stride frequency usually leads to lower vertical oscillation
during running. What else is interesting is his posture as he runs. As you can see,
he keeps his body upright with no trunk bent; however, he presents with a pretty
decent forward tilt of the body. It seems to aid and improve the momentum
forward and positions the body in a way that allows for increased force
generation from the hips as he pushes off the ground.
Speaking of pushing off the ground, let's take a look at the overall movement of
the foot as it touches the ground to when it pushes off. He definitely
presents with some good leg movement, but if I were to try to tweak one thing, it
may be to increase that backside movement where his hips extend just a
tiny bit more. If he can do this, which lengthens step length and can maintain
his quick cadence, this may lead to faster times. Of course, this is only
theoretical and can work the other way as trying to increase step length
slightly may lead to a more significant drop in stride frequency leading to
decreased speeds. Of course another option is increasing force production
from the hips for increased distance traveled. It all really depends on the
runner's response to this change as everyone has their own running style
individual to their own body, but this is definitely food for thought... Moving on, we
can already see that he has some good hip mobility, but he also has some decent
shoulder mobility as well. Some runners lack backward movement of the shoulders,
known as shoulder extension; however, Norman definitely does not. Without any
restrictions to arm movement, this aids in the upper body's ability to
counteract the rotational forces coming from the legs to maintain a relatively
stabilized body and maintain a straight path when sprinting. Now moving up to the
head, you can see that he maintains a neutral position of the head and you do
not see it going forward and backward that much. Instead, if you look at the
front part of the body, you can see that most of the movement occurring is side
to side movement. This is part of the body's natural movement as the body
shifts its weight onto the leg that is landing on the ground... And that's it for
the quick analysis on Michael Norman, during the 400-meter race. I really hope
you guys enjoyed the video. Now, I know I've been making running analysis videos
on top elite runners, but I was thinking of making a series featuring footage
from some of my followers and subscribers and then analyzing that as
well. I'm very thankful for all the support you guys have given me and this
is a way for me to thank you guys even more! Let me know what you think about
this idea! Anyway, if you haven't already, please
subscribe to my channel for future videos and as always thank you for
watching!!!!