Hey guys it's JP Gloria and today we're
going to look at the running form of the
youngest man to have ever won at the
European Championships
Jakob Ingebrigtsen!!! Today, we are going to
break down his running form as he won
the 1500 meter race during these
championships. He ran this race in a time
of 3 minutes and 38 seconds, but his
fastest time in this type of race is 3
minutes and 31 seconds. This is only
about 5 seconds off of the official 1500
meter world record by Hicham El Guerrouj,
which has not been broken in almost 20
years. Anyway, let's take a closer look at
Jakob as he runs!!! As we always do, let's
start at the feet... As the foot makes
contact with the ground, it looks like he
will be landing on the heels, but at the
moment of impact... the foot quickly pulls
close to his body and he lands right
around the mid to forefoot area. Landing
around this region of the foot allows
for Jakob to utilize the biomechanical
properties of the foot for shock
absorption and allow for smooth
transition as the foot rolls over the
ground. It's just a little part of the
reason why he demonstrates quick
seamless transitions between foot
contact on the ground to the flight
phase of running. Actually, in this clip
he presents with very quick leg turnover
with a cadence of about 210 steps per
minute!!! However, what plays a larger role
in allowing for smooth foot rollover is
where the foots position is in relation
to the body. Now, let's take a look at
Jakob's foot positioning. As you can see, it
lands just right in front of the hips!!
With this foot positioning during ground
contact, he's landing pretty close to the
body center of mass... maybe a little ahead
of it. Obviously, the forward lean of his
whole body helps a bit as it shifts his
center mass slightly closer to where the
foot lands... but the way he's landing is
nowhere close to be considered
over-striding...
which is when the foot lands way too far
ahead of the body, causing a braking
mechanism to occur... leading to wasted
energy and decreased leg turnover. Next,
let's take a look at the knees. Really
there's not much to see here that
absolutely stands out compared to other
elite runners.
He presents with that slight knee bend,
which allows for shock absorption this
is important especially at the point
where the foot makes initial contact
with the ground as there is a lot of
force going through those legs during
that movement. Now let's look at the hips!
Again, not much unique things to see here,
which is not a bad thing. You can
continue to see how Jakob's form is kind
of an embodiment of the current
knowledge of how many coaches believe
the body was optimally during running...
Looking at the side view, you can see he
utilizes the full range of his hips. The
common problem with many recreational
runners is they don't extend their hips
enough. Some of this comes from tightness
from the hip flexors... usually due to
sitting most of the day or over emphasis
on trying to improve their running
cadence and they end up not completing
their stride just for the purpose of
quickly getting their next step in. When
this happens, you miss out on some force
generation from the hips. As you can see
from this frame, you can see how far
those hips should ideally extend for
that extra power! I'm going to stay on
this frame as we talk about the trunk
for one very minute thing that he could
*POSSIBLY* change about his running. If you
look closely... he presents with being
slightly too upright at the trunk...
Honestly it's not even that bad, so
fixing it might not even have an effect
at all!
However, I'll just briefly talk about the
implications of having too upright of a
trunk. When you are too upright, there is
decrease engagement of the core. The core
muscles are what allow you to stabilize
the pelvis, so you can maximize the force
generation coming from the legs. When the
core is not engaged, excessive movement
and instability at the pelvis can occur...
leading to wasted energy and decreased
force production... However in Jakob's case,
his upper trunk is not exaggerated
enough to where it causes problems. As
you can see that he still maintains
stability of the pelvis as he runs. Now,
let's take a look at a side view of his
body. Now, initially, it may look like his
trunk is flexed... just like we don't want
too upright of a trunk, we don't want it
too bend forward either. We try to find a
balance in between!! Instead of bending
forward at the trunk. Jakob keeps his
trunk upright and his whole body is
actually tilted forward! This aids i
forward momentum,
utilizing hip flexors, and bringing his
center of mass closer to where his foot
lands resulting in improved
speeds. Now in this view, let's take a
closer look at the upper body. As you can
see... there's really not much forward and
backward movement, but rather there is
rotational movement going on. Rotation of
the trunk is opposite of rotation seen
at the pelvis. This actually helps with
leg swing as well as counteract the
rotational forces coming from the leg
muscle activation due to being opposing
forces. Doing this effectively allows for
improved ability to maintain a straight
path and improve force application
toward the desired direction. Now, let's
look at his arm movement. Jakob keeps
his arms high and close and if you
notice his hands barely cross midline.
Similar to what I mentioned about trunk
rotation, the arm movement also aids in
counteracting the rotational forces from
the legs to maximize force in the
forward direction. Now, looking at the
head... he keeps his head slightly tucked
as he runs. Looking at this side view, you
can see it doesn't go back and forth
much at all either. Keeping his head in
this position aids in core engagement.
Now even though it's slightly stabilized,
it's not completely stiff so where
there's no movement going on at all.
As you can see in this front clip, you
can see most of the movement is actually
happening side to side. And this is due
to the weight shifting occurring as each
foot makes contact with the ground!! And
that's it for the quick analysis on Jakob
Ingebrigtsen's running form. I'm super
curious how his form may evolve as he gets
stronger and faster. Anyway, I hope you
guys enjoyed this video!!! If you still
continue to watch my content, I'm always
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