Hey guys, its JP Gloria and today we're going
to look at the greatest middle-distance
runner ever, Hicham El Guerrouj... Actually
just one of the greatest runners in
general!!! He set the world record for the
1,500 meter, one mile, and 2000
meter race and these records have not
been broken in almost 20 years.
I made a previous video just looking at
his running form as he broke the mile
world record, but this time we are going
to look at it in a little more detail!
This footage is a little bit old so I'm
pretty limited in the angles and views I
can utilize, but I think we can still get
some key components of his form and
hopefully utilize this information to
improve the way we run as well. First,
let's see how the foot lands! At first, it
may seem like he's going to land right
around the heels, but looking at the
moment of contact,
he actually tends to land right on the
mid-foot. In this scenario, this type of
landing helps with shock absorption as
there is a larger surface area during
contact when landing with the mid foot
compared to the forefoot. Though
comparing these types of landing,
theoretically, the rate of steps may be
slightly diminished with mid foot
landing as the foot has to roll over
even more as it goes from contact on the
ground to swing forward; however, El Guerrouj
is not really impacted by this. One of
the reasons are because of the natural
properties of the foot. Now, there are 26
bones in the foot and this allows for
the foot to be flexible and adapt to
rollover. You can see this would be the
case as during this clip, he still
maintains a high cadence of around 200
steps per minute. What matters even more
for smooth, quick turnover for improved
cadence is where the foot lands in
relation to the body's center of mass. This
is more important because due to the
flexibility of the foot, it
should be able to compensate for
different types of foot landing.
However, the foot lands too far forward
otherwise known as over-striding, it
actually causes locking up at the ankle
joint causing a breaking mechanism to
occur, which leads to wasted energy and
slower times. Now, let's take a look at
how Hicham's foot lands in relation to the
body. As you
can see, his foot lands right in front of
the hips. As I mentioned before, landing
under the center of mass is key but
where exactly is the body center of mass?
Usually, when standing upright, the center
of mass is actually more toward the rear
part of the hips. Based on that some
people may think he is over striding
based on this frame, but this may not be
the case. This is because our center of
mass can change based on what we are
doing. Due to moving at a very fast pace
as well as his forward lean, this
actually causes his body's center of mass to
shift forward. Because of this, he may
actually be landing right under his own
center of mass, which is optimal stride
length for smooth quick turnover. Now,
let's take a look at the knees. As we've
seen with other runners, most have a
slight bend of the knees, which aid in
shock absorption; however, El Guerrouj has
increased knee bend compared to the
other runners we've looked at. One of the
reasons why may simply because of how
long his legs are in relation to his
body. If the knee was straighter during
contact with the ground it actually may
cause him to over stride instead. Now, how
does this affect his running? Well, with
increased knee bend,
especially during weight acceptance, more
quadricep strength is needed to prevent
collapse of the knee; however, as the foot
prepares for push off, it actually allows
for increased ankle bending. Now,
increased ankle bending during this
movement allows him to utilize a
spring-like mechanism of his calves for
increased power as he pushes off. Ability
to do so requires good ankle mobility,
which many people lack nowadays. Speaking
of joint mobility... moving up to the hips,
he also presents with good mobility here
as well. Now, the motion going on here is
not specifically unique to him as most
elite runners do this as well,
but what I'm about to mention has not
been something some people may pay
attention to. Many people focus on
driving the hips forward, but don't focus
on hip movement as the hips extend or
move backwards. As you can see, as this
back leg prepares for push off, you can
see how extended his hips are. This
allows for increased engagement of the
hip muscles, which is one of the main
power generators. During running, this
also causes increased tension to occur at
the hip flexors, which acts like an
elastic band as it helps swing the leg
forward as soon as the foot leaves the
ground. As I mentioned before, you need
good hip mobility to fully utilize this.
This is something many people lack, especially
due to lack of movement from sitting for
extended hours due to work or whatever
it is. This causes the hip flexors to get
tight and can prevent people from fully
extending their hips for that increased
power generation. Now, let's move up to
the trunk. One of the most noticeable
things about his trunk in this view is
his forward lean of the body. The elite
runners I've mentioned before ,like
Eliud Kipchoge, have this lean. If you
calculate the angle of his body from the
foot in this viewpoint, he presents with
a lean of 21 degrees, which is more than
most of the other elite runners I've
analyzed before. This lean forward allows
for improved forward momentum as well as
increased utilization of the hip muscles
and ligaments, which improves foot
turnover and power generation from the
legs. For a more in-depth explanation on
this and tips to incorporate it into
your running. Check out the running
analysis I made for Elliot Kipchoge. Now,
let's move on to a front view of El Guerrouj
running. This allows us to look at the
arm movement more clearly as well as his
upper body as it shifts side to side. First,
let's take a quick look at his arms. HIs
arm swing is more characteristic of
many of the long-distance runners we've
already analyzed. He keeps his arms high and
close and most of the movement in the
arms is happening at the shoulders with
relatively less happening at the elbows.
El Guerrouj is the first middle-distance
runner I've analyzed here, so I can't
compare his arm movement to the other
this middle distance runners yet...but
compared to the long-distance runners
I've already analyzed though, he does
present with more shoulder movement. One
of the reasons why may be due to that
with increased speed, comes
increased force generation from the legs.
The increased rotation of the arms may
do to may be due to a result of the
increased rotational force coming from
the legs. If the rotational force from
the legs is not counteracted properly,
the body kind of goes out of whack and
decreases force generation toward the
desired direction.
Now, looking here at the upper body in
this view, you can see rhythmic movement
of the trunk. You can also see that he
does present with some asymmetry he
presents with more trunk rotation to the
left as well as a lean toward the left
side, but some of this may be due to the
nature of the track as he is running
counterclockwise. Anyway, the trunk
movement you see is more rotation than
forward and backward movement. I
mentioned before that you want to
stabilize the trunk... but you don't want
it too stiff. This rotational movement
allows the tension in the core to help
stabilize the pelvis against the
rotational forces acting upon it from
the leg movement. This is similar to what
I mentioned about the arms. Finally,
moving up to the head, you can see that
he keeps it in more of a 90 degree angle
in relation to his neck. His head doesn't
really move forward and back, but rather
mostly side-to-side.
Again, similar to the movement from the
trunk, balance between being relaxed and
stiff is key here. You don't want a too
relaxed where his head is swinging all
over the place, but you don't want it to
stiff because if you put too much
tension in the neck you are mostly most
likely stiffening up at the shoulders as
well which would restrict natural
movement of the body. And that's it for
the quick running analysis on Hicham
El Guerrouj as he ran the fastest mile
ever!!! I really hope you guys enjoyed
this video! If you are subscribed, I just
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