Physics...Physiology...Physical Therapy

Should you run differently in a team sport?

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Often the question is asked, should I run differently if I’m on the soccer field or basketball court, as opposed to distance running? The answer is a nice straightforward yes, and no. The physics of how the body works remain the same, but with a team sport the context changes very rapidly. In order to successfully play a team sport, a lot of stability is needed with side-to-side movements, so a quick cut can be made or so you don’t get tackled as easily. But it’s also helpful to be able to turn the jets on when a straight run is warranted, think a wide receiver getting loose in the open field, or a soccer player with a breakaway.

This brings us to this week’s star performer. Cooper is a former high school state champion mid-distance runner who has turned to ultimate frisbee in recent years. Let’s see what he looks like initially.

As you can see, his elbows are sticking out to the side and his arm swing is a little high in general. This is very common with team sport athletes, which again comes from the context of making lateral movements while running. Again, this can be a positive thing in the midst of a sport, but is a very inefficient way to run in a straight line. What this indicates is that his hips are not as stable as they should be while he is running, so carrying his arms high and elbows out helps to make up for that. Picture someone walking a tightrope carrying a long pole, the extra width makes balancing easier, and Cooper has figured out a way to make his upper body act as a pole.

He is also taking rather long strides and overstriding, and these are different things. Overstriding refers to where the foot hits the ground relative to where the body is at that moment, so anytime the foot strikes way out in front of the body is an overstride. One of the things to look for to discern if this is going on, is to look for the bottoms of his shoes when he is running directly toward the camera.

As another assessment, we had him run with his hands directly overhead. What this does is take away his cheating upper body and raises his center of gravity, essentially making it more difficult to balance. It’s interesting to see how his hips and lower core respond to this.

It certainly looks more awkward, but his overstride goes away, so this is helpful to give us some direction for making him more efficient. As a form drill and core training move, we simply had him hold light dumbbells overhead, further raising the center of gravity and forcing his hips to work harder.

He also did A-drills to develop proper foot strike closer to his body to avoid the overstride and keep his stride lengths more moderate. The key with this drill is to snap the foot straight up and strike it straight back down.

So after all this, here’s the new and improved Cooper.

His foot strike looks significantly better as his overstride is diminished. His upper body also looks more efficient as his arms are lower and elbows closer in. This indicates that he is engaging his hips more effectively. He certainly needs to perform these drills regularly and will see significant gains with his efficiency. Great job Cooper!

Foot position and hip flexibility

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Does your foot position matter? We can mostly all agree that it’s a bad idea to have a heavy heel strike with an overstride (more on that in another post!), but what about the other directions? Does it matter if feet are turned in or out? That brings us to Max’s story. He is a superstar high school runner looking to improve his running form. He doesn’t have an injury or limitations, but his feet tend to turn in which may be affecting his performance. So let’s break it down, here’s video of him running initially.

And here’s another with him running on his toes. The significance of using this as an assessment tool is to see how stable his feet are during the push-off phase, keeping him on his toes greatly minimizes the loading phase. This is where the minimalist movement really takes this concept and runs with it, but again, that’s a topic all it’s own.

And another with the instruction to take as long of strides as he can. This emphasizes the loading or landing phase of running.

If you contrast the two videos where he is running on his toes versus the longer strides (which leads to a heavier heel strike), he certainly looks sloppier through his hips and core during the longer strides. It’s subtle in the videos of him running normal and staying on his toes, but becomes more apparent in the third video. What is most obvious is how much extra movement occurs in his upper body. What this indicates is that his hips and feet are not able to adequately absorb the landing, causing his core and upper body to find goofy ways to leverage themselves so he can keep running. Will this affect his performance? Absolutely.

So, what to do about it. First, here’s a simple assessment for how well his hips are able to rotate. This is testing his hip’s flexibility with external rotation, which is critical for a smooth landing with running (and walking for that matter!).

As you can see, he is able to get about 45 degrees of rotation with this, at least 60 degrees is ideal. This combined with his running assessment tells us that he needs more flexibility in this direction, as well as the gross muscle stability to maintain good form in this direction.

Here’s what we did for Max. First a simple inner thigh/groin stretch. The key to this stretch is to keep the ground foot turned out to push the external rotation of the hip.

Next, another stretch for the posterior hip, also to gain better external rotation. If you’ve followed the blog, this one may look familiar!

Then we transitioned into stability exercises, again emphasizing core/hip movements into hip external rotation.

Here is what his run looks like after the stretches and stability exercises.

As you can see, his upper body looks more efficient and relaxed, which indicates that his hips are doing a better job of handling the landings.

Here’s a simple drill to do while running in order to build more stability/efficiency in the hips and core. By taking the arms out of their normal swing, it doesn’t allow him to use his upper body as much which forces his hips and lower core to be more stable.

After all this, here is what his run looks like.

Again, his upper body and hips look much more quiet and relaxed, which indicates that his hips and feet are better accommodating the landing phase. With consistent attention to his hip flexibility and building up strength and stability, he will see his form improve which should translate to better performance during races and workouts. Great job Max!