Why is he so fast?

Really? What is he doing? Do you think he is confused? Why would be giving the wrong information?

I thought he was the POSE poster child. I would expect “fall”, “pull”, etc to appear. ??

I am in no way an expert in Pose Running, but after having Romanov here last weekend and hearing him analyzing this video at least 10 times he is not doing what he is saying. At no point other than maybe a little in the start he is not driving and definitely not planting and driving during the run. If he was “driving” that back leg would be extending full and at no point is he doing that. So I would agree with Chris. Also to John, as a disclaimer you are waaaayy smarter than me in probably everything to do with life, but I would contest just because someone is the best at what they do they might not know what it is they are doing or especially how to teach what they are doing. It might just be that they are a freak of nature regurgitating information they heard from a coach.

Also, find out for yourself. take in information, but then get a 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th opinion. i’m not against POSE. but i am 100% against trying to shove that running technique down the throats of people who are “contextually gullible”. Why would POSE coaches be even considered qualified, credible resources for successful sprinting. Go to the people responsible for OLYMPIC medal winners. Tom Tellez, Clyde Hart, Dan Pfaff, Vince Anderson, Pat Henry, Glen Mills, Charlie Francis to name a few Tier 1 coaches. Tom Tellez (Carl Lewis), Clyde Hart (Michael Johnson, Jeremy Wariner, Darold Williamson) and Glen Mills (Usain Bolt) all adamantly dismiss all biomechanical claims of the POSE concepts in running anything under an elite 800M. they 1st found it comical, but just like me now look at it as irresponsible. New elongated force plates have measured over 1000lbs of pressure under foot of elite sprinters. can you honestly swallow a pill that says that is due to “falling forwards and picking your feet up”? Another new study proved that the majority of people all sprint w/ the same cadence. the distinguishing factors are 1) amount of force reacted off of the ground and B) the amount of time that force is applied. in Beijing 2nd-8th place covered 100M in 44 steps, Usain in 41. if POSE running makes you smile, then bounce all day long. But teach a young , impressionable athlete that POSE is the best technique to accelerate over 1, 5, 10, 20, 40, 60 on on up through 1600M run is borderline criminal. Can you POSE and “push start” an Olympic Bobsled? they happen to posses the world’s fastest 30M sprints on record (Hershall Walker, Willie Gault, Edwin Moses). Can a champion hurdler just passively rely on gravity to generate enough velocity to attack the 1st hurdle and have enough to carry through the next 100M and 9 hurdles? as soon as a POSE coach and the athlete(s) that they directly work w/ wins something while POSE running, conversations such as these are null & void because 1/2 of the argument is w/o merit. POSE brags about Usain because of some skewed twisting of pictures and vids. But when Usain personally comes out and describes in detail his mechanics and his mental approach to sprinting fast, POSE chalks it up to “a gifted athlete can’t comprehend what he or she is doing”!?! EVERY elite sprinter knows exactly what they are doing in the infinite detail. Olympic sprinters are some of the most arrogant, cocky but intelligent athletes in the world. Glen Mills and Usain video and analyze each and every training session and race w/ a fine tooth comb. don’t let his persona fool you, Usain is a very intelligent man when it comes to anatomy and the biomechanics of being fast. and please don’t just take my words, don’t take POSE coaches’ words, but go out and find the truth for yourself. There’s a huge world of sports performance that exists outside of the crossfit community. we’ve been doing this at a significantly higher level for a lot longer than new fitness-fads have been around. Drink the Kool-Aid if you like the flavor, but don’t be so gullible in thinking that its the best beverage around.

Chad,

No worries. We as sprint coaches are more than open-minded towards innovative ways to get our athletes to SPRINT faster. but we all can’t ignore, nor tolerate the irresponsible actions of a few. my soap box was directed to them, through you. My best to you!

i do agree on that. its what we like to term as the “Curse of the Gifted”. To clarify, my statement is a “matter-of-fact” that i have been impressed w/ Glen Mill’s and more importantly w/ Usain’s personal understanding of the human machine and what it takes to be fast. multiple conversations w/ them have never left me w/o complete confidence that they were both well beyond common grasp of physics, biomechanics, anatomy and psychomotor functioning. There is always a possibility that tier 1 athletes can’t explain how they do things. but this is definitely not the case w/ Bolt.

Not until POSE coaches take their “theories” and practically apply their concepts, change the mechanics of an ELITE sprinter/runner and show improvements in the times. i’m tired of listening to all of them showing clips and vids of “other” elite sprinters and claiming them as POSE. Why don’t they have any in their very own stable? and why hasn’t any POSE coach been able to explain why POSE running disregards Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion. So until Dr. Romanov, Brian McKenzie and Co. do those things, then it’d be a waste of time and there’s no conversation to be had. Training methodologies, systems, concepts, etc. etc. are proven effective when you show improvements in the time that it takes athletes to cross the finish line, down range, down the field, from point A-to-B. Proclaim you greatness to the Sprint Coaches’ community by the results of YOUR own runners. Proof is in the pudding my friend!

1) body in motion will stay in motion until acted upon by an external force (gravity). Gravity is a constant pull straight down. just like a bullet shot out of a gun, it will eventually fall to the earth because of the constant pull of gravity DOWN. Also like a bullet, when an elite sprinter jumps out of the blocks, gravity will eventually pull him/her down until they resist the fall of gravity and apply force against it. you must resist gravity to travel in any direction off of a 0 degree vertically displaced center mass. a better understanding by POSE coaches of the difference between potential and kinetic energy, and the restraints that come w/ each of them should be applicable to a discussion on speed development. 2) Force = Mass x Acceleration (F=M x A). so thus Acceleration = Force / Mass [Thrust-to-Weight ration]. 3) For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

1st) clarification needs to be established between accelerating out of the blocks, out of a 3-pt stance, out of a secondary lead, from cover, etc., etc., etc. and top-end speed. there is a distinct difference between the mechanics of the two. Equal power w/ diminishing thrust or equal thrust w/ diminishing power. 2nd) in reference to top-end speed, a misrepresentation of body lean exists in the POSE community. a vertically aligned spinal column w/ limited vertical displacement of their center mass is not “a forward leaning body”. whether you are pushing to accelerate or pulling at a top-end speed, sprinting has always been about horizontally displacing your center mass against the absolute pull of gravity.

JJ,

whether it be your Serial Elastic Component or Parallel Elastic Components, neither are force producers, but in fact “dampening agents” (as it is often confused because a high amount of torque at the affective joint exists). their purpose is to 1) reduce the amount of force that is being placed upon the body 2) prepare the body to realign any alterations to its default motor patterning 3) store elastic energy and 4) then and only then does a contraction occur, thus producing force. but that force is still opposite of the force being acted upon the musculotendinous unit(s). if there is an inadequate amount of force (step/fall) must occur. Newton’s 3rd Law.

http://youtu.be/5D56ZAvcxN0

@Steven
Yeah we’ll be there soon… like January 2012 soon. Keep you’re eyes peeled.

He still wins…. and is faster than everyone here so… he’s right. No sense in telling us his ‘secrets’ – he wants to be the best. Good try.

Ron…1) he is not trying to tell US how to run fast! the interview is about what is going on in HIS mind while HE is running fast. i’ve had a conversation or two w/ Usain and if i were a betting man i’d go out on a limb and say that he could care less about how WE all run. Again, the interviewer was asking him about “what’s going on in your head while you’re running?” 2) to everyone who doesn’t have a lot of experience w/ “technique running” of elite sprinters A) they are the most “over-coached” athlete on the planet. Each and every step is nit-picked, evaluated, re-evaluated, analyzed, over-analyzed, forwards and backwards more times than you could ever imagine. Olympic caliber athletes have more resources available to them than you can imagine. they can tell you exactly what foot is hitting the 42nd meter of a 60M race and to what degree their back elbow must be at to increase their stride length 1/2 through a wide, unbanked curve; B) people aren’t recognizing that this is also his “psychological and emotional” approach to running fast. Words like QUICK, EXPLODE, DRIVE, DRIVING, FORCE, AGGRESSIVE, JUMP, PUNCH, HAMMER are all coaching cues that are utilized to illicit an emotional response that are proven to aid in the succes of the sprinter. Running fast is about controlled AGGRESSION. listen to his approach and what he thinks of and we get a chance to dive into the mind of the fastest man in the world. 3) Everything that he is describing and everything that he’s focused in on (from his own description/self-coaching cues) is exactly what he is doing. 4) learn what the best are doing and figure out what, if any, will work for you and your athletes. Granted the elite and Tier 1 athletes are born to be great. but in this world, you don’t become the best by accident. he’s doing at least one thing right and it would suit you best if you are responsible for making athletes faster, to learn EXACTLY what that is.

Master Raph, great work. It’s very hard to explain to a fitness professional that real maths is much different than their understanding. If you messure 1000lbs of force im pretty sure thats a little larger than a gravitational reaction force? Being a dynamic system you would need to model a 100m sprint with relation to momentum and horizontal displacement with a non linear harmonic input to replicate the “chaotic” initial conditions of the raising of the torso over the acceleration period during which the instant centre of mass is changing with time. This period would be known as the transient of the response until top speed is reached when the system becomes a steady state. In conclusion, way too hard without a large computer.

Understanding the dynamic nature of sprinting has its foundation firmly embedded in horizontally displacing the center of mass . If someone has a grasp of the main reason why high jumpers in the late 60s went from the roll-scissor-straddle type jump to the now standard Fosbury Flop, then they will easily comprehend the rocket-type starts from the blocks that elite sprinters utilize. Most high level sprinter utilize a quasi-foot drag out of the blocks. Often seen in slow motion is the athletes 2-3 foot of forward travel while in flight phase (and YES, there is a flight phase in acceleration). So, because of the HORIZONTALLY DISPLACED center mass, the force producing feet are never bearing 100% of the athletes body weight. For example, at 170lbs, when i do a push-up to clap, are my feet bearing all 170lbs of my bodyweight evenly distributed between right and left halves? Couple that with the fact that they are aggressively “jumping” out of the blocks. This has the effect of launching their center mass down the track as they aggressively push their spine to catch up to it. The propulsive forces vs static bodyweight that are seen in these instances is what escapes most. In the oft times forgotten words of Tom Tellez, “…in the end being fast is about covering ground!”

Raphael dude… you said sprinters are the most over coached athletes on the planet. You are 100% false. 1. Sprinters don’t make crap for money. 2. A basketball or football player practices 8-10 hours a day. 3. I can’t believe you said that… 4. There’s not much to teach about running lol… You can try and.respond back and defend yourself to protect your internet ego but I’m 100% right. Running doesn’t take jack to do. Please stop trying to act like you know.what your talking about because you have no clue.

Your All Sad – Are you serious, or are you intentionally trying to be lame? Regardless of what you believe about POSE, Raphael is 100% on the money with respect to the amount of coaching track athletes receive. To make a statement suggesting that “there’s not much to teach about running” negates anything else you might have to say.

John and also Raphael, Thanks for this post as well as the comments. It motivated me to get in contact with Dr. Romanov and Brian Mac to try and better understand what they were suggesting with respect to POSE and elite sprinters – You can see their thoughts (as well as quotes from a few T&F coaches) at http://myathleticlife.com/2012/02/pose-running-sprinting/

Tim Huntley

lol at some internet troll telling Raphael Ruiz that he has no clue what he’s talking about.

I enjoyed that.

Also, not to be that guy, but shouldn’t it be “You’re All Sad”?

For the record: Jocelyn Forest Haynes is my Hero!

Seems more like a physics discussion than a runners discussion haha.