D The Legs And I Am Sure That This Has Been Covered A Lot In Previous Posts. However I Would Like You Advice On A Problem That I Perceive To Exist With My Athlete That Relates To This Fact.
When Viewed Side On His Upper Arm In The Backswing Always Rises To The Horizontal Plane And Often Stops Above It.
He Maintains A Good Elbow Angle Thru The Backswing And He Is Very Flexible And Smooth In His Action.
When Isee Him Racing It Seems To Me That This Action Is Taking Longer To Complete Each Arm Swing Than Athletes Beside Him And I Deduce From This That His Leg Speed Is Being Compromised .
If You Agree With My Observation Then Could You Give Me Some Advice On A Drill Etc That May Overcome This Problem.
It’s possible that his torso moves forward towards the end of the backswing, rotating the shoulders forward, allowing the arms to go too far backwards, slowing the rturn swing. the first thing to ensure is that the shoulders are relaxed and down and that the torso is held straight. If that doesn’t solve the problem, check to see if he’s pulling the arms back on the backswing. the action should be to pull DOWN from the highest point and the backswing will take care of itself.
Thanks for your reply. I think you have hit the nail on the head. My athlete is a very upright and relaxed runner and does not lift his shoulders even under max effort.
Unfortunately from a very early age we have instilled in him the need to pull backwards with the elbows while attempting to maintain a 90 degree angle as much as possible[as advocated by a well known expert ].
We even have him reinforce this action with a running arm drill as part of his warm up.
It was only after after coming across a post on cfts that likened armswing to the action of beating a drum and comparing the two actions side on by video that seemed to confirm what was causing the problem.
It is a pity that so much incorrect “expert advice” is about and that it is only thru a fluke that we come across info as on this site.
I guess all we can do now is practice the correct action as much as possible and hope that it can be ingrained asap