posture

should I run with my hips tilted foward or should I run with a foward lean. I noticed such sprinters as michael johnson and frank fredericks run with their hips tilted foward.

by “tilting the hips foward” i meant by the hips being in front of the legs almost a backward lean like MJ.

I wouldn’t recommend running like that. Certainyl MJ has a very unique style, and Frankie is a very upright runner too.

Tom Tellez (Carl Lewis’s coach) said the human body is meant to push, not pull, and in leaning back, then you’re kinda dragging your upper body along, as your centre of gravity is set further back.

Leaning too far back can alter your stride in various ways. It can cause limitations such as range of motion in the hips, premature foot strike, etc.

so if you had a 200/400 runner who ran like that naturally, would you try to change it? this is out of curiosity, because i am a fairly upright runner and ive never had a coach who wanted to change it

Good point. You dont necessarily want to change something just to change it. Remember, Charlie mentions this in his manual; athletes have certian idiosynchrocies which can be worked around. If you have faired well up to now without any apparent errors in posture, keep doing what you are doing.

Originally posted by Sprrinter984
should I run with my hips tilted foward or should I run with a foward lean. I noticed such sprinters as michael johnson and frank fredericks run with their hips tilted foward.

Which event and which part of the race? When you can accelerate no further, it is good to be upright as this is the best free-wheeling position. When starting, accelerating and transitioning you want to start out with a more extreme angle and gradually become upright. Let gravity help you accelerate.