Questions about leg cycle

when running, what parts of the leg cycle should we let occur naturally and what parts should we force through?

i realized that when i run, i forcefully accelerate my legs through the whole cycle in an effort to go faster, but recently i found that if i let my leg swing back naturally and then push it up into the high knee position i go faster. so is that the right idea?

and another thing, what is hip height and how do i make my hips higher when i run? before you guys ask me to do a search, i’ve already done so and none of the explanations really made sense to me.