What is your sensation of the hands moving at top-speed?
When I run my best it feels like they are just moving forwards and backwards.
I only ever feel em coming downwards just briefly, and I jus try and keep them in the targetzone - heightwise and centre wise ( not too central ).
I used to only feel them coming up, and in fact consciously tried to make them do just that, and that is why I ended up with to small an arm-angle on the front-swing.
I’d say make the emphasis on the vertical downstroke obviously moreso during the acceleration phase - and at top speed u still want this emphasis but only to the degree that ur running stays smooth .
Right now I find it best not to focus on anything at all when at, or close to, top-speed. What I have done is to focus on a more violent arm-drive at the start and this has greatly improved my “drive-phase”.
With this down I just have to “hang-on” and not try to do anything special, and everything just happens like it should.
In a HSI interview Mo’ says that the movement of the arms at top speed is like “banging a hammer”, that the feeling should be downward and just let the natural movement and range of movement from the joints adjust to that, however in my exprience, I happen to feel a tight sensation in my shoulder, the anterior body of the deltoid and the highest insertion point of the pectoral during the backstroke of the arm swing, I’m hoping it’s just a lack of shoulder flexibility and that in time as the muscles adjust, this feeling of tightness will dissipate
Come to think of it, the sensation is better described as: “Now it’s in front, now it’s not.”
It just feels like an arcing motion. If I think “up & down” it just makes my arm extend at the elbows.
It seems now I am doing the right thing when this sensation occurs, but what I percieve is not what actually happens, because when I percieve that the hand is coming up it is in fact coming towards my face, and when I percieve that it moves back and forth it is in fact moving up and down!
This means that when I in the past has been focusing on the hands coming up, in reality I have focused on them coming towards me, minimising the arm-angle.