Upper Body Form–Is It Easier Than Lower Body?

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The second week of the hands on form clinic which Kyle promised to be the more difficult did not disappoint.  The first week at the track we worked on upper body form which was pretty easy to pick up on and to feel if you were doing in right or not.

True to his word, Kyle did not let us down and give us more easy work.  All I can say is that I did not start off looking like a rose, and I am not sure there is even an ugly flower that would be a good comparison with what I looked like.

We started off the evening with drills and everyone was given the time to once again get comfortable with what would be the stepping stones of the work we had in front of us.  Following the warm up Kyle O’Day from Continuum Sports took center stage and demonstrated the lower body form that we would be working on.  It looked easy enough while he was demonstrating it, however once we started to attempt to put it to the test things fell apart rather quickly.

Not only did I feel really awkward and uncomfortable, I was told later that I looked rather comical as well.  I started trying to just replicate the drill, but while running.  I ended up looking more like a soldier trying to march his was through a local 5k.  The first pass brought the critique that I wasn’t getting my knees high enough. I now am thinking they were just trying to make me look even more foolish so they could point and talk about me the rest of the evening….. not that they would ever admit to it!

After a couple more passes I finally straightened up like I was supposed to and I started to finally feel it. Each time I ran for the rest of the clinic I was hitting it.  It is not so bad to run with good form if you can be correctly instructed and coached to the point that you can then feel it for yourself.

While I was at the West Stride Running Form Clinic it was easy to stay in good form, however I have not had the same luck throughout the rest of my runs this week.  I tried to pull it into my trail run on Monday morning, but only felt awkward so I am not sure I was doing it right.  This will take much more practice to where I can at will get into the correct running form and eventually train my muscles to where I just naturally fall into stride.

The lower body form was much harder to feel at first, and is proving the same as I try to get that feeling once again while I am running on my own.  We have one more session in that I am sure we will once again go over each piece we have learned so far.  I am looking forward to getting some more instruction and seeing how everything comes together.