The Sweet Spot

Newton's First Law of motion states that an object will remain at rest unless acted upon by an external force. 

We hear a lot of people talking about ‘standing tall’ when we run, but is that what they actually mean? When you stand too straight you are relying on power initiated from your body and with that comes a high build-up of lactic acid and a lot of muscular pain. Taking into account Newton’s first law if you're standing straight you are not going to move forward until you push or pull, overworking the body to create that movement.

We can create movement by using gravity, to do this we need our contact point to be behind our center of mass. Therefore by shifting our hips (the center of gravity) to be in front of our feet (contact point with the ground) we can find the ‘sweet spot’. This tipping point is where you are just about to stumble, consequently gravity pushing you forward. We want to rely on gravity to pull us forward and not our leg muscles - a classic example of this is the heel striker, pulling their body forward using their hamstrings every step.

How to achieve this position, stand tall but do so leaning forward from the ankles in a straight line. Practice finding this tipping point before you stumble even when you're not running, like when you're watching your TV.

Author – Head Coach Amanda Moore