Posted by Monetta Roberts on October 19, 2007 at 07:00:08:
In Reply to: Re: Running Related Because....It's SMART 2 Run! posted by Pat Hilliard on October 18, 2007 at 18:54:41:
Mr. Hilard:
I cannot even spell your name. How in the world do you expect me to explain the racewalking tech? And who IS the racewalking tech? You should save yourself some breath and ask Mrs. Hilard, as she was racewalking in the G & H race last SAT---you know, the race in which you flatly refused to wear your patriotic thong?
If you're asking on her behalf, I would gladly show her some things to work on to get faster, when my own personal support group meets at the USA track; and if you're asking for yourself, you gotta wear the thong in a Mobile race first. (And if you're asking for some other reason: You still gotta wear the thong first...)
I'm just mean that way.
But since you pretend to be curious, settle in....
There are but two rules to racewalking according to USATF (but 8 million ways to improve technique!) and I do not have the USATF wording tatooed anywhere on my body, on the bodies of my pets, so from memory:
1. The athlete must maintain contact with the ground at all times, as judged by the unaided eye.
2. From the moment the leading leg makes contact with the ground, the knee of that leading leg must be straightened and remain straightened until that leg is through the vertical support phase.
The second rule is what makes rw'ing look relatively different from running---instead of using one's quads to spring the body forward, as in running, the rw'er uses the hammies and glutes to vault him- or herself forward.
The is also the rule that *can* goof up long-time runners who switch to rw'ing (due to injury, or for whatever reason----I say "whatever" because actually, the two events are GREAT cross-training for one another). It CAN be a problem, because if your legs have had years of run training and you don't take special care to SLOW DOWN and unlearn and relearn the new technique, then as soon as you hit any real speed at all, it's almost as though your muscles and knees are remembering, "Oh, I KNOW what we're doing!" and the knees can begin to go "soft" (bend) and allow the athlete to recruit the quads for propulsion, whether or not he or she knows it. This absolutely lends an unfair advantage. The interesting thing is, breaking the other rule, losing contact, doesn't lend so much of an advantage---if you're in the air, gravity is pulling you down about as fast, or faster, than MOmentum is pulling you forward. Still they are both rules, and should be observed by all at all times.
On the other hand, I have NEVER seen anyone who really wanted to learn the technique-intensive event of rw'ing NOT be able to get it: it just takes more work for some than for others.
Generally, I think it's safe to say that the knee rule is much easier to judge than the contact rule, because even though you may be able to take a photograph of a rw'er off the ground, it is generally accepted at the elite level that there is a BRIEF (100s of seconds) "flight phase" where the unaided human eye cannot detect loss of contact, and according to my former coach, the point at which the human eye can detect it is also about the point at which the athlete can begin to feel it.
It takes three red cards from three separate certified judges to disqualify an athlete from a race with a special, relatively new, rule that the chief judge can unilaterally DQ an athlete in the last 100m of a race IF that judge determines that the athlete is blatantly running.
DQs happen in rw'ing just as they do in most every other T & F events--like fouling out at the high jump; and it's technique-intensive as other events, sort of like the triple jump. AND, let's face it, it's silly looking, kind of like the butterfly stroke in swimming.
But, it's a valid Olympic T & F event; and a great aerobic workout----it's WAAAAY better than regular walking, because your hips and legs don't get in the way of your getting faster and faster and faster (which means fitter and fitter and fitter---just think of all the fits I'VE thrown!!), and it's a good low-impact alternative for folks like me with crumbling spines & spirits who love to race but probably shouldn't run so much.
There: aren't you glad you asked, Mr. Hialrd?
8 )
Mo