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Will running fast track times in the 800/1600 early in the year like in the indoor season get the attention of college coaches and get them to consider contacting you?

AvonTrack2013 wrote:

Will running fast track times in the 800/1600 early in the year like in the indoor season get the attention of college coaches and get them to consider contacting you?

Nah, you're probably never gonna get discovered. Just go to Marian or something

AvonTrack2013 wrote:

Will running fast track times in the 800/1600 early in the year like in the indoor season get the attention of college coaches and get them to consider contacting you?

Yep, they will.  And then not matching those times later in the season because you peaked too early will get you less attention.

BrewPat wrote:

Holy heel strike, Batman!

You can't tell for sure whether or not he heel strikes based on that picture alone.

And who will win this discussion....I'm taking bets!

oddlefty wrote:

heel-striking is fine.

No!

definitely heel striker. dont need that much detail the first one is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 points

I would recommend contacting coaches at schools you're interested in rather than sitting back and waiting for them to contact you. You have run some good times and if you email coaches and fill out recruiting forms for schools that you would like to attend, then there is a good chance that you will get a few positive responses. My junior year times didn't attract any attention but I started emailing coaches and many were willing to talk with me. Senior year I ended up having a breakout indoor and outdoor season, and got a D1 scholarship. If coaches think that you have potential, then they will hang with you and then it's just a matter of racing well and showing them what you can do.

Ashar118 wrote:

See? Pre was a heel striker. You can tell based on this one picture! 

I'll go ahead and respond to myself, it's inevitable.

"Imagine how much better he would've been..."

Ashar118 wrote:

I'll go ahead and respond to myself, it's inevitable.

"Imagine how much better he would've been..."

See, I can't say for certain that not heel striking will make you X-times faster.  I can say that if you don't heel strike you will be more efficient (and most likely faster) and will avoid injuries.  I know several people who have horrible form and have qualified for the US Olympic trials in the marathon. I have pretty decent form. In fact, I'd say I have very good form and I never came close to qualifying for the US Olympic trials in the marathon (I missed it by the slight margin of only 23 minutes!)

BrewPat wrote:

Prefontaine was a bit of a heel striker.  Probably why he couldn't drive. 

MATT JORDAN

Puppypunter2 wrote:

It doesn't have to correct itself before the foot hits the ground. Case in point: Kenenisa Bekele (Who happens to be running at a significant speed).

Youre half right. Any truly good runner who pays close enough attention to his form does not necessarily have to "unlock" his leg before footstrike. Its obvious just from looking at this single picture that Bekele learned to run barefoot and still could if he wanted to. If this picture were taken 2 or 3 10ths of a second later you would see that it is not a heel-strike at all. Its just proper running form at speed. The other runner obviously learned to run in shoes (even as significant speed, and probably especially at significant speed) Its obvious from the poorly managed angle from the tip his foot to his shin. The leg is locked completely out and the muscles of the shin are fully contracted. Thats not the case with Bekele. Any runner that learned to run without shoes naturally avoids this trap because it f***ing hurts. Instead, barefoot runners land more on the outside edge of the foot and natural pronation absorbs the impact. That is what youre looking at with Bekele.

sectcyjulian wrote:

Youre half right. Any truly good runner who pays close enough attention to his form does not necessarily have to "unlock" his leg before footstrike. Its obvious just from looking at this single picture that Bekele learned to run barefoot and still could if he wanted to. If this picture were taken 2 or 3 10ths of a second later you would see that it is not a heel-strike at all. Its just proper running form at speed. The other runner obviously learned to run in shoes (even as significant speed, and probably especially at significant speed) Its obvious from the poorly managed angle from the tip his foot to his shin. The leg is locked completely out and the muscles of the shin are fully contracted. Thats not the case with Bekele. Any runner that learned to run without shoes naturally avoids this trap because it f***ing hurts. Instead, barefoot runners land more on the outside edge of the foot and natural pronation absorbs the impact. That is what youre looking at with Bekele.

"If this picture were taken 2 or 3 10ths of a second later you would see that it is not a heel-strike at all."



What exactly did you think I was trying to prove with that picture?

"dont have to do anything" should read "dont have to 'unlock' the leg"

Puppypunter2 wrote:

I don't even know how to respond to this. It's like a pile of s**t just got dumped all over my floor. I have no idea where to start.



1) You stated that it was not possible to have good form and have a locked leading leg. I proved you wrong.

2) Heel-striking has not been proven to cause injuries any more than forefoot striking has been proven to cause injuries.

3) Your previous two posts were a huge load of garbage and said absolutely nothing.

4) You've completely lost sight of the topic of this argument by trying to drop the science on me while not making a single factual statement.

5) You're an idiot.

6) Notice how I use an apostrophe in the word "you're."

Spoken like a true troll. - They havent "proven" that chugging copious amounts of mountain dew all day long causes horrible diseases yet but is it a good idea to chug it with every meal? Probably not... If you actually read my post I stated that Bekele had fine form because he wasnt HEEL STRIKING!! Which may I remind you, is what this was all about to begin with.. *sigh* I did say alot of stuff in my previous posts. Most of which was obviously outside of your limited ability to read while keeping in mind that were talking about HEEL STRIKING.. *sigh again* A'n'd i'll use'' apos'troph'ies whe'n and' wh'ere 'I da'mn 'wel'l pl'eas'''''e. When you start worrying more about proper form and less about my grammatical errors then maybe... and thats a strong maybe, we'll see eye to eye here.

sectcyjulian wrote:

Spoken like a true troll. - They havent "proven" that chugging copious amounts of mountain dew all day long causes horrible diseases yet but is it a good idea to chug it with every meal? Probably not... If you actually read my post I stated that Bekele had fine form because he wasnt HEEL STRIKING!! Which may I remind you, is what this was all about to begin with.. *sigh* I did say alot of stuff in my previous posts. Most of which was obviously outside of your limited ability to read while keeping in mind that were talking about HEEL STRIKING.. *sigh again* A'n'd i'll use'' apos'troph'ies whe'n and' wh'ere 'I da'mn 'wel'l pl'eas'''''e. When you start worrying more about proper form and less about my grammatical errors then maybe... and thats a strong maybe, we'll see eye to eye here.

There is no credible scientific evidence that heel-striking causes injuries. That's a fact. There is scientific evidence that Mountain Dew and its ingredients are unhealthy. 



"If you actually read my post I stated that Bekele had fine form because he wasnt heel striking"



That's irrelevant (I won't get into the idiocy of this statement). You originally said that it was not possible to have good form with a locked leading leg. You can't just change your mind and then start using my proof to attack me after I prove you wrong.



If you'll refer to my earlier posts in this thread you'll see that all I was saying was that you couldn't judge whether or not the OP is a heel-striker based on his profile photo. You're the one who brought your opinions into this.

Puppypunter2 wrote:

There is no credible scientific evidence that heel-striking causes injuries. That's a fact. There is scientific evidence that Mountain Dew and its ingredients are unhealthy. 



"If you actually read my post I stated that Bekele had fine form because he wasnt heel striking"



That's irrelevant (I won't get into the idiocy of this statement). You originally said that it was not possible to have good form with a locked leading leg. You can't just change your mind and then start using my proof to attack me after I prove you wrong.



If you'll refer to my earlier posts in this thread you'll see that all I was saying was that you couldn't judge whether or not the OP is a heel-striker based on his profile photo. You're the one who brought your opinions into this.

You must be the even less smart reincarnation of one of the people running around in the 40's and 50's touting that smoking was fine and it had no "scientifically proven" negative health effects. You sound like a completely ignorant fool arguing that heel-striking is fine like you are. So what if there havent been any proficient studies against or for heel-striking. Its still not proper running form and you know it. - I never said anything was impossible. Youre pulling things out of my statements that just arent there to begin with out of desperation to reinforce your already poorly founded ideas about running with your leading leg locked out. - Also, I said Bekele's form was fine in the context that it actually WAS possible to run with ok form with a locked leg as long as you were not ALSO heel-striking. Youre still an asshat and even brewpat cant save you from your own asshat self/ideas

sectcyjulian wrote:

By the way, I think it would do somebody as dumbly stubborn as you are some real good to go out and run 10 or 11 really fast miles on pavement with a heel-strike on EVERY stride. Seriously, take your own medicine and let us all know how it goes.

Meb Keflezighi and countless other elites do it all the time. In fact, MOST elites heel-strike. I'd like you to look at this study that shows why I think you're an idiot... http://sportsscientists.com/2008/04/running-technique-footstrike.html

sectcyjulian wrote:

Thats just a bunch of garbage as well. So what if most elites do something. That still doesnt make it right or okay for everybody to go out and start doing it. By your logic, since there are "elites" that have gone out and won an Olyimpic gold on steady diets of fried chicken and mcdonalds, its okay to eat a steady diet of fried chicken and mcdonalds every day! Youre making yourself look silly at this point and you should stop.

Thank you for completely ignoring that study I linked. If you'll take the time to read it, you'll see that I'm correct on every point I've made in this thread. Note: I've never said heel-striking is okay or not okay.



Also, please tell me about this elite who won "Olyimpic" gold on a steady diet of fried chicken at mcdonalds. I think you missed the point there. I used a fact, and then you made up an imaginary statistic to use against me. 

kelseygray wrote:

winner = sectcyjulian.

Haha! Excellent first post. Can I have your reasoning? I just don't see how anyone who looks at this argument objectively can possibly side with sectcyjulian after all the evidence I've given that proves every point he's made was wrong. Please do not cite your personal experiece. As much as you probably represent every human being on Earth, your injuries or whatever can't be used to prove heel-striking causes injuries (even though that's not what this argument was about).

This whole thread is full of s**t and bubblegum! I think this is why I miss Running2Win.....



Proving anything about the biomechanics of running via a still photo is kin to saying Dirk Diggler has a huge pe......it ain't real folks. Just cuz you see it on the computer screen doesn't make it gold.



To analyze gait you need video and a moving horizonal camera. You can then stop this film every tenth or less of a second to actually see what happens.



As far as footstrike goes......take off your shoes, go run, you won't run heel-first, it is an unnatural motion brought on by the industrial age, Phil Knight, Michael Jordan, Pre, and a bottle of Jack.



Going back to the original post......



Get noticed your junior year, senior year is just for pimping. If you haven't made a name for yourself by your junior year it's probably too late....I'd say senior year XC at the latest.



Alan

guys, guys, guys... I can clear everything up here. I was born in the slums of pakistan and grew up running 24 miles to school through war zones and over snowy mountain peaks. I learned very early on how to contort my legs/body into unnatural shapes (i.e. the locked leading leg) and still maximize speed (i.e. forefoot strike). I have no trouble snapping my foot down in a deceptively fast manner in order to land on a different part of my foot. 



You're welcome.

Puppypunter2 wrote:

On a scale of 1 to funny, that registered as a f*** you on my funny-o-meter.

that's some bomb-a** dank-ass, dude.