On the Wannagetfast site, www.wannagetfast.com, Chris Korfist posted the following statement in his article Weyand Revisited
http://wannagetfast.com/articles.aspx?id=46
"Weyand had a lab in an old nuclear missile site where he had a force plate that measured the force that an animal put into its limb when it ran. He had lions, elephants etc. run on the treadmill with a force plate built into it. In fact, the only animal he couldn’t get to run on the treadmill was a domestic house cat. From there, he moved on to humans and found that the data was the same, the harder you hit the ground, the faster you run. He also found that the swing time from animal to animal and individual to individual varied very little. It was very radical research for the track coaches that were there because it discounted the very popular Mach drills, or Speed Dynamic drills. In fact, what was inferred from the research was that form really didn’t matter. All that mattered was the fact that if you hit the plate hard, you would go faster. I think this is where things get cloudy. I went along with this concept for quite some time. In fact, I even went through my own Barry Ross phase who argues that the more you deadlift, the harder you will hit the ground. While I agree completely with Weyand’s research, I disagree with the theory that form does not matter."
Before I'm phased out completely, I thought it would be helpful for readers if I addressed some major errors in Mr. Korfist's article; perhaps even make things less cloudy for Mr. Korfist!
First, it's more likely that Dr. Weyand said something closer to the more force runners slap against the ground the faster they would run. Of course hitting the plate hard (force plate?) does not, by itself, make one run faster. Dropping a dead body from high altitude would cause the body to hit the "plate" extremely hard, but there is only a very slight possibility that the dead body would run faster at ground contact.
Next, I don't recall saying that the more one deadlifts the harder one hits the ground. Hitting the ground harder (with more force?) is a factor of mass multiplied by acceleration. If a person increases mass through deadlifting (may it never be! Or at least let it be minimally) then the same acceleration with the additional mass would create more force at ground contact. Increasing acceleration, or increasing both mass and acceleration, would also increase force at ground contact.
Mr. Korfist goes on to state that the research was radical for the track coaches in attendance, because it discounted popular types of drills that they have been using.
More importantly, Mr. Korfist recognized that the research inferred running "form" didn't really matter. This probably is the most accurate information that Mr. Korfist caught onto.
Apparently, it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.
He continued by offering that there is more to producing force on the ground than pure strength, and in this, he is right. There is force that occurs at ground contact because of gravity accelerating a falling body (which is not controlled by the runner). There is ground reaction force at ground contact and, finally, there is force production by the athlete to counter ground reaction force.
Mr. Korfist also added the following tidbits:
1. An athlete who can lift a lot will never get to use the power the brain would have sent to his feet if his feet aren't functioning properly. "The brain knows not to send it."
2. On the treadmill/force plate, he will not have a high output do to the fact that his feet are shut down.
3. The same holds true for arm swings, knee points, hip swivels, duck foot, pigeon toe, etc.
4. An arm swing can force the body to rotate and generate rotational forces.
5. Knees pointing in or out can come from the hips or feet by the impact is a loss of power
6. Toes turning in will prevent an athlete from getting to the big toe.
7. Feet turning out can result in the creation of rotational power which will spill out the vertical power needed to run fast.
Finally, Mr. Korfist states, "All of these things can be seen as form issues. Most cannot be fixed by performing some drills. So basically, when the body is not in line, it is not functioning at its potential and power is lost. After having seen some top athletes, they are mostly in line and have the above mentioned strong.
The sum of all of the above is that "they can hit the plate harder and run faster."
Mr. Korfist, I have news for you: You could drop a 9,000 lb stone on the ground and it won't run any faster…even if you did fix its duck feet, allow the stone to get to its big toe or reduce its hip swivel to the minimum. A few minutes taken to read and understand Newton 3rd law would add significantly to your coaching base.
You certainly do not fully agree with Dr. Weyand's research, despite what you say. If you did, you would not claim that form matters to the extent you think it does.
Not only are you completely off base in your understanding of Weyand, et al, you've offered nothing from any locomotion scientist to back up the 7 items listed above.
Some, like number 2, you've totally butchered.
Force plate measurements at ground contact measure the force (mass x acceleration) of a falling body at contact. The return force from the runner to offset ground reaction force is delivered primarily isometrically through the foot or whatever appendage is making ground contact. A complete lack of toes would hardly make a difference, if any thing at all. Spend some time watching Oscar Pistorius running if you want to see how much emphasis can be placed on pigeon toes, duck feet, etc.
Monetizing your site by offering something unique is one thing , doing so with a bunch of gibberish is something else.
Finally, you didn't go through a "Barry Ross phase", you went through your own version of what you thought rather than what we do, just as you did with the work of Dr. Weyand and Dr. Bundle.
Barry Ross