Biomechanics of Running

By Adam Sinicki

'Biomechanics' refers to the study of the precise movements of living organisms and how these create the fast, fluid movements we see in the wild. It extends beyond that however to athletics, where the biomechanics of individual mechanics are recorded and played back to fine-tune the athletes' form to be the most perfect it can possibly be to achieve maximum speed and power. Nowhere is this more crucial than in sprinting, where every millisecond counts and can mean the difference between success and failure.

Generally we're taught to run by placing our heals down on the ground first - this saves energy and limits the amount of impact we create on our knees and ankles. Furthermore the spring in our heal is designed so that this movement gets the optimum benefit from it. However, my own research and that of others has recently suggested that there may be a faster way.
If you notice in the animal kingdom there is a trend - the faster the animal, the smaller the surface area of the foot that touches the ground and the shorter the amount of time it spends there. If you look at a horse they run on just their hooves, with essentially just two toes touching the ground. Leopards meanwhile (along with other cats) run on the 'pads' or their feet so that they too are almost on tip toes. What for us would be the heel then becomes almost an extra joint in their leg, as top half of their foot is vertical. This means there are more 'zig zags' and greater compression for their legs to run on and that allows it to compress more like a spring, storing coiled potential energy to power us off of the ground. It's possible that for speed events we humans should do the same.
Leopards and other fast animals also have something else in common - at some point during their stride every leg leaves the floor. This is impressive considering the two extra legs they have on us and is only possible because so little of their foot is in contact with the floor. Think about it - we humans roll our entire foot across the ground from heel to toe - that takes time. If we just pounded the ball of our foot directly into the ground that would take less time. Apparently it was this that gave Usain Bolt his In-sain (sorry) advantage in the hundred metres - his feet pistonned into the ground barely touching it before coming up again.
It is natural that we would feel we should run with our feet rolling across the ground - we evolved to be trackers and this conserves energy and is less stressful on the joints. However if you want to be fast, forget convention and run like a leopard - your foot bend with just the balls of your feet beating against the ground.
Furthermore, to run like this you will need to lean forwards (so that you're pushing off against the floor) which will mean gravity is also on your side pulling you forwards and almost causing you to fall over. If you lean your head forward this is also more aerodynamic. Your arms at the same time should be swinging fast and held in blades to propel your forward and to 'slice' through the air causing minimum resistance. It's fairly unconventional, but try these together and prepare to move like Sonic the Hedgehog.