Ray,

I don't think anyone is disagreeing that hip-drop exists or has its place. The
point is that it shouldn't be forced or overemphasized. Your analysis of the
bent knee driving forward and the need to keep the foot low to the ground are
correct. But you're missing the action of the foot itself. When the feet are
used properly (when the athlete pushes all the way to the toes and the rear foot
leaves the ground oriented vertically/perpendicular to the ground) the foot will
come through and under the body toes pointed down. This allows for a great deal
of knee bend (about 90 degrees) with the toes coming through only millimeters
above the surface of the road or track. Athletes who have a lot of natural
hip-drop (Philip Dunn) can bring the foot through with the foot in a less-than
toes-down orientation (Philip brings his foot through parallel to the ground
when it's under his body.) But this comes back to Ray's statement that knee
drive is important for speed. Philip has a very smooth style, and his amazing
amount of hip mobility is a big part of it. But his legs drive through much
straighter than those of most of his competitors, so he's throwing a longer
lever with more apparent mass. Lack of sufficient knee bend (related to foot
orientation under the body) could explain why Philip's mile/3k/5k/10k and even
20k times never matched the level of his great 50k success.

Ok

DMcG




Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: "Ray Sharp" <rsharp@...>

Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 07:44:08
To: 'Steve Patat'<spatat@...>; <racewalking@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [racewalking] Hip Drop


I'm, going to have to agree with Mr. Bohlen and disagree with all the other
esteemed commentators, successful athletes, coaches and learned racewalk
scholars all. I accept their verdict and would not recommend that anyone
follow my advice when the preponderance of opinion is in the other
direction. My ideas are outdated, as I formed them while training with the
Mexican team in 1980 - eons ago!



But!!! The reason I think hip drop is something important to think about is
this - the straight, supporting leg, when at vertical, is longer than the
bent leg swinging forward. It is desirable to bend the advancing leg quite a
bit, not as much as a runner does, but enough to shorten the lever and make
the foot get forward quicker. If the hips are level, the foot will come
through too high, which is inefficient because the center of gravity is
raised, and also because it gives the appearance of lifting. The best
walkers, at least the ones who appear legal, have flexible hips that include
some vertical motion along with the front to back motion and the rotation at
the spine the causes the feet to land in line. To repeat, the purpose of the
hip drop as the leg swings forward, and the shoulder drop on the other side
that happens naturally for balance, is to allow foot of the swinging leg to
stay low, skimming just above the ground, and then the leg flicks straight
at the instant of contact and the hip begins to rise. A point on the hip
joint moves in all three planes - front to back, up and down, and across the
body like a sine curve seen from above. Ignoring the last of these for a
second, think about it in 2 dimensions: The hip will move in a curve like
the sine curve or more accurately like one of those cycloid things. But
let's simplify further, by fixing the walker on a treadmill so we can just
look at the motion in 2 dimensions relative to the walker's center. OK, it's
an ellipse (oval), with both a front to back and an up and down motion.



Now, to the place we can all agree on - if you increase your front to back
motion, the ellipse will be longer than it is tall, and your stride length
will increase.



Yours in the science and art of race walking,



Ray Sharp

http://rayswalkingdigest.wordpress.com





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