Dave, and all interested parties:



I agree with everything Dave says below, and so, by corollary, what Tom,
Jeff, Michael and Tim said as well.



With the proper foot action at push off, the hip, thigh and knee will begin
driving forward in the last instants before the toe rolls to the end and
leaves the ground. I don't mean that the knee will bend early, because
driving the hip and knee back are the key to power and stride length. But
just at the end, the hip and knee will snap forward just a few milliseconds
perhaps before the toe leaves the ground. In a simplified version, the leg
is like a pendulum, but the truth is much more complex, and the impulse of
the forward motion begins with the core muscles to the hip flexors and so on
down the chain in a crack the whip type motion, with the hip and knee moving
forward slightly sooner than the toe. That means the toe will "drag" forward
pointing down, a bit behind or out of phase. Just before heel impact, the
toe will be pulled up by the muscles on the front of the shin, ankle and
foot, while (guess what) the hip and knee have begun their backwards path,
still slightly ahead of the foot, which is moving forward. This means the
knee will have moved back (relative to the walker, not relative to the
ground) enough to straighten the leg as the heel strikes.

These are complicated motions. We simplify them so we can explain them to
other people, and also so we can focus on a few key points when we walk.
When I have too much hip drop, like when I am tiring and my body is
"sagging" and sinking too much into the hyper-extended knee by rolling too
much along the outside of the foot, it makes the shoulder of my forward
swinging arm drop too much and pulls my head to that side, giving me a side
to side motion that the coaches and judges (Dave, Tom, Jeff, Tim, Michael)
want us to avoid. If thinking about hip drop causes excessive side to side
motion, it should be discouraged or dampened a little bit. Obviously,
forward motion is the goal.



If you think back to Ernesto Canto, he had a very quick and efficient motion
with the knee bent quite a lot on the recovering leg, but his head went side
to side. I think Jefferson Perez and the current women's Olympic champion
(afraid I'll spell her name wrong) are better models, because they achieve
the desired hip motion without much head motion.



Ray







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@hline. <mailto:rsharp%40hline.org> org>

Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 07:44:08
To: 'Steve Patat'<spatat@bellsouth. <mailto:spatat%40bellsouth.net> net>;
<racewalking@ <mailto:racewalking%40yahoogroups.com> 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://rayswalkingd <http://rayswalkingdigest.wordpress.com>
igest.wordpress.com





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]