okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
More on running technique
I downloaded another video of orienteers in a race and watched the running technique.
As before, the variety orienteers face is impressive. The variety shows up even in very short spaces -- running into a control, punching and leaving. We run on different surfaces (hard, soft, rocky, etc.) and slopes (up, down, along the side). We change direction a lot. We'll punch at a control and turn to leave. We'll run a few steps, then turn to get around an obstacle, and so on.
Orienteers seem to keep their knees and hips bent almost all the time. The style makes us look stiff.
Orienteers often run with their shoulders a bit hunched.
The combination of the variety, bent knees and hips and hunched shoulders makes orienteers look, well, goofy. It also makes the running look slow. Running in the forest looks easy, it doesn't look like orienteers are working hard.
If you've got some time and a broadband connection, download the video from last year's elite series (Sweden) race here (75 mb). A lower quality version is available here (22 mb).
posted by Michael |
8:49 PM
