WHAT IS THE BASIS FOR RUNNING DRILLS?
I hoped that I made things clear about drills in my previous article
"To drill or not to drill?" We use drills to develop our perception; what follows are the
by-products, which we call
coordination, agility, muscle strength, quickness and so on.
But from the discussions on the forum I see that this was still not enough to make your drills more meaningful and easier to perform. Are we missing something? I think so. I think we are missing something tangible to bring more sense into your "drilling" procedure.
Let's look at the performing of drills in a simpler way, not as a development of perception. Perception will come later, when you are "equipped" with some basic structure in thinking about the movement you have to perform.
- So, what is the main thing in running in order to move?
The answer is the use of gravity as a propulsive force.
- How do we use gravity as a propulsive force?
By leaning forward from the existing support and placing the body weight in a desired direction.
- What facilitates the placement of the body weight on the new support?
Changing the present support of the body weight to the other, from one foot to the other.
- What is the best way to change support?
By pulling the foot from the ground in order to disengage the body weight from the ground. The initial movement of this disengagement is produced by leaning forward and by elastic rebounding in order to lift the body weight in a vertical direction just enough to release the foot from the body weight. This particular "action" allows the pulling action to happen. If the body weight is still on the foot, then it is impossible to produce the pulling foot action at all. We can pull the foot off the ground only when it is not loaded by the body-weight.
- What is the logical outcome from the above said?
We need to unweigh the support foot first, then pull it. Using your hips as a carrier of the body weight will allow your foot to have a small bounce in the vertical direction, which comes as a necessary reaction of pulling the foot from the ground. This is what we do in most drills, starting from the Pony or any other beginner drills that focus on shifting the body weight from one support to the other. We are pulling the unweighed foot from the ground.
The key is to unweigh and pull your foot from the ground in one seamless motion. Perform it in place and then move to the drills with the body moving forward.
Dr.Romanov
