Alison Rose's DRILLS FOR CLUBS
Fast feet roll throughs
Maintains ankle mobility, promotes foot and calf muscle strength and function.
Prevention and rehabilitation of calf and shin problems, Achilles injuries.
- Bend both knees
- On alternate feet, roll through each foot from heel to toe, making sure you push through the big toe, before lifting the heel off the floor
- When bringing the foot through for the next step, ensure the toes are pulled up towards the knee (ie ankle at 90º)
- Make the movement a definite rolling through the ankle joint, feeling the muscles in the calf and foot working
- Knee should remain bent at all times and the angle should not change. Hips should not go up and down (ie remain parallel with the floor from the initial start position) All movement should come from the ankle joint itself
- Perfect Posture
- Running arms
High knee walking, front knee bent
Promotes and trains postural control, stability and balance. Encourages co-contraction and strengthening of gluts, hamstrings and calf muscles. Helps prevent loss of technique.
- Start position- Stand on left leg, with the right knee at hip height, thigh parallel with the floor. Right knee is bent, with knee at 90º, ankle at 90º, and toes pulled up towards the knee
- Go up onto toes on the left leg, holding for one second at the top, straightening the left knee and contracting the gluts
- Walk through onto right foot and repeat
- Running arms
- Perfect posture
High knee walking, front knee straight
Promotes and trains postural control, stability and balance. Encourages co-contraction and strengthening of gluts, hamstrings and calf muscles. Helps prevent loss of technique. Encourages active hamstring lengthening whilst engaging postural control and lumbar stability
- Start position- Stand on left leg, with the right knee at hip height, thigh parallel with the floor. Right knee is bent, with knee at 90º, ankle at 90º, and toes pulled up towards the knee
- Go up onto toes on the left leg, holding for one second at the top, with the left knee straight, contracting the gluts.
- Straighten the right knee, maintaining posture
- Walk through onto right foot and repeat
- Running arms, Perfect posture
NB if poor flexibility in hamstrings, only have upper knee at a height that you can straighten knee and maintain posture
Walking lunges
Trains postural control, gluts strength and hip control through range. Encourages co-contraction and strengthening of gluts and hamstrings, whilst lengthening quads and hip flexors. Also encourages rotational control
- Start position- Stand on left leg, with the right knee at hip height, thigh parallel with the floor. Right knee is bent, with knee at 90º, ankle at 90º, and toes pulled up towards the knee
- Go into lunge, with right leg in front
- Posture perfect, pelvis level and straight, front knee and foot in line with right hip. Right hip, knee and ankle at 90º. Running arms
- Use gluts of front leg to lift self up onto front leg. Maintain posture and go into start position on other leg i.e. left knee at hip height, knee bent at 90º, ankle at 90º
- DO NOT let front knee fall inwards
- Maintain perfect posture throughout the movement
- Running arms
Toes up/ Straight legs fast
Encourages ankle mobility and calf strength and power. Also encourages good foot contact with the ground, to enable good push off through feet. Encourages extensor muscle activation
- Standing up on toes, knees straight
- On alternate feet, push off through the toes and ankles, driving off the floor, pulling toes towards your shin as you drive off the floor
- Aim for height off the floor and not distance
- Perfect posture
- Running arms
Piston hamstring
Promotes hamstring activation and correct movement patterning. Also helps co-ordination and prevents loss of technique. Good for rehabilitation of hamstring injuries and hamstring re-activation after back injury
- Do single sided initially
- Keep left (stance) leg straight, up on toes
- Draw right heel up under buttock, and knee up in front of hip.
- Right thigh and lower leg should be almost horizontal
- Right ankle at 90º
- Alternate left leg toes up/ straight knee drill with right leg piston hamstring
- When able to do well, can progress to alternate legs piston hamstrings or two piston hamstrings on right/two on the left
- Posture
- Running arms
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Running - general tips
It is possible that most of your training will be on the pavement and roads, so make yourself as highly visible as possible to the motorist.
Start your run slowly after warm-ups and plan your route running towards the traffic, so you can see them and they can see you.
Choose well-lit areas with wide pavements, wherever you can, although try keeping close to the roadside in icy conditions running on the grit/salt over spray.
Be careful running on wet leaves, which can be very slippery and may hide missing pavement or a pothole.
Watch out for opening doors of cars that have just parked.
At T-junctions cross behind the first car and in front of the second waiting car.
Never cross the road in front of the first turning car, as the driver may not see you!
Stay alert at all times and make your own decision when crossing roads and junctions. Don’t just convoy within a group of runners.
It is safer to run in pairs or in a small group, but if you do run alone consider carrying some ID with you.
If you run from home you should perhaps leave a note of the route and time.
The above advice is mainly for newcomers to running but we all assess the risk, every time we run, attempting to keep ourselves safe and sound. |
