Creating The Perfect Running Form - Shane Benzie

You could spend $10,000 on a pair of trainers. It's not gonna make you land with a tripod landing. It's not gonna make you leave the f- the ground correctly. We can't buy our way out of trouble. It's- I think it's easier to order something and for it turn up on the doorstep, and we put them on, and it's a magic pair of trainers, and now all our troubles are solved. We'd rather do that than spend 12 weeks learning to move differently. (wind blows)

Shane Betsy, welcome to the show.

Thank you for the invite.

You were just in Portugal. Tell me what you were doing.

I was just in Portugal. So, I was in, uh, a place called Nazare, and Nazare, uh, has the biggest waves in the world. So, it's on the Atlantic Coast, and, uh, it has huge waves. And, uh, I'm predominantly a running coach, but actually, more and more, I'm becoming a movement coach with different sports. And I'm actually working on a project out there studying and coaching some of the big wave surfers. So, these guys are surfing waves up to sort of 70, 80 feet. So, I'm really get excited about, you know, their foot contact on the board, how are they balancing on that board, you know, what are they doing? What's their perception of their movement? Their mental approach to something that's pretty dangerous, and that you can't just go out every day and practice because of course these big waves only come sometimes. So, I use very clever sensors to put in their boots to kind of have a look at how they're interacting with the board and all sorts of stuff. And that does, believe it or not, feed back into running.

What is the similarity between surfing and running?

So, for me, if I'm coaching running, one of the big things I get excited about with running is the- the foot. The- the- you know, the human foot is a very, very clever thing, and I like to think of the foot as the interface between us and the ground. Yeah. If the foot lands well, and if the foot leaves the ground well when we run, it creates stability, it creates elasticity, it creates amazing proprioception from the quarter of a million nerves on the bottom of it, it spreads impact, it does loads of amazing things. So, if I can understand how the foot interacts with lots of other surfaces, uh, and in other sports, then I can learn some very interesting things about maybe how we should land the foot and leave the ground when we run.

What are some of the things that you've learned since working with these psychopathic surfers?

(laughs) Well, uh, one of the other big things about sport as well is- is the mental approach. You know, that- that's- that's extremely important. So, we're learning all the time about the foot. The- I- when I'm looking at, uh, foot contact in whatever sport it is, I'm always looking where possible for what I would call a tripod contact with, uh, the board or with the ground or whatever it is you're working with. So, I'm learning from them about how they create stability in what is a very kind of dynamic situation and how that foot changes based on their interaction with the board. And maybe then I can understand how better we should change and interact our foot as we move- move over maybe uneven surfaces or uphills or downhills because of course they're- they are on, uh, you know, they're up going at some pretty crazy angles. So yeah, lots to learn and- and lots of information to swap. I did a- a similar, well, say similar, I had a- I have a collaboration with British Diving, um, so worked with British Diving in the- in the lead-up to the Olympics. Uh, and, uh, just looking at how the divers have their- their- their movement on the board, not the twirly stuff, that's all really exciting and impressive, but I just work with them on their three steps on the board and then how they leave the board. So, looking at things in minute detail, but then maybe bringing it back into running is something we might do tens of thousands of times in a single run.