O'Keeffe, Sisson, & Lindwurm Olympic Trials 2024 Running Form Analysis 

Cool analysis as usual 👍 Here is a secret I haven't heard you talk about regarding asymmetry : Eye dominance plays a roll in your head slightly turning right for most people (left for the others), as a result, your neck and torso turn right. That's why you see most people have one foot turning outwards more than the other. This could be a normal human biomechanic unbalance that you can also see in 4 legged animals.

Good analysis but you are looking at her form at 25.7 miles+ - is anyone’s form great half a mile from the finish?

I was using a highlights video, not finish line footage. Some of what I showed was from the end but much was from earlier on. But you always see the truth about how a person runs, and when they're either cold or fatigued you see more of the truth, because they're either not ready or out of energy for hiding/correcting for any issues in their form.

Their pelvis movement is very good and symmetric. With the xsmall shorts it is easy to see. Something that is almost impossible to do while wearing men shorts. The upper body movement is not that big, but with arms swinging so far from their body, the inertia it creates is the same as if the arms were closer. It might decrease the frequency of the stride though (longer pendulum) and because of this slower movement they might not have time to fully turn their torso and so the weight transfer over each foot may not happen completely. The first to cross the finish line had her right knee coming in, she should bring her arms closer to her.

I want McClain to coach me now

I didn't really see her during the race so I just found some footage on YT and, in the brief glimpse I got, she does look really good.

Thanks for your thoughts, Tim! Agree, there are definitely runners whose form is terrible but they're not injured. Just underscores the reality that why you got injured in a particular place is usually due to how you move, but why you got injured at all is a completely different question, having to do with a stress/recovery imbalance (which includes the issue of nutrition). Regarding Lindwurm's form, uneven shoulders do not necessarily indicate a leg length discrepancy. In fact, uneven shoulders are very common and real, anatomical leg length discrepancies are, in my experience, quite rare. I would never try to diagnose that from video unless the legs looked extremely different.

Thanks for your reply Jae. Many yrs ago in HS, Nike's first Air shoe (Tailwind) felt wonderful, but was too soft with no stability or control. Several of us ended up injured because of Nike's 1st $50 shoe. Others with Brooks, Saucony, Lydiard and Nike's LDV avoided injuries. That with high mileage caused pinched sciatic nerve with fallen arch. Penn State's Biomechanics Lab and The Jim Andrews Professional Sports Clinic sited crossing left arm on film with excessive pronation of right foot while imprinting device ferreted out leg length descrepency. Arms cross because body is seeking vertical equilibrium that is caused from hips or below....in that nobody's legs are truly identical in measurrement. With 45 years of running and racing, almost 100% of runners I have helped show whichever arm crosses even just a bit, the opposite leg will show outside heel strike and usually a toeing off and wear of the inside toe...even if its minimal. Team at The Andrews Clinic and Hughston Clinic use shoulder stature to point them to other areas. Dominant legs can also cause problems because those legs are slightly stronger and may be slightly shorter because of muscle strength and volume. My problems were cured by a heel bridge in college and extensive stretching. Wish I had know that before going to so many places for a remedy, but that was in the late 70s. LOL Nice reading your reply. Have a great day. @@balancedrunner

@bluemagic5829 thanks for your observations. Definitely check out my video on Mantz & Young (plus Chelanga and Rupp). You'll find it on the endscreen of this video, or just look at my channel. I've also written about Sara Hall here: www.balancedrunner.com/london-marathon-2020-kosgei-hall-chepngetich-kitata-kipchumba-kipchoge/ I need to do analyses of D'Amato and Rojas at some point. I thought it might be this race, but that's not what happened. Honestly I think they both have serious issues, and their form is not as good as the three in this video. It would be interesting to delve into and explain fully.

Thanks so much. I'd love to hear your thoughts on D'Amato and Rojas. @@balancedrunner

Well actually, @wesleytwiggs7687, not necessarily. Take a look at the field as a whole. Running is not like, say, gymnastics. All top gymnasts have amazing technique because gymnastics basically *is* technique. However in running there are a lot of assets an athlete can draw on to propel them to victory: all the various kinds of fitness, the ability to recover well and thus train hard, nutrition, psychology... and running form. The best form doesn't necessarily win the race, as anyone who's watched a couple of races can tell you. But who wouldn't want good form as one of their assets, especially since it helps you perform better and also stay healthier?

@@balancedrunner I said “tend to.”

Interesting, @AlwaysTrain. I didn't really look at Vaughn.