How You Run Matters.
What do I mean by that? It is a statement that is both intuitive and yet confusing. Well, of course, it matters. How do you run? How do we all run? I don’t know. I just do it.
We have two types of memory, according to Dr. Daniel J. Siegel. He is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and executive director of the Mindsight Institute. Explicit memories are the ones we can recall and tell in a story. They are events and feelings that we are aware of and able to summon at will.
Implicit memories are submitted to our subconscious minds. We lose awareness of them. For example, you can be terrified of spiders but not know why. There might have been an event that your brain chose to “forget” because it was too traumatic. “Until the age of 18 months old, all of our memories are implicit,” he says in his book The Whole-Brain Child. These memories, unbeknownst to us, have a grappling effect on how we view life in the present moment.
Traumatic or difficult events often get unexamined by most. We do it to suppress feelings of pain and depression. Likewise, happy memories such as a safe, carefree childhood might escape our consciousness too. However, both form deeply ingrained beliefs. There is a set of expectations formed about the future based on your previous experiences.
A common example would be if your parents are unreliable; you believe this world is dangerous. While on the other hand, if you had a loving and supportive family, you believe it’s safe. That affects every decision that you make. Do you interact with people in your life thinking they are out to get you, or do you believe they want to help you?
Being unaware of why you believe what you believe or why you act a certain way is frightful. It is equivalent to letting a sleepwalker get behind the wheel and drive. It is only a matter of time before they crash. “To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.” — Aristotle.
Running for most is an implicit event. It is something that we learned before our awareness of it. We started by copying people around us. We often see small children copying their older siblings. They repeat everything their parents say (remember the movie “Meet the Fockers”). However, ‘mirroring,’ as Dr. Siegel calls it, is present even in adult behavior.
Adults will copy their partner or friend’s gestures as a subconscious signal of “I like you.” Try this sometime. If you think someone is really into you, change your posture: cross your arms, uncross them, switch up your legs. If they follow suit… Bingo. To be copied is one of the greatest compliments. But, what if the person you adore doesn’t have the slightest idea of how to run correctly? As children, we surely aren’t discerning that at the age of 5, 10, or even 20. We want to “Be Like Mike” — or whomever else is your idol.
For most of us, it isn’t a problem until it is. It often shows up as shin splints, foot pain, back pain but more often than not as knee pain. That event often becomes the first point that makes us stop and think about how we run. Otherwise, it is something that we just do.
“Straighten up,” many of us are used to hearing from our Mom. That means: bring awareness to your body and posture and impose your will over it. “Mind your manners” bring awareness to how you speak or behave at dinner. “Stay positive!” A call to action to become cognizant of our negative thoughts, police them and choose to focus on the positive ones. These examples underline the same message: make a conscious choice to observe how you think, speak, and move.
Running is the most fundamental movement for many sports. For me, basketball was life. However, I know I never reached my full potential. I always felt heavy on my feet and wished that I could elevate higher and run quicker. I thought maybe it’s just genetics, they are gifted, and I am not. “I am a blue-collar player”- I labeled myself. I tried to make up for my lack of athleticism by working hard.
I wish someone would have taught me how to run properly. I now know that quicksand feeling while running and slow sluggish cutting resulted from a poor, inefficient running form. I was fighting against my own body and working a lot harder than was necessary.
Learning how to run efficiently unlocks so many doors. Not only will you run faster, cut quicker, and jump higher, but you also will shoot, dribble and kick better. Running affects every other movement because it is the first and main link in a chain of events. Hang in there with me.
Everything we do is a transfer of energy. While our bodies are standing, we possess potential energy. My body mass being acted upon by gravity is just waiting for an opportunity to turn to speed or kinetic energy. Setting your body into running motion allows for the next event to occur.
A beautiful jump shot is a transfer of a forward-moving body into an upward direction. If I run well, I will be able to transfer the energy upward well. Meaning I can elevate much higher. A soccer player takes a running start to take a deep kick down the field. They are transferring the momentum of their body to the ball via their kicking leg. A high jumper or a pole vaulter takes a running start to launch themselves over the bar from their moving body’s momentum.
This truth reveals itself across all sports: field hockey, lacrosse, football, volleyball, and so on. It is the universal truth that energy isn’t created; it is transferred. And it all starts with an efficient run. If you can run well, you can jump well, and you can kick and shoot well.
Perceiving your body in correct and incorrect positions is a skill that transcends many aspects of our life. Recall the common examples of our posture, table manners, and our thoughts. However, running is the most common activity that goes under the radar of our consciousness. We are sleepwalking, reckless drivers of a very precious vehicle, our bodies.
Besides the injuries, knowing that you never reached your full potential is hard for any serious athlete. What if I learned this as a young child, in high school, or even in college? What would my basketball career have been like? I wish someone would’ve taught me how to run efficiently. How you run is paramount.
