Ground Strike (Continued)
Expanding on the positioning upon foot strike when running:
Another factor that comes into play when talking about “overstriding” when running is an unwanted deceleration. If the foot strike is out in front of the body’s center of gravity, then the leg is going to have to brace itself for impact and decelerate the body’s forward momentum. If you look at a picture or a slow motion video of someone running with this type of flawed mechanics, you can see how the body must compensate for this “overstride” by applying force to the ground in the opposite direction that the body is running just to maintain balance and remain upright. With the main goal of running being to move forward, it is counterproductive to decelerate the momentum created every stride by applying force in the opposite direction, not to mention an unnecessary expenditure of energy.
There will always be a deceleration aspect to a running stride, but if the body’s center of gravity is in front of the ground strike or even right above it, the impact is much less severe and the energy expenditure is much lower.