Run Technique Coach

FOOT STRIKE & GROUND REACTION

This little skipping drill — more of a gallop — is perfect for developing a better foot strike and ground reaction.

We’re encouraging you to bounce off the ground, rather than sink into it.

Drive one knee up and hit the ground with that foot a little harder. The aim is to create a quick, reactive contact and use the stretch-shortening cycle to put energy back into your stride.

We want to develop that natural pop and free speed, using the tendons to store and release energy rather than absorbing everything through the muscles and dampening the stride.

It also challenges your rhythm and coordination, making it fantastic all-round training.

Use it as part of your warm-up before either a running session or a gym session.

Think quick, reactive and springy. 🏃‍♂️💥

Thanks to

A-Skip Intent ⚡️

I see a lot of influencers demonstrating A-skips far too slowly — driving the knee up but forgetting the most important part… driving the foot DOWN.

Slow A-skips are useful early in the learning process. They help runners understand the shapes and positions.

But they’re not the finished article.

To make A-skips actually improve your running form, you need to add:

⚡ Stiffness
⚡ Intent
⚡ Speed
⚡ Force into the ground

When done correctly, A-skips begin to sharpen your rhythm and timing, creating the correct action–reaction sequence that transfers directly into your running.

Think less “lift the knee slowly”
and more “attack the ground.”

That’s when the drill starts to become transferable to your running.

THE 5 MOVE LOOP 🔄

Every elite runner moves through five key positions during every stride.

At Run Technique Coach, we call this the 5 Move Loop:

👉 DIP → TUCK → DRIVE → KICK → LAND

Each position has drills, skills, and movement patterns attached to it that can be trained, improved, and connected together.

🔹 DIP
Your mid-stance position.

This is where everything happens.

You need to be:
• Balanced
• Stable
• Aligned
• Strong through the hips

If things go wrong in your running, they usually go wrong here.

🔹 TUCK
The release phase.

As the stance foot unloads, the unsupported side needs to be lifted.

The timing of this movement is crucial if you want to get on and off the foot quickly and access the stretch-shortening cycle.

Think:
✔️ C-Shape
✔️ C-Skip

🔹 DRIVE
Project the stride forward.

This is where we create powerful 90-degree running shapes that help us move efficiently and economically.

Think:
✔️ A-Shape
✔️ A-Skip

🔹 KICK
Prime the landing.

The leg extends slightly in front of the body, placing the hamstrings and glutes under tension before the foot returns underneath us.

Think:
✔️ B-Shape
✔️ B-Skip

🔹 LAND
The cycle begins again.

Traditionally we teach a flat-foot or mid-foot landing, but if you watch elite distance runners closely, many make initial contact with the heel before rolling into the DIP position.

The key isn’t where you touch the ground first.

The key is bringing the foot back down towards you rather than leaving it out in front.

💡 Every one of these moves / shapes / positions can be trained.

Through drills, skills, awareness, rhythm, timing and repetition, you can connect the loop and build a more efficient running stride.

Most recreational runners fall into an overstride or scissor pattern.

With a little more finesse and understanding, they can begin to move with the flow, rhythm and efficiency we see in elite runners.

Move better.
Train smarter.
Run faster.

Comment GUIDE below and I’ll send you our FREE running form guide.

✂️ Scissor running vs Real full running mechanics

Even at slow paces, you can run beautifully.

However, most runners are fighting the treadmill… and the ground.

They’re stuck in back side walk-based mechanics.

👉 Scissor action
👉 Driven from the back foot
👉 Pushing off behind
👉 Breaking on landing

It’s effort… without flow.

Now compare that to Real running.

👉 Front-side mechanics
👉 Drive → Kick → Land
👉 Working with the belt, not against it
👉 Smooth, elastic, continuous

The action happens in front of you.

You’re not pushing and fighting.

You’re organising movement, using the spring, and letting the stride flow.

That’s the skill most runners have lost.

And that’s exactly what we rebuild inside the 5-Move system.

If you want to stop fighting the ground and start running properly…

Learn the skill.

Want to know more about running technique, then comment GUIDE and I’ll send a link to register for our free guide and some key videos on the components of great form.

IS YOUR RUNNING HOLDING YOU BACK? 🏃‍♂️

Maybe you’ve hit a plateau.

Maybe injuries keep interrupting your training.

Or maybe you just KNOW you’re capable of running much faster.

Your engine might be great…

But what if the chassis is holding it back?

Inside the Run Technique Academy, we help you build the body you need to carry your fitness forward.

People knocking chunks off their times. People getting rid of injuries. People knowing what they need to work on.

🏃 18-Session Foundations Course
Learn the fundamentals of the 5 Move System, tighten up your stride and start overcoming common patterns such as scissor running and overstriding.

🎥 Weekly Live Sessions + Q&A
Work through the programme with me, bit by bit. Learn the movements, practise the drills, ask questions and understand what you’re actually trying to achieve.

⚡ Essential Plyometrics
Learn how to bounce, hop and skip properly, developing the springiness and elasticity you need for better running.

🧠 Movement Skills
Develop the agility, balance, coordination, rhythm and timing that underpin good running.

💪 Essential Strength
Build the strength, stability and control to support better movement and help your body cope with the demands of running.

You train your cardiovascular system.

You build your engine.

Now build the body that can actually use it.

Want to learn more about the system?

Comment GUIDE below and I’ll send you the details.

Move better. Train smarter. Run faster.

YOUR MOVEMENT SCREEN CAN TELL US A LOT ABOUT YOUR RUNNING.

The Active Straight Leg Raise and Toe Touch are two great diagnostic tests I use as part of an overall movement screen.

When an athlete struggles to lift a straight leg or can’t hinge effectively at the hips and reach their toes, we’ll often see problems show up when they’re running on a single leg:

Hip drop.
Knee valgus.
Overpronation.
Poor control when absorbing force.

And remember — every stride you take is essentially a single-leg movement.

The answer isn’t simply to start adding more strength.

First, we need to restore the mobility you’re missing.

Then build the stability to control that new range.

Then we can load it for strength.

And finally develop the plyometric qualities that allow you to brace, absorb and return force from a strong position — stride after stride.

If you fail both of these tests, there could be a lot of running performance you’re leaving on the table.

Let’s get it back.

Want to know more about the Run Technique Academy?

Comment GUIDE below and we’ll send you the latest information.

Kejelcha – Perfect Technique

This is the technique we train at athletics clubs around the world.

Watch Yomif Kejelcha through the stride.

He loads the front of the stride, brings the foot back towards him through KICK, and then WHIP before a mid-foot landing.

He rolls beautifully into DIP (mid-stance) — perfectly balanced and organised.

Into TUCK, he unloads the foot perfectly as the hips move through.

And by DRIVE, he is already airborne, with that steep angle projecting his flight forwards.

The front side of his stride is incredible. There is so much space and time for him to organise the movement before bringing the foot back underneath him. You can really see his track background in the way he moves.

Here he was heading towards a sub-two-hour marathon, beaten only by the incredible Sebastian Sawe — who I’ll comment on separately.

Incredible running. Incredible technique.

If you’d like to learn more about running technique, comment GUIDE below.

OVERSTRIDE FIX 🏃‍♀️

Delighted to work with — a Personal Trainer, PT studio owner & functional fitness athlete who’s looking to get more from the running element of her sport.

Like many functional fitness athletes, both the strength and the engine are huge, and the capacity for work is exceptional.

But when it comes to running, that strength can sometimes become the problem.

Push → reach → brake.

Rather than using the elastic qualities of the body, we see athletes leaning into the run, pushing hard behind them and reaching out in front — creating an overstride, longer ground-contact times and a braking force with every step.

So we’re working on two things:

1️⃣ Developing the front side of the stride
Getting the foot to meet the ground nearer the body, with the stride moving round and back towards the body — rather than reaching out in front, with the foot travelling away from it.

2️⃣ Developing elasticity
Less pushing. More bouncing. A lighter touch, shorter ground-contact times and a naturally quicker cadence.

Functional fitness athletes already have enormous engines.

The goal is to stop trying to muscle the run and start learning to use their springs.

Less push. Less brake. More bounce.

If you’d like to know more about running and running technique, comment GUIDE below.

UNLOADING

In running, we move from flexion to extension on every stride.

But the order in which you unload matters.

A common mistake is trying to unload from the ground upwards:

Ankle → Knee → Hip

This puts far too much emphasis on the foot and ankle complex. In scissor running and overstriding, we often see extension happening either too early or too late, with the calf and Achilles being asked to do far more work than they should.

Instead, think:

Hip → Knee → Ankle

After mid-stance, the hips roll past the stance foot. At the same time, the free leg begins to lift the unsupported side of the pelvis as it moves into the TUCK. This is your short lever recovery or C skip ideology. At the same time the glutes are working together to open the hip.

This helps the body unload from the top down:

Hip opens → Knee opens → Ankle opens

Rather than actively pushing yourself off the ground, you extend and simply roll / toe off the foot and into the DRIVE phase, where you will be airborne.

Good running isn’t about forcing the push-off. It’s about organising the body so it can load and unload at the right time and in the right sequence.

Want to practice it? Do a low box jump. Think about loading the hips and then popping the hip open by using the glutes. Or do a kettlebell swing just using the glutes for popping the hips open. That’s why we do those exercises.

For more information on running technique, comment GUIDE.

PERFECT FORM 🏃‍♀️

Here is Lucy showing us perfect form, gliding effortlessly down the track.

Her foot is moving in the opposite direction to travel, creating the force required to simply pop on and off the ground and continue forward.

If we break down the phases, you can see just how good she really is:

DIP (MID-STANCE)
Perfectly balanced. Hands at the same height, hips at the same height, chest pointing forward, eyes looking forward.

TUCK
Notice how her stance foot is unloaded as her hips roll past. This allows her to access the stretch-shortening cycle and make use of the elastic energy she’s created.

DRIVE
She’s airborne — therefore, there’s no pushing required. The unloading of the foot has already happened.

KICK
Her front leg reaches forward and down, then she uses the glutes and hamstrings to bring the foot back underneath her. This kick phase at the front of your stride is your B-skip.

LAND
Finally, she lands mid-foot with an initial touch point, loading with a straight shin in a strong, safe position — and she’s straight into the next stride.

Want to know more about perfect running form? Comment GUIDE 👇