Building on your assessment from Week 1, we'll now focus on developing lighter, more efficient foot contact.Each week introduces new drills and concepts while maintaining previous skills. (New additions are in bold).
This week is about teaching your body to be "lighter" on your feet, reducing stress on your joints while improving efficiency and speed.
This week we focus on a concept that transforms both your speed and injury resilience: learning to run "light." Many athletes mistakenly believe that running harder means pushing more forcefully into the ground. In reality, the opposite is true – the best runners in the world spend less time in contact with the ground and exert their force more efficiently.
In our training philosophy, jogging is considered problematic for athletes. Here's why.
Jogging is a relatively recent invention – a biomechanically awkward hybrid that emerged in the 1970s with the advent of heavily cushioned running shoes. These shoes masked the jarring forces that this movement pattern creates, allowing people to move in ways that our bodies weren't designed for.
When you jog, you combine the stress and velocity of running with the landing pattern of walking. This results in landing on your heels with a nearly straight leg, creating a jarring force that travels directly up into your knees and lower back. Over time, this pattern can contribute to joint issues and reduce your athletic efficiency.
Instead, we encourage you to either:
Learning to run "light" – even when moving slowly – creates a movement pattern that's more sustainable for your body and more effective for performance.
Building on the foundation from Week 1, we'll add two powerful drills that develop your ability to move lightly and efficiently:
This drill advances the stationary marching you learned last week by adding forward movement. High hip skips develop several crucial skills simultaneously:
When performing high hip skips, focus on driving your knee up while maintaining a tall posture. Your arms should swing naturally in opposition to your legs. Most importantly, land and push through the midfoot – never heel first.
The skipping motion slows down the running cycle, allowing you to feel each component more clearly. Pay attention to the sensations of a light, springy contact rather than a heavy "thud" with each step.
This is not so much a new drill, but more a new emphasis for your jump and landing drill.
Ninja landings teach perhaps the most important skill for reducing impact forces: how to properly absorb force through your entire kinetic chain.
By mastering the ninja landing pattern, you'll develop:
Starting this week start adding a little more height and effort to your jumps, focusing on landing quietly with "soft" with stacked knees and hips. Imagine yourself landing like a ninja – silent and controlled. This same pattern will transfer directly to your running, reducing impact forces and increasing efficiency.
As the weeks progress, we'll increase the challenge of these landings, but for now, master the basics with smaller jumps and perfect form.
The "Fall and Run" drill teaches one of the most crucial elements of effective acceleration: proper body angle. Many athletes struggle with acceleration because they remain too upright, trying to run fast while their body is in a position better suited for maintaining speed rather than creating it.
"Fall and Run" uses a controlled forward lean to naturally position your body into the ideal acceleration angle. When you accelerate, your center of mass should be ahead of your feet, creating a forward lean from the ankles (not the waist). This position allows you to direct force backward more effectively, propelling your body forward with each step.
One of the most effective ways to develop lighter feet is to increase your running cadence (steps per minute). Great runners typically maintain a cadence of 170-190 steps per minute, even up to 200+ when sprinting!
A higher cadence naturally:
This week's field work will incorporate some continous running (around an oval, up and back on a soccer pitch etc) using a metronome to help you find the optimal rhythm. Set the metronome between 160-170 beats per minute and match your foot strikes to the beat. It may feel unnaturally quick at first (start slower if uncomfortable, but with practice your body will adapt and you can gradually increase the metronome cadence. Your target is to get comfortable running above 175bpm.
Remember, you can run slowly while maintaining a quick cadence by taking shorter, quicker steps (on your midfoot) rather than longer, slower ones.
As you move through Week 2, maintain all the elements from Week 1 as you include these new drills:
Check your workbook for the specific sets, reps, and intensities for all components this week and check in with the exercise library for a reminder on technique for all your drills.
By the end of this week, you should begin to feel a noticeable difference in how your running feels – less jarring, more fluid, and potentially less fatiguing as you learn to move more efficiently.