Anyone can descend quickly - you don't have to run fast, just move your legs fast and let gravity do the rest!. But how?
We control our speed by a combination of the angle of our body to the slope and the amount we brake. Look at the images and data for Great Whernside (a British champsionship race in 2007), and then next time you make a big descent think about your technique and what's going through your mind. We did, and then followed it up with an Ilkley Harriers "tutorial" on the Chevin.
Time taken and number of strides analysed between two points a few hundred metres above the Scout Hut. 174 runners took parts in the men's race.
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| Video | |||
| Ian Holmes (v40, 3rd overall and one of the best descenders in the business; 2 Mb) |  |
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| Tom Owens (7th; 3 Mb) | |||
| Graham Pearce (26th; 5Mb) | |||
| Dave Tait (v60 champion and 60th overall; 5 Mb) | |||
| Ron Fawcett (v50 66th overall; 3 Mb) | |||
| Geoff Howard (v60 in 2004 and 82nd overall; 5 Mb) |
| The faster runners above have a slightly quicker cadence than the slower ones (e.g., Holmes: 3.6 vs. Howard: 3.2 strides per second), but there is a much larger difference in the amount of ground covered in each stride. This is reinforced by the two composite images (right), which are both for the same amount of time (the runners are Holmes and Howard). There's no apparent difference in body angle, but Holmes was descending 60% faster, not only because his stride length was greater but his airbourne speed was much larger. |  |
When I publicised these data a number of people replied with some comments. Refering to Holmes vs. Howard, one said "what do you expect?", but that shows a distinct lack of ambition to improve. Others said "ah well, X always runs like that", but this misses the point - the videos show a continuum of performance, from the very best to those who were mid-placed in the race. The only unusual runner was Tom Owens, whose stride length was unusually long.
Graham Pearce, however, provided some useful insights
Is that one of the keys to learning to descend faster? Concentrate on trying to take long strides, and everything else will fall into place?
Roy Ruddle, November 2007