TEACHING RUNNING
 Just
came back from my last, one-week, trip to New York with some
fresh impressions from my clinic in La Palestra, a private
club, located just across the street from Central Park. An
impressive city as always, full of life with lots of everything:
shows, shops, restaurants, skyscrapers, crowds of people,
lots of celebrities and lots of runners in the park racing
and training. New York is always at the top of everything
regardless of the field and is also a good litmus test for
new things.
Twelve years ago I was doing my presentation on the Pose
Method of running in this club for the first time. Since that
time I have been coming back there almost every year and asked
the same questions again and again: What is running? What
is running technique? What is a proper running technique?
How are we supposed to learn and teach it? These questions
have never been answered.
Why does such an ignorant state of the mind dominate in running?
It is a good question for a psychological research, but in
general it reflects conservatism of human nature and some
wrong historical approach to running as the only kind of human
motion that doesnt need to be learnt. Well, we are paying
a high price for this attitude now: as 85 % of runners injured
every year present an evidence very hard to deny.
This last clinic in New York was filled up 100% with people
having this or that running injury. They tried everything
to get rid of these injuries prior to the clinic, but did
not succeed. So the Pose clinic was their last hope and they
realized it.
30 years passed since the Pose Method was born and I still
have to ask myself, why are we humans so stubborn, why do
we reject things which could benefit our lives? Surely, there
are well-known answers given throughout the history of humanity.
Yes, it is the same thing again and again: conservatism, close-mindedness,
inhabitancy, fear of change, laziness, etc. But how can we
overcome these obstacles for the sake of these same people
who do not want to change?
I have no doubt that the Pose Method of running is beneficial
for runners. All my years of experience, development and science
research proved it, which was completely confirmed by performance
of elite and recreational runners. But when it comes to teaching
through the books, videos, web site or clinics I find the
same difficulties of learning and teaching again and again.
There are basically two major reasons behind all non-successful
stories: a low level of perception and inability to be a student.
The first one is an unknown territory for general population
as individual abilities to recognize differences between sounds,
sights, colors, tastes, smells and tactile sensations, efforts,
tensions, etc., vary tremendously. Mostly it could be explained
by the fact that we never learnt it and nobody taught us how
to do it. The importance of this side of our life was overlooked
and never brought to our attention.
The second reason is more social, as lots of people have
a problem of accepting a students role, all of a sudden, and
starting to act accordingly begin learning. They approach
the subject with a wrong attitude some predisposed experience
or knowledge and consider it the right base for their comparisons
and judgment. In other words, they arrive with their own paradigm
of running, which could be quite opposite to what they have
to learn. In this case, there is no way to learn a new paradigm
as it is not welcomed. This attitude can be summarized by
Winston Churchills words: Everybody wants to learn, but nobody
wants to be taught. When both problems are combined in one
person, its practically impossible to overcome these obstacles.
So what is the way out? First of all, try to become a good
student: open your mind for learning, free it from any judgment
and prejudices, pay deliberate attention to your subject,
focus on learning. Second, try to develop higher level of
perception, which requires special attention, as well, and
be persistent with your efforts to go through the learning
process. Remember that there is no royal road in learning
and dont expect any overnight miracles. Only your smart and
persistent work towards your goal will bring you to success.
And the Pose Method will help you in this, but YOU have to
do it.
Dr.Romanov
Pose
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