Tai Ji Quan and no-running running

My aha moment came, naturally, during a long run: From a Tai Ji Quan (Tai Chi Chuan) perspective, why elites run the way they do all makes sense now. It's like, of course this is how it should be.

It all began with Kelvin Kiptum’s Chicago Marathon run in October of last year, Adharanand Finn’s commentary on the run, and a link in the commentary to Jae Gruenke’s interesting analysis of Kiptum’s form. (Gruenke is founder of The Balanced Runner.) Both Finn and I thought Kiptum’s form is just the natural way he runs. But, regarding Kiptum's forearms in relationship to his chest, our views are a bit different. In part that’s just a difference in description. Finn sees Kiptum’s forearms as “swinging across his chest,” whereas I see them as swinging across his chest to just past the body centerline. The latter means the arms are actually at an angle to the chest, not across the chest, and it’s the hands that swing across and down the chest. (The discussions among Finn, myself, and others occurred on Finn’s Patreon site of which I’m a “patron.”)

It was a fascinating discussion. The sometimes misunderstanding ensued, I think in part, from the difference in western and eastern thinking. That is, in the former, the focus is on structure, on the individual parts (arms, elbows, etc.), and how they affect each other; whereas, in the latter, the focus is on process, on the body holistically. Holistic movements have long been a central part of Tai Ji Quan. From Tai Ji Quan principles, movement always originates from the Dan Tian (~core?), the source of the body's energy. All movements should originate from there, followed by the extremities, the exact positions of which would vary with the individual. These principles apply to running but also elsewhere, e.g., in music, the vibrato of string players, properly done, originates from a relaxed body.

Analyses of videos of elites that show a certain form don’t mean the rest of us should try to copy it (e.g., have one’s arm at this angle, swing the arm to here). One can run either rigidly or relaxed with arms that are in some “ideal” position. I think most elites seem to run that way (Kiptum's), because they all run with a relaxed core. The rest (arm, elbow, hand, etc.) follow from the core. Trying to change one's form by adjusting head, arm, etc. is from the wrong end of the process. I experimented in recent runs with these form adjustments, and they felt awkward. But, when I consciously relaxed my core (still a work-in-progress!), these adjustments just happened, a sort of “no-movement movement.” Whatever the “ideal” arm swing is, it doesn’t come from conscious movement, but from a “no-swing swing.”

So, to run like an elite, don’t run like an elite! 😊