If you are keen and have queries, please contact Coach Rameshon at 9100 4369 or you can email him at m.rameshon@gmail.com or swift.rameshon@gmail.com. Please refer to website http://flexifitness.com.sg (for more information on him and his programmes)
By Rameshon
Bsc (Hons) Degree in Physical Education, Loughborough University (1992-1994)
Masters in Education (University of Western Australia, 2005-2008)
Hand Analysis - One of the way to run faster from my experience.
Recently, a number of my runners have done well when I arrested the problem of running with proper hand swing. This could be seen from two non-runners, Divya and Saranniya who came in champions in lower secondary and upper secondary Queensway School Cross-Country race. Divya came in first in the lower secondary section of the girl's race with a time of 13min 30sec while Saranniya came in first in the upper secondary girl's section of the race. The race distance was 3km.
A year back, Divya had a personal best time of 12min for 1.5km while Saranniya had a time of 16min at the start of the time trial. Right now, Saranniya has a personal best time of 6min 32sec in the 1.5km. All these took about a year to do. Both of these girls are not runners in the past.
With consistent training, these two runners have become fit. Saranniya has a personal best time of 10min 33sec for 2.4km. The reason for Saranniya's success is attributed to not waiting to achieve things. She knows that time and tide will not wait for any man. Rather than achieving when one is old, she wants to achieve when she is young. She was very consistent in training.
Coach perspective.
Training Cycle
Although a few things have helped these girls to attain good timing, I believe that the main component that had helped them was the training cycle that they have done recently - minimum input and maximum output. Of course, another reason for this success is attributed to the mother's support.
Hand swing, Gait, leg drill.
Gait is one of the reasons for people to do well in running. Swaying a lot will only increase oxygen cost which should go to running rather than to distracting the running movement through swaying, laterally, sideways and moving front and backwards. There are ways to correct this. I have been working on this a lot.
Leg drill is also good to do for one to do well. Anyone who neglects this will not be able to run much faster than oneself.
However, recently, I have noticed that the hand plays a dominant role in running faster and it has been neglected. Last year, I met Wilson Kipketer, Former World Record Holder for 800m, in Evans Road, Ministry of Education track. He told us the importance of hand swing. He showed us the correct hand swing that we used to do at Loughborough Athletics Club. He told us that the hand is of utmost importance in running rather than the leg movement. I reflected on this I agreed with him on this. My take is that if the hand start to work fast and with proper technique, the legs will follow suit. Correspondingly a nice stride will take place.
My experience in Toa Payoh Stadium.
A month back, I was watching people running at the stadium. Therefore the first time I found that the hand swing was vastly different among the individual runners. Some are doing it correctly while a number of them were running with a lot of hand movement that will increase one's oxygen cost. I was observing about 50 people running there and saw only a runner doing it the hand swing right, while two of the runners were doing near correct.
I was amazed when I saw this. I felt that if we sway wrongly, just for the hand swing, for 10 000steps for 10km, during the run, we will definitely lose some energy and it can be huge considering the total steps we need to cover for our run. My experience is that when the hand swing is corrected, one could run with a bigger stride.
That is where I realised that a good hand swing could give one an edge to a good running form and to get an edge in the stride. Speed of the run is equalled to stride rate and stride length. If the stride length is further, one will have an edge in running.
Note:
By Narayanan
Rameshon has taught in Hwa Chong Institution, plus several schools, and Republic Polytechnic as well. He has won many accolades and he was awarded Merit Award for 1991 marathon performance in breaking the national record of Singapore, at that time. He has made 22 male athletes do a marathon in sub-3hrs. He has made 7 female runners do sub-4 hours for the marathon, as well. He was inducted to the ‘Roll of Honour’ by the then College of Physical Education, organised by Singapore Olympic Academy, in 1998, for breaking the National record repeatedly 4 times, till he did 2hr 24min 22sec).
He also has a Coaching group and he trains them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm at Botanic Gardens. Those interested can call him at 91004369 for coaching assistance, to improve performance. There is also personal training that he does for many in a week. You can e-mail him at swift.rameshon@gmail.com.
