

Michael Johnson
๐บ๐ธ Sprinter: 4x Olympic ๐ฅ 8x World Champion
What's the number one mistake I see runners make? So assuming we're talking about not sprinters necessarily but sort of recreational runners. And it's just crazy, as I'm kind of out for a hike or driving down the road and I see people running, not understanding the importance of symmetry and proper clean technique. When you see someone and they've got their rhythm going but their rhythm is based on the one arm doing one thing and the other one doing something completely different, that is a recipe for injury, and it certainly isn't efficient. And these are people who in many cases are trying to increase their mileage and they're just making it much harder on themselves. So symmetry is extremely important. And wasted motion if you-- the more you can minimize the wasted motion, the more efficient you're going to run, the further you're going to be able to run, and the faster you're going to be able to cover that mileage. For sprinters, the number one mistake I see is not necessarily in terms of technique and that sort of thing but lack of a focus on consistency. So many sprinters and coaches as well are focused on trying to run faster when they haven't been able to get consistent at one level yet. So consistency is the biggest advantage any sprinter can have. You can run consistently at whatever speed you're able to run and whatever you've accomplished so far, get consistent with that, and then start to focus on trying to push the envelope and run faster times. But you want to try to get consistent at whatever level you're at first. That is a huge advantage, those athletes who can establish consistency are the ones that usually are able to carve out a very good consistent living for themselves in the sport, but also able to produce their best performances when it counts at championships.