Slowing Down to Run Faster: A Sense-able Approach to Movement

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

To run faster, better, and more efficiently, you have to learn to run faster, better, and more efficiently. Trainer and former triathlete Edward Yu shows you how to achieve the results you want with a new multidisciplinary approach. Why is it that trying harder to run faster can become an exercise in nothing more than futility When the tips, hacks, tricks, and "expert advice" lead to more frustration than improvement, it's time for runners who are looking to take their practice to the next level to seek out a new philosophy and approach. Despite training harder, running further, and pushing on for longer, the messaging serious runners receive doesn't always lead to the results they want. Drawing from Feldenkrais, Bagua, and Tai chi, Edward Yu--a trainer and former competitive runner and triathlete himself--offers an innovative approach to the art of running. Power, speed, coordination, and agility are all key components to achieving maximum performance, but in myopically neglecting the sense and sense-abilities of our bodies--how they move, what they feel like--runners have a tendency to over-rely on biomechanics, reductionism, and grit. Centering the art of running as an explorative, creative, and somatic-based practice, Yu shows runners how they can be better and run faster through sense and systematic, playful movement. Slowing Down to Run Faster highlights our over-reliance on and misuse of biomechanics; underscores that running is a sensorimotor skill that can be fundamentally and profoundly improved through piecemeal and meticulous exploration; describes the pitfalls of imitation and "quick fixes" instead of sensing from their own bodies; uncovers harmful reductionism that underlies most popular training approaches; and contradicts popular assumptions about how to most effectively improve efficiency. With bold creativity, insight, and humor, Yu illuminates a path forward for runners ready to try a new way.

Reviews

Rarely have I seen a book on running, in particular on running mechanics, actually hit the mark and make an impact on my coaching. Yus sense-able approach connects the dots for so much of what I have seen over the years when working with elite athletes. Improving running form is not a one-step or one-method process. It is a coming-to-terms with who we are as humans first and athletes second. This book rekindles our desires to explore, to play, and to expand our sense of self. Never have we needed this mind-body connection as much as we do now. The art of running should bring us joy, not injury. Slowing Down to Run Faster is here to show us the way.
Terrence Mahon, head coach and founder of the Golden Coast Track Club, and Adidas Endurance Coach

Edward Yu has done something quite remarkable by showing us how we can use the Feldenkrais Method to run better. If you do the exercises in this book slowly and with awareness, you will indeed run faster with less effort. More importantly, however, you will learn how your running can teach you about yourself and how you live. This, in turn, can transform your running from mind-numbing exercise into a practice that is healthy for body, mind, and perhaps even soul.
John Tarr, music teacher and Feldenkrais Assistant Trainer

Author Bio

EDWARD YU is a rehab specialist and former triathlete currently specializing in bagua, taichi, fitness training, and injury prevention. He has worked with members of the US Olympic Track Team and the Portuguese National Ballet. Yu's interest in how people learn and process information has led him to mix the disparate fields of sports, martial arts, dance, cognitive science, cybernetics, information theory, psychology, and political economy into both his teaching and writing.