Sunday, September 23, 2012

Champions Everywhere - Natural Running Course

In July I was lucky enough to attend a course held by these guys when they came to Cork. Rene Borg and Jason Kehoe decided to get the best people they could so that they could truly offer a course that could eliminate injury and get people running with the correct technique. So they went and found Tony Riddle and Ben Medder from Gloves Boxing Gym in London. Both have years of experience of teaching natural movement and it showed right from the start.

The day started with a meet and greet and with Tony finding out a little bit about our history of running, what injuries we may have had, and what we wanted to get out of the two days. We were then videod while running on a treadmill so that Tony could get a first look at our versions of running! Needless to say we all had things we needed to work on. We watched this footage back and then got to work on our own individual "issues". We were armed with drills to increase flexibility and improve the elasticity of our muscles and tendon and most importantly, we were shown how to properly allign our posture before beginning a run. Poor posture will obviously have a negative effect on how someone runs so there was a lot of work done on this.

Day 2 started early as I had invited Rene, Jason, Aoife, Tony and Ben for a run in my local forest, before the course got underway. This was really enjoyable and it was a pleasure to watch Tony and Ben as they moved effortlessly over the ground. Their technique belied their non running backgrounds but it was also clear to see that not only were they extremely technically proficient when it came to running, but their all round movement over obstacles or uneven terrain was also first class. It made me wonder how good they could be if they decided to do a spot of mountain racing.

The course incorporated some quadrapedal movement early on Sunday and Ben used his freerunning/parkour skills to great effect in this segment of the day. After this we moved on to some vaulting and barefoot runing before returning indoors where Tony took us through some running specific exercises and combined them in a circuit that made a good alternative to a gym session. There was further videoing on the treadmill and thedifference in everyone in such a short space of time was a testament to how good this course was.

Thank you to Rene for inviting me along and I wish Champions Everywhere all the best as they continue to grow the business and change people's lives for the better.


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