Basketball vs. Track vs. Mountain/Trail Running...PART 2

Part II

Form

Now let’s look at form. In both track and mountain/trail running you can view some of the most awful running form known to man. Even still, you will notice that even elite runners in both distinctions occasionally find success even with bad form/posture. Unlike the track athlete who must focus on speed the majority of the time, a mountain runner must take into account their ability to run fast on uneven terrain which takes a perfect uniformity of balance, focus and speed. Mountain runners must be strong in different arenas. A simple balance test between an elite track runner and an elite mountain runner will expose some obvious muscle balancing differences. To be a good mountain runner you without a doubt must have strong stability muscles, flexible tendons, and most of all, great balance. Balance is not as important on the flat surface of a track. However, it is not to be mistaken, it takes superb balance indeed to flux your fast twitch muscles to anaerobic debt and to continue past this point until lactic acid has consumed the deepest fibrils of your muscles.

It is at this point of anaerobic debt that you find the biggest differences in form. On the track, events are shorter and as a result, every meter becomes even more important than say a long mountain/trail event where a few bad foot plants or missed surges won’t hurt you too bad (depends if this is the World Championship or a random trail race). Track races call for better form due to this shorter/technical period of time compared to mountain running. However, if you take into account form over a long period of time say over a steep climb you will notice form in mountain running is more vital to overall performance as compared to form in a track event. Before a long climb late in a race your form is already revealing signs of deterioration. A steep climb for an extended period of time at this point will expose weaknesses in your form. I have competed in events in Norway and Italy where hiking form becomes vital to success. In a race where I was miles better than many of the guys in the field in a normal mountain race for example, not exceeding 30% grades too often, I found myself getting passed with ease on grades above 30%. Cross country skiers are great at this type of hiking because they are used to the form and strength needed in the trunk, core and also unique ability to use their arms to power through incredibly steep sections. Form in this sense is overwhelmingly predictive of your final result. If you have poor form in some of these types of races, no matter how much faster you are than someone, if you are inefficient you waste twice the energy on the same sections and thus, would need to be twice the runner of your competitors.

Now, to compare form of track to the form needed in basketball is a difficult task. Basketball requires what many coaches and athletes refer to as “touch”. The ability to glide the ball through your fingers at just the right effort and light push toward the goal for a nice entry into the basket. Some athletes in basketball have been known to have ugly releases. Most notably for me is Shaquille O’ Neal. His free throw form was horrendous and no coach would teach an athlete to shoot with such horrible form. I guess this is why his free throw percentage suffered as well. Look at a great free throw shooter like Kobe Bryant or Ray Allen. Great touch, great form and they are considered some of the best free throw shooters in the world. In order to be a great free throw shooter I can attest it took many hours of shooting and working on form more than just throwing up shots. Guys that are the best at shooting do not merely shoot the ball. They are perfecting their craft taking advantage of shooting coaches to enhance their form to make their shot more accurate. A good athlete may just shoot a bunch of shots in the gym, but a great one is working on form and also shooting a bunch of shots. This is not something that comes natural and one must work at it.

Even though there are many with great form there are also those with poor form similar to Shaq who excel. Rick Barry was known to use the “grandma” underhand technique for free throw shooting. He was good at it and obviously he perfected this unorthodox form of shooting. Another unorthodox form that excelled at distance running (track) was running legend Mark Everett. Let's not forget Gabe Jennings who also won many races with poor form. With that said, ultimately it goes like this, these athletes are not considered the "best of the best". They are great at what they do, but not the best in their field. This argument can even be taken to trail running. Some of the best trail guys have bad form, but the ones that are winning championships on a regular basis and competing at a top level internationally have above average form.

In conclusion, I feel that good form ends up being more a task when it comes to basketball as it is also more important for the majority of great basketball players to have good form i.e. shooting form and great ball handling ability. With mountain running you must possess form in multiple distinctions. Good form on the flatter sections as well as good form when the terrain changes either up or down. Track obviously requires great form as many seconds can be lost when comparing an athlete with good form to an athlete with poor form entering anaerobic debt in the latter stages of a race. The good form usually prevails. If I see two athletes really hurting coming in to the final lap, I will almost always put my money on the guy who has the better form during intense portions of a race. Form ends up being a bigger issue when one is holding a basketball. It just can't be overlooked that basketball is a far greater technical event requiring precision and fine tuning at a higher level than running in order to be considered "great". In running there are great athletes with sub par form, but I truly can't recall a basketball player with terrible form that I would consider the best or "great". I guess the same can be said about sprinting, but this discussion is focused on distance events solely.

On many occasions I have done races with guys who have far better speed than I, but on difficult terrain their form and speed aren't as dominant. This brings me to an idea I have had for years that great trail/mountain runners have above average form for both flat and altering terrain while track guys for the most part are below average in form for trail running and above average when running flat. If you had to grade it, I would say a great trail guy would attain an A-B for altering terrain form and about a C-B for flatter terrain as seen on a track. A track guy would have around an A-B for form on the track while scoring a lower C-D on altering terrain. I did a training run on some technical trails with a guy some years ago who was at the time a 13:15 5k runner. I probably was around 14:00 at the time. During the workout I noticed as soon as we hit the technical terrain his form changed immediately and he had bad form going up as well as going down. Due to this he was not able to keep up with me on the elevation changes and by the time the trail flattened out he'd wasted so much energy utilizing poor form that he didn't have enough speed to catch back up. This story can flip as well when you take a trail runner and test them in say an open 400 meter race. You would be hard pressed to find a great climber who can run sub 55 seconds. Between mountain runners and track runners I'd have to argue that form is more important for the off road athlete as they have to be good at a variety of terrains including flats.

Part 3 is coming.....