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Give it a try Liz, you won’t look back! Dive in to some of our other videos for more guidance. Really glad you found it useful! Roger

Really glad you’re feeling the benefit of it Christy & I’ve no doubt you’ll keep progressing! All the best. Roger

This: Free Speed: The art of descending FAST! - Sport Walking Top Tips czcams.com/video/alKbntLKdyY/video.html

It’s all about your climbing action & getting all your drive from your rear leg to activate your glutes. Your calves are still used but if your glutes are taking the strain then the pressure on your calves will be a lot less, unless there’s something going on with foot placement, like being on your toes with heels lifted etc. Best way to make the transformation is to get yourself on a slope, then slowly go through the motion of moving uphill & as your front leg moves to just in front of your body, focus on powering the rest of the motion with your glutes. It may take a while to feel your glutes working (glute activation generally can take a lot of practice) but stick with it & once you can feel the glutes working, you’ll be better able to drive your climbing with your glutes not your calves. Hope that helps! Roger

At the moment, as far as we know, there aren’t any, unless there are running challenges that welcome walkers, like we have here in the UK. Many of our ultras suggest you can “walk, jog or run”. There may also be fun or charity fundraising walks perhaps & although they may not be specifically aimed at Sport Walkers, they could present a challenge opportunity if the distance feels right to you. To be honest, it’s very early days with general awareness of Sport Walking & it’s one of our missions - to get more challenge events open to walkers but it’s probably going to take a while for event organisers to see the opportunity in their area. The only other approach would be to have a really good understanding of your pace potential for any given distance & to then just enter run challenges where you think you can finish within the cut off. Unless they explicitly say “no walking”, there’s nothing to stop you. It’s not ideal but it is a way of opening up potential if there’s nothing else in your area - if organisers see that people want to walk & can complete the course in the cut off time, they’ll start to open up to walkers because, let’s face it, there are more people who could walk these challenges than run in most cases, so it’s a no brainer for them from a sales point of view! Longer term, we definitely want to try & help open up challenge opportunities for Sport Walkers across the globe but at the moment we’re having to focus initially on our home territory. But any support or guidance we can give to anyone trying to get events to open up or even to start events themselves we’re very keen & happy to give. Hope you find some challenges you can take on where you are & if you do, let us know & we’ll add them to our database for reference. All the best. Roger

Hi! Everything has a purpose & in Race Walking, the arm swing is necessary to achieve the speeds you can achieve with Race Walking but below that speed all the power you need, all the speed, can come from your legs. If you think of it like two phases of speed - in phase one, walking normally, everything you need can be found in your legs & any extra movement, in this case swinging the arms, is effectively wasted effort. If your leg movement is effective, you can achieve all the speed you need with your hands in your pockets. When you reach maximum speed in phase one, that’s when the arms come into play & are essential to build further momentum to reach the speed that’s possible with Race Walking. Hope that all makes sense? If you haven’t seen it already, check out our video on why Race Walkers walk as they do, it’ll help explain it. All the best!

Glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, there are a lot of agricultural sections but Farley Mount’s always a treat. I think you’re right about the Romans but I can’t verify it either 😆Cheers

​@@sportwalkThank you​

Hi Ben. I don’t have any personal experience of them & I guess a lot will depend on personal preference & also ‘socking strategy’ (if such a thing exists 🤣). I can see big benefits if you just use a single sock layer but equally if the socks aren’t a perfect fit, I can see possible issues with blisters but that’s just me looking on & hypothesising, like I say, I don’t have any experience. I think if you double layer with two pairs of socks, it might be too much & too thick around the toes but I think for me, the key aspect would be ease of application. If you like to change socks in a challenge, they could be harder to put on & to get a perfect fit when feet are hot & sweaty. Overall, I think it all comes down to personal preference, as I’ve not seen any evidence that they are categorically better than a normal sock, just as I’ve not seen anything to suggest they’re worse. Which I guess is a good thing right? Leaves everything up to individual choice. If you try them I’d be interested to hear how you get on & your experience.

Thanks! We’ll check it out 😁

Thanks for sharing your experience, it’s really useful to know how our techniques might help, as we’d never have known! Hope it does work for you & that you continue to improve. All the best. Roger

🤞We hope it helps too & do let us know how you get on! 👍

I’ve only skimmed through a Google preview, I haven’t read the book but it seems similar in its understanding of the power & potential of walking, as well as the benefits of adapting a technique to get the most out of it. I guess the difference really is in the objective & the application - with Sport Walking, the ‘technical’ aspect we teach is purely to enable better performance, whereas because Chi Walking is aligned with Tai Chi, there are different motivations. From what I’ve read though, there are overlaps in a number of areas & also, I believe that for fitness alone, it’s likely that if you were to follow the Chi Walking approach, you’d likely achieve the same fitness results as with a Sport Walking approach, it would just be a different journey. I’d like to have read more about the ‘hiking’ chapter but that wasn’t in the preview, so I may get the book to check that out. At the end of the day, the fundamental thing is the understanding of the power of walking (all too often overlooked) & that’s something both Danny & Katherine & I are completely aligned on! Thanks for highlighting this. Roger

Thank you so much for your answer. I am practicing your power walk technique. It definitely helps!

No problem 🙂

Glad you enjoyed it Craig! Yeah, injuries are always a struggle aren’t they. Doing something different like cycling is a wise move, so you can keep active & get a training benefit but you’re less likely to aggravate the injury. In terms of strength & conditioning, I tend to focus on strength work mainly but then I’d do specific conditioning exercises as advised by a physio for any injuries. We’ve got some strength moves in training videos on the channel but it’s a good idea for us to look at doing something on this, so we’ll add it to the feeder list. Cheers. Roger

Thanks! Really glad you’ve found it helpful. You’re so right about run/walking & wise to do it yourself! We’re big fans of it for Sport Walking training, both to complete sessions more quickly when time is tight & to add intensity. Good luck with your progress towards your ultra goal! All the best. Roger

Hi Christy. Doing this can help you feel the movement & how the glutes work in propelling you along but it’s only advisable to do this when you’re working to engage them & learning what it feels like, it’s best to try not to manipulate them generally. They should fire & drive your stride automatically when they’re activating properly. The best thing is to use the full range of hip movement & to focus on keeping quite a straight leg when it moves behind you. So, effectively, it’s the hip twist that’s bringing the glutes into play, rather than a clenching action, although if you clench initially as a part of this, you will feel the power more. It’s a bit of a complicated subject but I hope that makes sense & helps. All the best

Thank you for understanding exactly what I was referring to and explaining it back to me perfectly. This is a tremendous help.

Hi Ben. Sounds like you have long legs, so you’ll have greater pace potential but also scope for over striding (I’m the same). Your stride length should fix at the optimum length for you, in order to walk with a high cadence & it should remain the same for any distance. The only time it should change is when you’re climbing (shortens as the terrain steepens) or descending (lengthens as the terrain steepens). I think the best thing initially is to use a metronome or music to fix your cadence without trying to control your stride length but to settle on a stride that doesn’t feel like you’re over extending. Aim for around 132-135 beats (or steps) per minute. The whole thing with leg drive is to get that power into the early backward phase, so once that power’s been applied, there’s no need for your stride to go any further back. This means that you can have a short stride (even with long legs) & still get all the power you need to go fast. So I guess, in summary, focus on fixing your cadence first, let your stride length fit that (so it comes easy), then add power with your leg drive & that will give you the optimum stride length for you, regardless of distance. Hope that helps. All the best, Roger

Thanks for the pointers, Roger. I’m working on this using music but actually find pace slowing down slightly at 134bpm. My optimum seems to be 130-132. Perhaps my stride shortens with a higher cadence. Would you say the difference between 13min/mi and 12.5min/mi is just cadence change?

This doesn’t surprise me. When you first start working on shortening your stride & raising your cadence, your pace can drop until you’ve bedded in the new technique. The key thing is to be sensitive to how the higher cadence & shorter stride length feels. If it feels natural but your pace slows that’s fine. If it doesn’t feel natural but your pace holds, then it’s probably not the best cadence for you. It’s always best to take the cadence & stride length that feels natural, because that’s what it needs to feel like to work. Your pace will adapt to the new technique once it all feels automatic. When your new stride length & cadence is just how you walk all the time, you can build pace by tweaking your leg drive to bring in more efficient power transfer. Hope that all makes sense? Cheers

Hi! This is the best way to reach me, as I’m in the loop for all the comments on here. I’m not going to be able to help with this unfortunately, as I don’t have any space in my schedule for the next month at least. Are they training for a specific challenge? Our online ultra course is on offer until the end of February & that might help. There’s a discount code available here: sportwalk.net/my-first-ultra/ If that isn’t going to fit, we’re going to be running our first ‘Walkshop’ in the Spring & that would be an opportunity to look at stride length & cadence in person. The first one’s going to be an introduction to Sport Walking where we’ll cover all the basics of walking technique. Don’t know if this is any help & I’m sorry I’m not able to help next week. All the best Roger

Thanks Craig! Yeah, it might feel a little counterintuitive but the glutes are such a big & powerful muscle, that unless you’re really stressing them, you’re unlikely to feel sore. Leg drive can take a while to master & until you have mastered it, you’re not really going to be troubling your glutes too much, even if you’re getting them to activate positively, so I wouldn’t worry. Stick with it! 🙂💪

Exactly! As long as the tempo fits it’s good 👍

I agree, really interesting ideas and great channel

Thanks Alexander!

Yeah, that feels about right. I once walked with some music at 132bpm & that felt the best to me, so 130’s good. It can take a while to bed in a higher cadence, especially when you start to work on these techniques so don’t worry too much. If you can get yourself over 125 to start with, then just settle in with that for a bit, as your speed naturally increases over time, so too will your cadence & you’ll just find that sweet spot, where it’s high but it feels right for you. 🙂 The next Get Fit Walking’s been filmed, so it should be going to edit next week. I’d say end of the month at the latest but probably before then & hopefully sometime next week. Cheers

135, great tempo! Hope it works well on the road too! 💪

Ah, not sure in miles but my normal fast speed is about 7-7.5 kmh, with pace around 7:45/km. There’s lots of different elements that dictate speed & my speed has evolved over about 4 years, while all the time maintaining the same effort, so even though it may feel like you’ve plateaued, it could be you’ve found your optimum pace for the time being but keeping on doing what you’re doing will bring further speed increases over time. Toe kicking could just mean that you want to lift your foot a little more at the end of the leg drive phase. Hard to say for sure but one of my athletes had a similar issue when she was working on her leg drive. It can also sometimes mean there’s an over extension, so maintaining the power with the glutes but lifting the foot a little earlier can help prevent scuffing.

Thanks! Yes, it is a bit contradictory that I’ll admit! In essence the intentional part is to help embed the movement. Like that 10,000 hours muscle memory thing. So doing it intentionally eventually leads to it becoming automatic and natural. In that respect, if you don’t intentionally engage your glutes to start with you may feel like the drive isn’t as effective but interestingly once you understand the movement and know what it does you tend to walk more effectively anyway, even if you haven’t perfected the technique. It’s like once you know, you know. It will take a while to perfect and for it to become automatic but in the meantime, while you’re working on it, it’s likely that you feel like your walking style is more effective than before. Hope that makes sense? I’d recommend concentrating on intentionally engaging your glutes whenever you walk for a few weeks and you should start to notice it becoming more automatic. Best of luck with it. Roger

Thanks Ruben, glad you’re finding it useful. All the best. Roger

Tricky one if that’s your only option. We train on the same roads around our neighbourhood all the time & it’s hard to refresh it, so we just focus on observing what’s going on that day & keeping in mind that we’re doing it for a purpose & being outside is better than a treadmill in the gym. If you can swap directions & also change up the different side roads you go down that gives a little variety too. Listening to a podcast or music is another distraction. Hope that helps

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