Teenager needs running coach to help on 'form'

[Anonymous]

I’m a runner and have coached at a small D3 university...a lot of form issues can be helped with strength training, like others have mentioned. The rest of it, from when I was an XC runner to when I was a coach, I’ve always just addressed with drills.

It’s very difficult to try to override your natural form and stride every day, for runs that are long (by that I mean anything 2 miles or more, especially for a new runner). Drills are the way to learn how things should feel and an easy way to incorporate form training day to day.

There are a lot you can find on the internet—the basics like high knees, butt kicks, skips can be helpful, etc. For arms my coach used to have us hold rulers in each hand and we would just sit on the ground and swing our arms with the rulers to work on a better arm swing. All of these things are short and can just be tacked on to any other kind of workout.