Knee Injury--Race Walking

I have done race walking in the past. I will say that TRUE race walking is hard. It's not very easy. A lot of people just walk fast and call it race walking.

REAL race walking involved going into the step with your heel leading a straight leg/knee. You then keep your leg completely straight, with no bend in the knee, until you are completely horizontal. As you start to lean forward your back leg bends and comes through. It then lands heel first and so on.

I actually took a race walking clinic for a weekend with Dave McGovern . He is world renound in the race walking community. That is how I learned the form.

Here is a website with more information: http://www.racewalk.com/HowTo/Introduction.asp

I will also say that as the years have gone on, some of the hip movement has been removed from the form. So it's not as herky-jerky anymore... sure there is hip movement, but it's not as exaggerated as it use to be.

Last year when I was really working on my walking form, I could do a 11 minute mile walking. My cruising pace though was around a 12 minute mile walking. A lot of people run that fast.

Good luck!

My Race Log

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Honestly, I probably gave you the most information you are going to get on this topic... on this message board.

I doubt anyone else on here has actually been committed enough to go to a race walking clinic and to learn the proper form. Very few people do race walking and even less actually know how to do it right.

Dave McGovern was one of the assistance coaches for the US Olympic team- and he's the one I took the clinic with.

Good luck!