Product Description

Although running is becoming one of the most popular sports, learning to run properly can take time, energy and consistency. You need to do it regularly to become good at it and until you have achieved a certain level of competence, it is unlikely that you will enjoy it very much, or for very long. For many runners physical and mental barriers can stop progress. This book's ultimate aim is to help you enjoy to run - to enjoy the feeling of movement, to overcome inertia, to renew yourself and to boost energy as a result. The Art of Running is based on the proven principles of the Alexander Technique that encourage good body use and greater awareness of the way your body functions and moves. The technique teaches you how to release tension from you back and neck and how to run without suffering from injuries. The authors' perspective on the sport takes them into areas rarely touched on in conventional manuals. Instead of placing importance on speed, targets and goals it emphasises the importance of the way you run so you can transform you training and performance.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #154229 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

About the Author
Malcolm Balk is a qualified Alexander Technique teacher, specializing in working with runners of all standards. He lives in America. Andrew Shields is Sport and Fitness Editor of Time Out magazine in London. He has twice been a runner-up in the British Sports Jounalism Awards.

Customer Reviews

An inspiring and imaginative approach to running.
So many of us think we know how to run well, but in fact run extremely poorly. This book was a revelation to me. I have run for about ten years now, and the Art of Running opened my eyes to several of my faults. It's not easy to correct them just from reading the book, but it has given me pointers towards what I should be doing to improve my technique. I like the style of the book: the personal testimonies are inspiring and show just what Alexander Technique has to offer, while the tone is light-hearted but practical without too much jargon. There's a similar book on swimming, The Art of Swimming, and the two are similar in that they encourage you to think about the activity rather than just perform it mindlessly. For any runner who is stuck in a training rut, or suffering a lot of injuries, this is an excellent and thought-provoking book which might help them towards a more fulfiling future.

a provocative and valuable reference
I enjoyed the style - a mixture of people's own stories and experiences, specific drills and training sessions, and useful philosophical background. Its a challenge to capture the subtlety of the authors' message in words, because both running and the Alexander Technique are all about personal, kinaesthetic experience. Still, there's more than enough value in this book to improve the quality of anyone's running if they put Balk's ideas into practice.

Some good ideas with which to work.
The previous reviewer seems to have missed the point that it is almost impossible to improve one's running just by reading a book: has she ever tried to learn to dance better from a book? There are plenty of ideas to work with but they will only really make sense if you have Alexander lessons - to quote from one of the letters: ".. if you want to explore the ideas in these pages you will certainly need a teacher to help you". The letters are encouraging in that they show what benefits (in many areas, not just running) people have experienced from taking Alexander lessons. I do not find the book especially well written (better to dip into it than to read as a whole), but there are plenty of useful ideas in it with which to work.