Danny Dreyer
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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Exercise & Fitness -> Running & Jogging
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Exercise & Fitness -> Injury Prevention
Subjects -> Sports -> Individual Sports -> Martial Arts -> Taichi
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 88
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
good ideas, but very poor presentation 2 out of 5 stars.
4 of 6 people found this review helpful.
this book starts out with a great premise -- that by learning to run more efficiently you can avoid injury and run longer and faster. that's undoubtedly true, and I am sure danny dreyer is good at teaching people how to do so in his courses, judging by his success and the testimonials he gets. but it is hard work putting the ideas in this book in to practice.
the main problems with this book are its poor organization and poor presentation of ideas. its organized more like a a set of notes than a manual, and despite its short length, contains a lot of long winded passages that don't impart a lot of information. too many of the sections involve instructions to get up and do something, rather than concise explanations of what he means.
really the book should have been broken into a series of lessons and exercises in chapter format, but halfway through the book he just dumps the entire technique on you, leaving it to you to figure out how to internalize all this stuff.
but beyond that, the techniques themselves seem poorly organized and explained. the author's grasp of tai chi theory is kind of sketchy, and his "chi principles" really ought to have focused on more universal concepts than the ones he chose. he doesn't give enough practical tips on developing body awareness, and there's almost no discussion of breathing, despite the fact that it should be central to the technique.
danny dreyer also doesn't seem to have a very firm grasp of the biomechanics of running. he tells you to use your hip flexors instead of your quads to run, but doesn't go into any detail about how that is possible. he says things like "swing your legs to the back" without realizing that different people will interpret that to mean different things. and there is very little discussion of what it should feel like on the inside when you do the techniques, or how exactly your core muscles contribute to running, which is the cornerstone of the system.
the problem really is that danny dreyer seems to be a visual learner and kind of a type a person, and doesn't understand that other people don't think the way he does. so he explains what it looks like to practice his technique, and gives you long to do lists for learning the form.
he also presents a one-size-fits-all explanation that doesn't take into account the fact that different people have very different bodies. for instance, his technique presupposes that you have an anteriorly-tilted pelvis, whereas I (and two or so billion other people) have a posteriorly tilted pelvis. so by engaging my abdominal muscles like he says to, this pulls my body too far forward. what people with this spinal condition need to do is actually engage their lower back muscles.
that said, I think there is a lot that can be learned from this book. if you, like I do, experience a lot of pain when running, this book can give you some pointers of directions to go in for improving technique. read some of it, try the things out, and see how it feels. but let your own body awareness be your guide. slavishly following these instructions could be counterproductive.
finally, I think some of the most important points aren't even in the technique sections, but the parts where he talks about twisting your torso and how kenyans and cheetahs run. you might be better off skipping buying this book just studying the way kenyans, cheetahs, and little kids run.
I think danny dreyer does have a good technique, and this really could have been an amazing running book if he had hired a co-author who had a better understanding of how to write and how other people learn. as it stands, its as a running manual that resembles japanese stereo instructions from the nineteen eighties. you will puzzle over it for hours trying to figure out how all this stuff is supposed to work.
Editorial Review:
More than 24 million people run in the United States alone, but 65 percent will have to stop at least once this year because of injury. Still others will choose to run through the pain. But in this groundbreaking book, ultramarathoner Danny Dreyer teaches us the running technique he created to heal and prevent injuries and also to run faster, farther, and with much less effort at any age.ChiRunning employs the deep power reserves in the core muscles of the trunk, an approach that grows out of such disciplines as yoga, Pilates, and t'ai chi. This excellent step-by-step program offers training principles and is easily learned.
Dramatically reduce your potential for injuryMake knee pain and shin splints a thing of the pastGreatly reduce post-run recovery timeCreate a safe and effective training program Make running any distance enjoyable whether you're a beginning runner or a seasoned competitor
