Author Malcolm Balk tells Robert Rickover: “The energy in the body follows your thought. When you have the thought of going up towards the head, they become live weight. They’re not dead weight. It’s the difference between carrying a kid who’s asleep and the same kid who wants to jump up and snuggle. The weight on the scale doesn’t change but the feeling of it is different.
“Runners tend to land at between three and ten times the body weight at every landing. Which end of the spectrum do you want to be on? When you make yourself dead weight and your feet are driving into the ground, you better hope the good Lord gave you some good connective tissue.”
“Running with minimum padding on your feet, you feel what is going on underneath your feet. I don’t need to run in minimal shoes. Through my Alexander training, I can feel and hear what my feet are doing on the ground.”
“You run like you sit. Are you lengthening or collapsing in the chair? Is your energy going up or do you feel like it is 5:30 pm on Friday? That energy and coordination in your body comes out when you run.”
Next interview: “The Alexander Technique is a pre-technique. It’s what you need to know to learn something else.”
