Run Culture Podcast

Today on the Run Culture Podcast, I sat down with John Nicolosi (Head of Melbourne Athletic Development). John is an experienced Sprints coach of the MAD Track Team (which contains multiple National champions, as well as Olympic and Commonwealth Games representatives). He is an experienced Physiotherapist and was also a former sprinter himself! With a shared passion for participatory knowledge, John and I open the chat by delving into the importance of having 'skin in the game' when it comes to improving your perspective and knowledge in life. John then shares his insights into what distance runners can learn from sprinters biomechanically, before discussing the ‘Constrained Led Approach’ - a powerful technique for changing an athlete's running technique over time. Whether you're a running enthusiast or simply interested in the science of movement, this episode is not to be missed! I really enjoyed this chat with John and if you did too and are interested in checking out more of his work, go to his podcast: ‘Lateral Think’ or reach out to him at: Melbourne Athletic Development on all socials (including Tic Toc thanks @Mia Gross)

For those of us residing in a society that prioritizes; productivity, extraction, speed, and efficiency, this episode of the Run Culture Podcast is a must listen! ."....certain non-western societies don't use the adjectives; efficient, rapid or fast, as words to describe expert performance, they actually use words like; cautious, slow, attentiveness and responsiveness. These slower adjectives are used to describe what it means to be an expert hunter...." They understand the idea of uncertainty, they take time to attend to the rich contextual ebbs and flows of information in front of them and they patiently wait for the right moment to act. I chatted to Dr Carl Woods a scientist and researcher at Victoria University in Melbourne who enjoys exploring the concepts of; learning, knowing and skill from an ecological and anthropological lens in sport. We discuss: -That we live in the 'information age', where there is an excess of 'second hand information' everywhere, we have a test for this a test for that, a strategy for this and all this tech spitting out all kinds of data...Universities teach courses in siloed and reduced methods and reward an encyclopedic like recall of information as expertise... Yes, 'second hand information' can be useful...but I am also seeing a lot of un-embodied/disconnected and disempowered runners as a result. -The importance of 'inhabitant knowledge'.....which is gained through exposure and 'primary experience', this can't simply be replaced by 'second hand information' eg. what a textbook/test or Instagram post says. -Embracing 'uncertainty' and 'the wisdom of not knowing', 'Being prepare but not planned' -Slow down and attend to the environment around you, be a 'wayfinder'. -What defines mastery/a skilled performer or expert? ....the humility to say; 'I don't know' or 'I am unsure', openness, lots of exposure to a certain environment and context, to resonate with their surrounds, to 'look, feel, hear and smell' better, to know what to pay attention to- what to 'stretch towards' and when to 'wait' and be patient.

‘Thinking, through making and doing’ vs ‘Making, through thinking and doing’  “Making through thinking is when a person starts with a fairly formed idea of what the final product is going to look like and then they work towards ‘matching’ that product in their mind to what they actually create. However, it is suggested that the more skilled craftsperson actually ‘thinks through making’ so they think while they're making, they don't start with a fully formed idea and then simply work towards passively creating what it is, it emerges through real perceptual alignment with the ebbs and flows of the materials that they're working with.” -Dr Carl Woods Today, I chat to one of the Run Culture Owl athletes I coach; Pete Dutton. It's his 5th appearance on the podcast, so if you enjoyed hearing his story then be sure to checkout Episode: 26, 25, 15 and 89. In this episode Pete reflects on his recent 5000m PB and how it emerged through becoming better attuned and aligned to his own ebbs and flows. “I think it's funny when you look back at it, it’s not like we definitely knew and that's running for you, there's no definites, you just got to keep trying and this is one of the seasons where you just got it right. You have tried a lot of different ways and and we've learned because of that…..It's hard to like single out one thing. Sometimes, it just seems like we are never going to have the result we aspire, then some sometimes you just sort of get a glimmer of hope and things start to click and we certainly had a season like that for you!”

Today, on the Run Culture Podcast I was incredibly fortunate to chat to Shawn Myszka.  Adhering too tightly to an idealized model can hyper constrain one's ability to adapt to a dynamic world. Many runner's would benefit from having more 'exploration and play' in their practice. This can enhance the; variability, creativity, ownership, authenticity and adaptability of one's actions.  Over the past 14 years Shawn has worked exclusively with over 100 NFL players as their; 'Movement Skill Acquisition Coach'. He runs an educational group called ‘Emergence’ ( www.emergentmvmt.com) that produces fantastic courses and blogs about the complexities of learning motor skills. He is also known as 'The Movement Miyagi' on twitter.  Thanks once again Shawn for an enlightening and enjoyable chat that many runners will benefit from listening to!

Today I chatted to Pete Dutton, one of the Run Culture Owl athletes I coach. It's another authentic and honest chat as he details how his athletics season has progressed so far, what he is working on and what an enlightening experience he had at, 'Falls Creek Altitude training camp' recently. Pete, has come off the mountain, in career best shape but more noticeably the biggest changes have happened off the track!!!! He seems to have grown up a little, matured a touch, seems to be a little happier, seems more open to trying new things and keen for 2023 to be full of adventure!  Athlete's are complex puzzles, there are lots of moving parts, and as you have seen with Pete, the stuff he has worked on 'off the track' has helped his performance just as much as the stuff he has done 'on it!' For those that fear failure, let's start to once again embrace and normalise trying different stuff, getting ugly and throwing yourself amongst it! We are a generation laced with fear.....A fair share of us have forgotten how to embrace the beauty of not knowing everything, being open to let life pan out a little. We should cherish imperfection, failure and mistakes as opportunities to challenge ourselves to reflect/grow and learn! Enjoy this one fellow runners! I hope you can all relate with Pete's story in some way and it helps you reflect.

I encourage all keen runners to listen to these 'athlete-coach' catch up episodes. Anecdotes and story are some of the best ways to relate, reflect and learn about your own running journey. This chat is full of honest, substantial and real discussion, between two runners that love the sport and are trying to master their craft. Today, I caught up with Peter Dutton one of the athletes I coach to reflect on the last 6 months of his running journey. It’s an authentic athlete and coach reflection about; the ups, downs and learnings for the year. We also discuss how the rest of the Run Culture Owls went at the recent Vic Milers Club 3000m event and Open Victorian 5000m Track Championships. If you enjoyed this chat be sure to follow Pete’s journey @petedutton_runs and the rest of the Owl squad @run.culture. Anyone after some running injury advice be sure to book an in person or online physiotherapy appointment with Dane through the link in the bio or www.runculture.org

On this episode of the Run Culture Podcast I had the privilege to chat to Austin Einhorn, a prominent Strength and Conditioning Coach that uses human evolution as a guiding philosophy.    ‘….Humans evolved distinct movement patterns and profound skills over hundreds of millions of years…Each human has their own evolution too, from child to adult, and during this time are finite windows of opportunity. If they invest into them, they get robust ligaments, tendons, and bones. If they don’t, the risk of injury skyrockets.…’   Austin is owner of Apiros gym- where he practices this evolved approach and is also author of a soon to be released book: The Evolved Coach- the extinction of injury and evolution of performance.    In this chat Austin discusses:   -How many modern day humans have devolved their movements?  -What 'movement banking' means?  -Why rock climbing or hanging movements could be useful practices for runners to investigate and experience?  -The complexities of skill acquisition and learning in reference to running technique.   Thanks for the super enlightening chat Austin, I really enjoyed it and I’m sure many others will too! Be sure to follow Austin on Instagram here: @apiros.team and get his soon to be released book at: https://www.theevolvedcoach.com/book

Today on the Run Culture podcast, I chat to the host of one of my all-time favourite podcasts; Joel Smith. Joel is the host of, The ‘Just Fly Sports Performance’ Podcast, he’s also the author of a book called; ‘Speed Strength’ and is a very experienced S & C Coach. Joel is driven by an intense desire to learn, he cares about the truth, he is ever curious, open and creative, he goes beyond the science, he isn’t afraid to acknowledge the; ‘art’, ‘soft skills’ and ‘difficult to quantify’ parts of human performance. 1.) Today, we discussed the idea of overcoaching… “….I think any coach who's had children and watches them …..you start to realize how well humans are wired to solve movement problems and it's more about removing things that mess us up than it is programming things to do….” 2.) He defines coaching wisdom? “….Is it the fact that you can treat a human like a machine better than the other person? Not really… Wisdom is the intuition, that helps manage the complex really well with simple story…..” 3.) He discusses the power of playing some pick up basketball or the like, to warm athletes up…. “….the human body is not a car, it is not a rocket, it is not an alarm clock we are so much more complex than that……..and that's the thing, people don't want to use basketball to warm up because it is hard to quantify …..it's social, it's emotional, there's reaction, there's present mindedness, there's flow states and it's fun, it's complex.” 4.) We then delve into the complexities at play when it comes to ‘running technique’. Here Joel shares how he works with his runners. He discusses his view on running drills and cues. He discusses how important; physical capacity, dynamic awareness, rhythm and falling are. Thanks again Joel, really enjoyed this chat! If you want to listen to Joel’s podcast/check out his book; ‘Speed strength’ or course; ‘elastic essentials’, be sure to go across to his website at: https://www.just-fly-sports.com/

Rafe Kelley has spent much of his life moving and promoting movement. Rafe is the owner of 'Evolve Move Play' and has an amazing philosophical and experiential grasp of movement. He has been involved with many different martial art forms, has been practicing parkour since its humble beginnings and is a huge natural movement advocate! His 'Evolve Move Play' podcast and views on movement have really expanded my perspective. In the health and fitness industry, all too often movement is abstracted into components of fitness. Gyms are often highly contrived environments. There is a bias to focus on all that can be measured but as Rafe says; 'not everything that can be measured is neccessary and not everthing that is neccessary can be measured'. Yes, there is a time and place for; measuring, doing isolated exercises and controlling the environment but thinking 'this is the only way' is self limiting. Sometimes we should 'just move in nature'! Why? Well, from an evolutionary standpoint, before 'the comforts of the current age', there was a time where if you couldn't;  run, climb, swim, hang, wrestle, crawl, throw, dance; you wouldn't survive. As humans we were designed to do all these general physical skills coupled with our natural environment. So, let's try some of these meaningful human movements. Perhaps overtime it helps you better couple how you perceive the environment with your movement, your rhythm, timing and co-ordination? Perhaps it challenges you to do potentially fear evoking/fun/challenging/playful things that you normally wouldn't do? Perhaps it helps push you towards better functional athleticism rather than being able to do a meaningless lift in a very controlled environment? Thanks for the enlightening chat Rafe! If you want to hear more from Rafe Kelley be sure to go to his website: About Rafe | Natural Movement Training | Evolve Move Play 

Today on the podcast, I chat to Jon Marcus an established and extremely well-versed distance running coach from the US. Jon is co-host of the ‘On coaching podcast’ with Steve Magness, this is one of my favourite running podcasts. Jon regularly questions the status quo, his blend of science, art, history and openness has been a breath of fresh air for a young running coach like myself. Besides; 'we don't know what we don't know.' Throughout the years Jon has coached hundreds of athletes, read thousands of books (his home book library is exhaustive) and has had some amazing mentors/friends and influences in the running world, including; Rob Connor, Jerry Schumacher, Alberto Salazar, Steve Magness, Mike Smith, Dan Mackey etc… It was a fantastic opportunity to chat to Jon today and pick his brain. I have been a member of his online run coaching scholar program for the past year now, this experience has well and truly helped broadened my perspective and the way I approach running/life. Today we talk about; -Why do we gravitate to linear/dichotomous ways of thought? Why is it important to keep reminding ourselves that the world is complex? -Why is it important for runners/coaches to always remain hungry to learn? -How important is individualisation/personalisation in running? -We bring into question,  the ‘mileage obsession’ in the distance running community. -and finish with what Jon learnt most from his experiences with; Alberto Salazar, Jerry Schumacher and Rob Connor? I hope you enjoy this chat, I hope it gets you to question your processes, I hope it garners a thirst to learn more and never stop learning. If you want to hear more from Jon, be sure to listen to his on-coaching podcast with Steve Magness. Thanks once again for being so generous with your time Jon!