This PhD with Aaron Uthoff has challenged, changed and progressed my S&C big time, so much so that I have a healthy dose of backward motion in my every day activity – more to come on that one. So where did the motivation for this PhD come from? First, from an article by Cavagna et al (2012) and the real interesting observation that there was very little elastic storage and utilisation in backward motion. Second, Aaron and I were doing some yardwork (scrubbing gorse) and we were pulling a tarpaulin of gorse cuttings to the burn pile and we played with towing the tarp forwards and backwards. Very different feeling in terms of muscle activation and fatigue. So, the PhD began.

So this is one of the penultimate studies in Aaron’s PhD seeing how forward running compared to backward running in creating faster and more explosive athletes. I have put this Research Byte/ interactive infographic together for you on my free learning management system. Click HERE if you want to find out more. I think the findings will surprise you and might change how you train your athletes.