Intro:  Gait analysis is how your body should move while running, walking, or sprinting.

Starter: Have one student demonstrate a walk, run, and a sprint. Have the other students pick out the teaching cues.

Warm-up: walk around half the gym, add high knee motion, add high knee with leg extension motion, then have students leap (bound)

Polyspot Gait Analysis

Set up about 10 polyspots close together (as the distance between each foot for walking) and have students walk next to the polyspots to get the idea of the stride length.

Spread the polyspots apart more (as the distance between each foot for running) and have the students jog alongside them to get the idea of the stride length.

Spread the polyspots apart even more for the last time (as the distance between each foot for sprinting) and have the student sprint alongside them to get the idea of the stride length.  Tell them they can start from further away so they can warm-up to the sprint stage.  If they are having trouble with the stride length, suggest for them to run on the polyspots instead of alongside them.

Recap and Review

Review teaching cues.  Explain that you had them count their strides on the sprint because it will later tell them how far away they should start from the take-off board when they do the long jump and triple jump.  Look out for this athlete in the upcoming Olympics: Salane Flanagan.  She is from North Carolina and recently broke the American record for the 10,000 meters. Flanagan is now titled America’s and the world’s fastest 10k woman runner. Her time was 30 minutes and 34.49 seconds.  (courtesy of ESPN)