If you are a runner or have participated on a track team, I am sure you have done many different running drills. Some of the running drills were probably similar or duplicated some of the key actions that runners perform. Most drills however, consist of actions or movements that occur in running but which the runner does not duplicate in his running. Or they may be drills that have very little to do with what occurs in running.
However, running drills and doing drills religiously, as many runners do before each practice, does not ensure that your running will be improved or that you will have better technique for the running session. There are two or more major reasons for this.
The main reason why you’re running may not improve is due to the fact that what you gain from doing the drill does not transfer to your running stride. It may, however, transfer if you’re running technique already incorporates the action involved in the running drill. In other words, the drill can reinforce the actions that you already do and have mastered well.
If you do not have the action perfected anything you gain from the drill will not transfer to your running stride. The running drill does not allow you to incorporate new actions into your running stride. This may seem contradictory but it is not. Running drills are simply, as the name implies, drills to reinforce skills, not to learn new technical actions. They simply reinforce and make stronger the actions that you already have accomplished.
I have witnessed many runners go through a 20 to 30 minute warm-up doing various running drills but yet they hardly incorporate or use any of the actions involved in the drills in their running. They may feel warmed up when they complete the drills but it does not mean that they will have better technique or be able to execute better form running. To make the best use of running drills it is important that you first improve your running technique so that the main actions are well-learned and well-established. Then the drills will reinforce what you can do.
When you use drills to reinforce some of the key actions involved in running they will make you a better runner and will improve your running technique to a great extent. But if you do not have the technique, the running drill is usually a waste of time except for the warm-up aspect. But even here, doing drills is not the best warm-up especially if the drills are contradictory to what you do in your running.
Running drills can be of benefit when you are first learning or correcting your running technique. After you master the change then do drills to reinforce the change and to develop the muscle feel that is involved in the new technique. The key here is that you must first master the change or develop the ability to execute a particular action before doing the drill. Then the drill becomes effective.
For more information on improving your running technique and the effectiveness of running drills, see Explosive Running.