If you are a runner or have participated on a track team, I am sure you have done many different running drills. Many of the running drills were probably duplicates of some of the key actions that runners perform.
However running drills and doing drills religiously before each practice as many runners do, does not ensure that you are running will be improved or that you will have better technique for the 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 the drill itself does not transfer to your running stride. It may transfer if you’re running technique already incorporates the action involved in the running drill. In other words, the drill will reinforce the action that you already can do and have mastered well.
It will not transfer if you do not have the action perfected. Then the running drill will not transfer into your running and will not allow you to incorporate the new action 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 teach or allow you to learn new technical actions.
They simply reinforce and make stronger the action that you already have accomplished. I have seen 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 were a waste of time.
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.
This 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 will be a waste of time. It can however, serve as a warm-up. But even here, doing drills is not the best warm-up especially when you do not have the ability to execute the actions in your running.
For more information on improving your running technique and the effectiveness of running drills, see Explosive Running.