Explosive Running : Using the Science of Kinesiology to Improve Your Performance

Rating:
Summary: Why should you believe this guy?
Review: Yessis' essential claim is that pretty much everybody is running wrong. Yessis worked with Jose Barbosa "recently" (the book was copywritten in 2000). Yessis went through Barbosa's form and showed several things that were wrong. He then claimed, "...with technique modification, he would be able to run even better. These changes should assist him in his attempt to set a new world record in his fifth Olympic appearance." I looked up Barbosa and found he was a former 1:43 800m runner. In 2000, after working with Yessis, Barbosa ran a few 1:49's and 1:50's. After that the results disappear.
One of Yessis' success stories is "Henry", who did Yessis' exercises and then running became "effortless". No times are given for Henry. Also there is "a young high school runner" who Yessis trained for a track season. The runner "did well in the 100-, 200-, and 400-yard runs but still was not exceptional... The best time he had during the track season was more than eleven seconds in the 100-yard run." After doing more of Yessis' training, he went out for football and was timed by Yessis in 4.5 seconds in the 40 yard. I'm not really sure how this is a success story, but according to Yessis it is "outstanding". Of course, he never even said what the athlete's 40 time was before the training began.
Yessis continually points out the things that are wrong in highly-competitive runners' strides, but he doesn't provide a single testimonial or even success story from how one of these runners benefited from the "Yessis Method"
Yessis claims to be scientific and objective, but although he mentions scientific research from time to time, he cited only one paper, which dealt with barefoot running. With no testimonials and no data, there's no reason to bother listening to this guy.

The entire book is very unprofessional. The illustrative photos are of terrible quality. There is a note at the beginning of the book that the poor quality is because the photos were taken with a digital camera, which "captures motion better than any other photographic medium easily available today". What? These photos look like the were taken with a $30 webcam from Walmart. Even a mid-level digital camera could do better. The photos are big part of the book, you would think Yessis would take the time to do at least a decent job on them. In short, stay away.