Testimonials

“I took part in a “Natural Running” weekend in the Lake District under the tutelage of John Woodward. By the end of the three days, I’d conquered stony trails, sticky mud and hard, rippled sand, and my newly spread toes were wriggling with joy. After that, I took my running shoes off wherever I could get away with it.  I’ve also stayed injury-free and improved my personal-best times over 10 miles and half-marathon distance since then.”

Sam Murphy – Observer Sport

John encouraged us to think about flexing our toes, opening our ankle joints, not over-reaching and quickly bringing our foot through. I could see that everyone looked like totally different runners. Shoulders, back, necks extended, no bobbing up and down, smooth economical striding and definitely no heel striking.…  learning what natural running feels like and thinking about that feeling every time I run, I’ve become a more efficient and less injury prone runner.

Nik Cook, Ultra Fit

A natural barefoot runner is poetry.   Skilful barefoot runners lift the toes and drop the ball of the foot in a natural arch to strike the ground with their leg underneath them rather than striding out in front.   Shoes off, we run on spongy turf, squelchy mud and firm sand, with a splash to round things off.  I’m soon leaping from tussock to tussock, throwing in a little cartwheel for luck.

Helena Pozniak, The Times

‘I enjoyed running in beautiful surroundings using different surfaces; meadows, grass, sand, unevenesss ..’

 

‘.. to inhabit your own self and use is a big deep thing….but that’s what makes this course different from things that just look at ‘form’ and much more special.’

 

‘Because John’s thoughts evolve, it means that I get some new thoughts every time I work with him.’

 

‘Totally exceeded my expectations.  Not only does John work on the soles of your feet but I came away a very happy soul’

 

‘I found John’s ability to demonstrate the specifics of the movement and mechanics of the feet and legs, etc. incredibly useful.  Generally enjoyed the openness of the teaching style and found that comments were always positive and constructive and thought provoking.’

 

‘Took me out of my comfort zone and gave me a completely different perspective that will inform not just my running.’

 

‘The teaching kept my attention throughout the whole weekend and left me wanting to know more and integrate what I had learned into my life straight away.’

 

‘The content of the course was full of useful information and there was space for us to try and put all these things into practise and to experiment with different tools’