Reducing your Ground Contact Time (GCT) is crucial for improving running efficiency: it means wasting less energy on braking and maximizing forward propulsion, allowing you to run faster with less effort.
- Efficiency, not just power, is the key to running faster.
- “Ground Contact Time” (GCT) measures how many milliseconds your foot stays on the ground with each step.
- A lower GCT indicates a more elastic and reactive motion, with less energy wasted during the braking phase.
- You can measure your GCT with modern sportwatches equipped with a heart rate strap or a power pod.
- Specific drills like skips, bounds, and controlled downhill running “teach” the nervous system to reduce ground time.
- Working on your GCT leads to a more economical run, which translates to more energy at the end of a race.
To Go Faster, You Don’t Need to Push Harder—You Need to “Brake” Less
There’s an instinctive, almost primal idea in the world of running: to go faster, I have to push harder. I need more force, more grit, more effort. It sounds logical, right? Yet, it’s an incomplete and sometimes even wrong-headed view. If you truly want to make a leap in performance, you need to change your perspective and focus on a concept as simple as it is revolutionary: to accelerate, you must first stop braking.
Every time your foot hits the ground, for a fraction of a second, you are inevitably braking your forward motion. It’s physics. The impact with the ground dissipates energy. The real challenge for an efficient runner isn’t to generate more absolute power, but to minimize the time this braking occurs, turning each footstrike into an elastic rebound, not a “landing.”
This is where one of the most important metrics your watch can give you comes into play—a piece of data that, once understood, will radically change the way you think about training.
Ground Contact Time: What It Is and Why It’s Your New Favorite Metric
Ground Contact Time, or GCT, is exactly what it sounds like: it measures, in milliseconds (ms), how long your foot remains in contact with the ground with every step.
Think of two balls. One is a rubber super-ball, the other is a slightly deflated basketball. If you drop them, the super-ball hits the ground for an instant and bounces right back up, returning almost all its energy. The flat ball “splats” on the ground, stays there longer, and its bounce is weak. It has dissipated its energy.
In running, your goal is to be the super-ball. A low GCT (for an advanced amateur, under 240 ms) indicates that your musculoskeletal system is reactive and elastic. Your foot touches the ground and, like a loaded spring, immediately propels you forward. A high GCT (above 280-300 ms) is a sign of a less efficient, more “seated” running form, where the footstrike is longer, energy is lost, and the braking phase dominates the propulsive one.
How to Measure Your GCT (and Know if You’re Improving)
Until a few years ago, this was a metric reserved for running labs. Today, thanks to technology, it’s on your wrist. Most mid- to high-end sportwatches (like Garmin, Apple, Coros, Suunto, and Polar), when paired with a chest heart rate strap or a power pod (like Stryd), can calculate your GCT.
After each workout, you can analyze the average data and track the trend across different phases of your run. Don’t obsess over a single number, but use it as a compass. Have you started incorporating the drills we’ll cover below? Great. Check if your average GCT at the same speed begins to drop in the following weeks. That’s the proof that you’re becoming a more efficient runner.
3 Drills for a Quicker, More Elastic Footstrike
To reduce your GCT, you need to “re-educate” your nervous system. You have to teach it to be quicker, to react rather than absorb. These drills, which should be done once or twice a week after your warm-up, are perfect for this purpose.
1. Reactive Skips
Forget the slow, high-knee skip. The goal here is quickness.
- How to do it: Start with a normal jog in place, then begin lifting your knees alternately to about a 45-degree angle, no higher. Focus on the speed of your ground contact. Your foot should almost “pinch” the ground and lift off immediately.
- Focus: Imagine the ground is a hot plate. Your goal is to touch it for the shortest possible time. Use your arms to create rhythm and stability.
- Dosage: 3-4 sets of 20-30 seconds, with 1 minute of recovery.
2. Alternating Bounds
This drill develops explosive power and elasticity.
- How to do it: Start with a short run-up. Push off forcefully with your left leg and take a long leap forward, landing on your right foot. As soon as you touch the ground, without pausing, “explode” into another bound by pushing off your right leg to land on your left.
- Focus: The goal is to maximize air time and minimize ground time. Think like a kangaroo. The movement should be fluid, powerful, and rhythmic.
- Dosage: 3-4 sets of 30-40 meters, walking back to the start.
3. Controlled Fast Downhill Strides
This is an advanced drill, so perform it with maximum caution.
- How to do it: Find a very slight and safe downhill slope (2-3% grade, no more). After a good warm-up, run downhill for about 80-100 meters at a speed faster than you’re used to, but while maintaining full control.
- Focus: Gravity will help you increase your cadence. Your job is to go with it, focusing on a quick, light footstrike under your center of mass. Don’t brake by landing on your heel; let your legs turn over quickly.
- Dosage: 4-6 reps, with a full recovery walking back to the start.
Less Time on the Ground, More Speed on Race Day
Working to lower your ground contact time is an investment. It won’t give you the instant gratification of a new 1k PR, but it will build the foundation for a lasting leap in quality.
A more efficient run is a more economical run. And saving even a fraction of a second of energy on every step, multiplied by the thousands of footstrikes in a 10k or a marathon, makes a huge difference. It’s the energy you’ll have left in the tank for the final kick, when others start to fade, and you will have learned to fly.