How to Decide Whether to Racewalk or Power Walk - Which is Right for You?

Race Walking has been an Olympic sport since the early 1900's, but Power Walking is another competitive option that has recently entered the walking arena. The rules are very similar, and both are judged events. The biggest difference between the two events is that you do not need to land with a straight knee on impact for power walking. The downside is that power walking tends to turn into running around a 10:00 mile (6:15 kilometer) pace and "loss of contact" will get you disqualified in a judged race.

At the filming of this video, the power walking community is still evolving, so if you are interested in entering a power walking race, be sure to reach out to the race director for updated requirements and standards.

If you'd like to do more research on either sport, the governing body for racewalking is https://www.usatf.org/ in the United States and https://worldathletics.org/. You can also find more information on technique requirements for U.S power walking at: https://uspwa.net/.

So which is right for you? The depends on a number of factors such as availability of coaching, time to train and your flexibility. If you have Olympic aspirations, you should definitely learn the racewalk technique. However, you don't have to be seeking the world stage in order to be a racewalker. The technique will allow you to go as fast as many joggers and there are many age group records you can go after throughout your life. Go to https://usatfmasters.org/records/ for more details.

Power walking is a great sport for anyone who has trouble maintaining the straight knee but loves to walk fast. However, if you choose to stick with power walking simply because you can do it faster than racewalking, consider giving race walking a proper try for a month or two. Once your muscle memory kicks in for the race walk technique, you might find that you prefer it. The bottom line is that it's a personal choice. Whichever you choose, Get FIT, have FUN, walk FAST!

Learn to Racewalk:    • Race Walk 101 - How-to and Learning the Ba...