Sunday, August 28, 2011

Captain Barclay's Gait

I was reading recently about the amazing Captain Barclay.  His most famous exploit was the walking of 1,000 miles (1,600 km) in 1000 hours for 1000 guineas in 1809.  There is good analysis here.

I thought that the way in which his gait was described was interesting.  It is essentially POSE walking.


Walter Thom attributes Captain Barclay's pedestrian powers to his great strength and his walking style that involved bending the body forward to throw the weight on the knees, taking short steps and raising his feet only a few inches from the ground. (from here)

When walking, the Captain took comparatively short steps and had an air of leaning more than slightly forward. (from this book)

2 comments:

Chris G said...

I read a biography about him a few years ago by Peter Radford. Nothing like a good purge!

Chris said...

He was a fascinating guy.