Can you give an overview of what the book is about?

The following is an excerpt from a review on amazon, "What G. demonstrates is that walking is primarily a function of the spine, with the legs serving as high gear, rather than primarily a function of the legs. There is a striking example in the book of an unfortunate gentleman, born without arms or legs, who can walk (not that fast, I imagine, and with exaggerated torso movement). There are a great many other fascinating things in the book, as well as a lot of stuff that's way over my head.

If you can get hold of a copy of this book, and you're interested in how the body functions in walking and running, you'll find it very worthwhile."

Having only read the first two chapters I'm finding it quite difficult to give an overview of the book. It's not that I'm trying to be a pain in the butt, there are simply no words coming to me. I guess you could say I'm in the stage of being awestruck still. I realize this doesn't answer your question, sorry. I'll come back to this thread when I've been able to digest the book in it's entirety if someone else doesn't chime in first.

I haven't read the book, but I've known about this spinal reflex function of walking for decades now.

The important takehome point of is, is that it explains a lot of why spending a lot of time training run technique to change your gait is usually a waste of time compared to actually just running more. The spinal cord/cerebellum is specifically wired to find our optimal stride for our fitness (or lack thereof) and build. New runners with lousy run technique don't become smooth runners unless they ramp up their volume and speed.

It's totally different than swimming where we are NOT hardwired, and thus require lots and lots of training and reinforcement to find that efficient stroke which is typically not at all natural to humans. In fact, it could be argued that running is unique amongst the sports we do where the best technique just comes naturally as long as you put the time into training, without at all worrying about technique refinement.

For the record, this is not at all what I'm getting from the book thus far. I'm not trying to be pissy and argue with anything you have to say, but without having read the book, I get the feeling very few people could accurately guess it's content.

Why is this book so expensive on Amazon?

I imagine it's hard (sort of) to find out where the book can be bought, and it's target audience may feel it's indispensable. Therefore, those who have copies left try to sell it for a ridiculous sum?

I got the book for $100 from the author. He emailed me back personally and provided extra slides from an upcoming seminar as I mentioned I'm a high-school running coach. He has some stuff on youtube too, but of course not nearly as in depth as his book.