The new cushioned super shoes particularly the spikes help athletes with short tendons and long calf complexes more so than athletes with long tendons and short calf complexes. Shorter tendons are more rigid and react faster but in a running context, longer tendons are more efficient and economical. The cushioned dragonfly allowed athletes with short tendons to hit the ground with intent and force that they wouldn't be able to in conventional spikes like a victory without accruing fatigue/muscle damage. Longer tendon athletes need to go through a longer loading phase to get the most energy return but this is only favourable in the marathon where paces aren't lightning quick. discuss?
Super shoes help certain leg somatotype more than others?
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Any studies to back up what your saying buddy?
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I have dragonflys. I'm not sure if I'm faster in the shoes. (I've been too injured to get in consistent workouts with and without them.) But I'm positive that I have less foot impact discomfort during and immediately after a hard sprint in the Dragonfly than in my traditional spike.
Spikes are mostly designed for midfoot strike. I personally think that the Dragonfly spreads out the peak impact time by a few milliseconds (see chart). Those extra millisecond attenuates the felt impact and moves the rebound effect more into the pushoff phase of the footstrike. (That's the downslope of chart below).
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