I've seen many articles and comments here advocating a forefoot landing. Does that mean keeping the weight on the ball of your foot or something else? I've seen the phrase "midfoot landing," but that doesn't really make sense to me. It seems that you either are landing on your heel and rolling to your forefoot or landing on your forefoot and lifting off.
An ideal footstrike should be landing on the ball of the foot underneath your hips and then lifting your foot from the ground with the hamstrings to the hips. BTW- the ball of the foot would be the medial sesiomoid bones just behind the big toe. There should only be a short time on the ball of the foot in order to have 1 times body weight at impact vs 3 or more times body weight. If you would like to learn more about proper running technique checkout www.posetech.com . There is lots of information (free) that you can evaluate and act accordingly, there is also a message board there where you can ask question if you are curious. Good luck!
"An ideal footstrike should be landing on the ball of the foot . . . "
What a load of crap. The outside of the heel should hit first, then arch, ball and toes. If you land on the ball of your foot, the calf doesn't get a chance to stretch--it stays contracted. Tight calves can lead to achilles tendonitis and muscle tears.
PT in Eugene wrote:
"An ideal footstrike should be landing on the ball of the foot . . . "
What a load of crap. The outside of the heel should hit first, then arch, ball and toes. If you land on the ball of your foot, the calf doesn't get a chance to stretch--it stays contracted. Tight calves can lead to achilles tendonitis and muscle tears.
Since your foot is already dorsiflected your calf is already stretched.
PT in Eugene wrote:
"An ideal footstrike should be landing on the ball of the foot . . . "
What a load of crap. The outside of the heel should hit first, then arch, ball and toes. If you land on the ball of your foot, the calf doesn't get a chance to stretch--it stays contracted. Tight calves can lead to achilles tendonitis and muscle tears.
I'm not a pose-follower but I'd agree with most of Jhuffman said. The ideal footstrike is landing on the forefoot, not the heel. I know this example is over used, but -- go run barefoot and you see that you must land on your forefoot to run correctly.
Cyg wrote:
I know this example is over used, but -- go run barefoot and you see that you must land on your forefoot to run correctly.
I would advise taking it a step further. Wrap your heal lightly in a double sticky tape. Then roll it in crushed glass like the movie Kickboxer. This will show you the "real" way to run.
Just freaking run!!!! Let the foot take care of itself. Run slow, and you'll hit more toward the heel. Run fast and you'll hit more toward the midfoot. Sprint and you'll hit more toward the toes.
Alan
Exactly. Foot landing is a function of your velocity.
Just freaking run!!!! Let the foot take care of itself. Run slow, and you'll hit more toward the heel. Run fast and you'll hit more toward the midfoot. Sprint and you'll hit more toward the toes.
that won't do the job for some people, I ran a 4:15 mile in high school running on my heals. It took a lot of work to change that.
carla wrote:
that won't do the job for some people, I ran a 4:15 mile in high school running on my heals.
No, you didn't.
Foot landing is only partially a function of velocity. Almost all good runners will never make initial contact with the ground with their heal. The first part to make contact is actually on the outside edge of our foot, but then generally the foot drops to a midfoot contact. Even at slow paces, midfoot/forefoot is the way to go. Any good biomechanics article/book will tell you this. It's just way more efficient. That being said, at all speeds, even sprinting the heal will touch the ground, just not first.
wondering wrote:
Foot landing is only partially a function of velocity. Almost all good runners will never make initial contact with the ground with their heal.
That would be because they are RUNNING which is an increased velocity. Walkers land heel first. As your velocity increases, landing moves toward to the midfoot and then forefoot. Foot landing is most definitely a function of velocity.
PT in Eugene wrote:
"An ideal footstrike should be landing on the ball of the foot . . . "
What a load of crap. The outside of the heel should hit first, then arch, ball and toes. If you land on the ball of your foot, the calf doesn't get a chance to stretch--it stays contracted. Tight calves can lead to achilles tendonitis and muscle tears.
Looks like nobody told Geb, Bekele, Dibaba, El Gerouj, Coe, Cram, Ovett, .................
Foot fetish wrote:
wondering wrote:Foot landing is only partially a function of velocity. Almost all good runners will never make initial contact with the ground with their heal.
That would be because they are RUNNING which is an increased velocity. Walkers land heel first. As your velocity increases, landing moves toward to the midfoot and then forefoot. Foot landing is most definitely a function of velocity.
"Foot landing is most definitely a function of velocity"
Not quite, running very fast down a steep hill, heel striking will occur.
wati a minute wrote:
Not quite, running very fast down a steep hill, heel striking will occur.
If you run fast enough, it won't!
Did you see the Mottram training video?
Did you see the Kenyans doing their easy run?
Did you see any heel strikers?
Any at all? Even at slow pace?
Heel striking is neither necessary, nor desirable at ANY speed.
you can't accelerate down all of the steep sections of a hill if you are already running fast. I am talking about very fast running, not just steady pace. Heel striking can still occur at very fast paces downhill.
I disagree.
We are talking about running, not walking. AT ALL running speeds, the heal will not bang down on the ground first. I've watched kenyan elites run 9-10 minute pace and come down flat on their foot.
As the pace increases, the foot strike changes slightly. But we are talking about slight changes of where exactly the foot hits at some point in between midfoot and forefoot.
Alan,
I am sorry to disagree with your logic, however when I run I don't LAND with my body weight on my HEELS. Whether I am going at 8 min/per mile or less. I place my weight briefly on the ball of my foot, then I proceed to lifting quickly from the ground under my Hip. Again, I discourage anyone from landing with a heel to toe footstrike. I encourage every level of runner to practice proper running mechanics. As I have mentioned quite a few times there is tons of information at
to learn more about better running mechanics. BTW- I wish it were as simple as just go run. Good luck!