Tiffany And Co runblogger

1. all runners, regardless of function, to begin with plant the foot at the external edge.

2. 100m and 200m runners initially contact high on the ball of the foot, which includes the joints with the minor toe (figure one over). 400m runners make contact with a bit further back again in the sprinters. nett calls this the “active or dynamic ball plant.”

3. 800m runners typically land along the length of the 5th metatarsal, with the heels and toes somewhat off the ground at contact (figure two previously mentioned). nett calls this the “metatarsal plant.”

4. 1500m runners land in a manner similar to either the 800m runners or in a manner similar to marathon runners – in other words, this is something of a transitional distance (figure two or 3 previously mentioned).

5. runners in events ranging from 1500m to the marathon contact “with the exterior edge in the arch between the heel and metatarsus (figure 3 previously mentioned).” emil zatopek was included in this group. nett calls this the “passive or static heel-metatarsus plant.” he found only one exception to this – one runner landed around the ball .

6. after get in touch with, the heel touched down in all runners filmed, even sprinters.

one question that arises from these results is how to translate the above categories observed by nett into modern foot-strike terminology? based about the drawings over,Tiffany And Co, i would suggest that the sprinting foot strike (figure one) is what we commonly refer to as toe running, or an extreme forefoot strike. the 800m to 1500m strike is what we now refer to as a forefoot strike since the heel does not make make contact with upon initial footpplant. the 1500m to marathon strike is probably what we now refer to as a midfoot strike since both the heel and base with the 5th metatarsal make contact simultaneously (this category might also include mild heel strikes, but it’s hard to tell from nett’s descriptions). the base with the 5th metatarsal is located about midway through the heel to the base with the little toes, and if you try to place your foot down so that it contacts at both the heel and this location simultaneously, you will see that contact is roughly along the entire outer margin of the foot.

based upon his observations, nett makes the following conclusions:

1. the sprinting foot strike allows for a fast pace, but is “rather energy- consuming.”

2. the “metatarsal plant” is intermediate in terms of strength requirement and is thus suitable for middle distances.

3. the “static heel-metatarsus plant” is an endurance gait since it requires the least energy per step, but it is not suitable for higher speed.

nett emphasizes that foot-plant is correlated strongly with pace, and he recounts his observation that when sprinters run in a more long-distance situation, they adopt a foot plant like that seen in figure 3 above. because of this, he cautions us to not make conclusions about the foot plant of individuals based on still race photos since a middle distance runner sprinting to the finish line will adopt a sprinter’s footstrike (he is a believer that only high-speed video can truly provide an accurate assessment of foot strike – personally, i agree).

nett goes so far as to say that “foot-plant evidently follows laws that lie exterior the person,Tiffany Engagement Rings Simulink - Simulation and Model-Based Design, that lie in the rate of running speed.” in other words, foot strikes that he observed were so consistent in the different events that the speed at which an individual was running was a better predictor of foot strike than any type of inter-individual variation. in contrast, other aspects of running form (trunk, arms, head, etc.) were so variable that “not even remotely can so uniform a picture be obtained.” he considered these other factors to be elements of individual style rather than related to speed or the celebration being run.

based upon all of this, nett concludes that “shifting (of foot plant) the runner does unconsciously; but he correctly adapts it quite instinctively and reflexively to the distance as related to the pace.” thus “arbitrarily interfering with the foot-plant of top-notch runners might therefore, be wrong because (sic) unsuitable.”

i find all of this fascinating because it provides a window into what runner’s did before the advent in the modern running shoe. unfortunately, nett was filming elites in the day, and it is difficult to compare these individuals to modern recreational runners. however, it does not seem that nett observed any with the overstriding, massive heel strikers that are so commonly observed in modern races (even sometimes among very high-level runners). as an example with the variation seen among modern runners, take a look on the photo below showing foot strikes of runners from mile 20 in the 2009 manchester city marathon (yes, that is a vibram fivefingers heel striker – he’s a friend of mine – his quads locked up and he had to stop and walk most from the last six miles after this photo was taken):