quote:<HR>Originally posted by mrinertia:
Went for a gorgeous run this morning and had the honor of putting the first set of footprints in a light snow covering. On the way back in from my out and back, I looked at my footprints.
First off, they were in pretty much a single file line, which kinda surprised me. I had just sorta assumed that they would be almost shoulder width apart like they are when I am walking. I would guess that a "single file" stride would be the way to go, but can't really explain why I think that.
I'm slightly duckfooted; my toes point outwards a bit. Normal? Not? Anything that I should address or is it not big deal either way?
Did a pickup, just to see how it affected my stride. I was surprised that it didn't. Footprints were no further apart or closwer together. Toes still pointed outward about the same amount. <HR>
As Figbash said, when you try to stand on one foot, your foot comes directly under the Center of Gravity. That's where you should land. This is actually an interesting observation because this is pretty much the reason why we all pronate more or less. Our legs come out from the "outside" the C of G (hip width) and it lands toward the middle lane; this means some sort of torque would be created as you land; hense your foot rolling inward slightly. You see, pronation is a natural movement; it's just a matter of degree--some pronate more than others depending on various reasons.
I just saw another post done by Figbash and I like what he has to say. However, I don't quite agree with this pronation deal. Most people will have their footprint with the toes pointing slightly outward because (a) even though all the toes are supposed to "grip" the ground as you "kick off"; big toe is the main force; in other words, the ideal foot plant is the straight line from the center of your heel and the big toe aligns the direction of your run and this puts your foot pointing very slightly outward; and (b) particularly if you run somewhat tip-toe (mid-foot landing), the extra torque will be created because your leg is attached to the back of your foot (some may call this "ankle" ;o)) and it's pushed forward as we land because of the momentum. Because we usually land, if you land more or less mid-foot, outside the ball of your foot due to the leg coming from the outside of C of G (gee, am I making sense at all???), the torque would push the heel inward slightly, causing the foot to "point out"... Okay, I'm getting confused myself. The point is; landing on one line is normal and actually probably a good thing. Feet pointing outward is normal as well. It's very good that you're paying attention to those things. That observation habbit will pay off someday (someday...! ;o)).
Now, however... There's a school of thinking nowadays, particularly among sprinters and sprinting coaches, that so-called "two-line" running is a better technique. This means you will land directly under...well, let me think about how to phrase this... So left foot would land directly under where left leg comes out from and right foot lands directly under where right leg is attached to the hip bone. If you check the footplant of elite sprinters of today, they would make two lines. Japanese sprinters are big on this and I've got a half a dozen books on this topic (from Japan) but I haven't quite grasped this yet. You can attend any sprinting seminar today and I'm sure you'll hear about this. How this would actually be applied to distance running, I'm not sure. This is my next to-do list, I guess...
