Run with Great Technique: Optimising Foot Placement
Transcript
The third key principal of great technique is optimising the foot placement. The foot is comprised of three sections , the forefoot, the hindfoot (or the rear foot), and the Midfoot. The drill I am about to instruct you around is a great way of training your body to get the landing on the midfoot region. This region here allows for maximum propulsion with the running gate, and also minimal or minimises the loading of the lower limbs.
The first position is to have the runner bounce on the heels. This is awkward and doesn’t feel pleasant. Do that 10 times. I’m then going to have Peter land right forwards on the very forefoot (like he is doing a ballerina point but not quite). Peter will do that approximately 10 times and then I want Peter to bounce back on the heels, back onto the toes, and then find that sweet spot in between them. Hands by your side, and just bouncing up and down. This is the sweet spot, this is the mid foot, and this runners, is where we ideally want to land. Now interestingly you can still have a concurrent mid foot and heel strike at the same time. In fact you can even have a heel strike, and still run very fast, but in my opinion if we are looking at minimising injury risks it is critical that the runner has a landing of the midfoot.
Yours in Running,
#runpainfree
Brad Beer (APAM)
Physiotherapist (APAM)
Author ‘You CAN Run Pain Free!’
Founder POGO Physio
