I was going through some videos I took last summer and came across an interesting one that I had shot of my daughter running toward my high speed video camera. The video below shows her landing on her forefoot on asphalt as she was running toward the camera – it’s filmed at 1000 frames-per-second, which is ridiculously fast. What’s cool about this video is that it shows how the fat pad under the forefoot compresses during contact, and how the toes spread apart. This is what barefoot runners call “toe splay,” and it’s the reason why I and many other minimalist-style runners like a wide toebox in our running shoes.
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University of Colorado Study Determines that “Running in lightweight, cushioned shoes is equally as efficient as running barefoot.”
Tackling The 10 Myths Of Barefoot Running: Article on Podiatry Today
Merrell and Vibram Announce New Minimalist Shoe Line
Runblogger Runcast #9 – Minimalist Running
About Peter Larson
I can’t see a video on this page? Has it been removed? x
Lost the video embeds when I migrated to WordPress, just added it back.
I am a physical therapist in Ohio and have become a little obsessed with natural (ancestral) foot mechanics over the past couple years. I am the father of four young boys ages 6, 4, 4, and 2. I see all the research on unshod kids and playing out doors, but I don’t see anyone discussing the relative loads shoes place on the youngsters bodies relative to their immature strength and body weight. I was recently at a nephews basketball game watching these poor 7&8 year olds running around with the equivalent of cinder blocks strapped to their feet.
I would love any information you might have equating a child’s shoe weight relative to body weight compare to an adults shoe weight relative to body weight.
Great site. Thanks for the posts.
Tony-
I’d love to see this as well, and I have made the same observation about giant shoes on kids feet. Unfortunately I’m not aware of any data on this.