I am fresh when I go to buy new shoes so may be neutral, but is that really correct as my wet footprint would suggest overpronation?

Any ideas would help greatly!!

Sorry!

Mark,

Yes, really wish everybody could do the same thing with video. Even with a
regular digital camera that takes video clips it might be possible to get a
rudimentary look. Thankfully, digital cameras with high-speed capability are
now quite affordable from Casio, so hopefully we’ll see more of this type of
personal analysis in the future. Here’s one that is just over $100: the Casio
FS-10<http: b001otzr3g?ie=”UTF8&amp;tag=thviofli-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B001OTZR3G” gp=”” product=”” http://www.amazon.com=“”>.
Steve Magness reviewed it on his blog recently:
http://www.scienceofrunning.co…
.

I’d love to see a video of Haile G. running barefoot!

Pete</http:>

In my case I tend to overpronate roughly the same amount regardless of the shoe, although I think the level of overpronation on each foot varies depending on the type of shoes. I have never been filmed running barefoot though – I wonder what results this would show.

I would be interested to know the authors thoughts on this?

I actually have settled for shoes that are fairly firm, but that don’t have a great deal of support (adizero tempo) as I’ve found that anything that over-supports my feet gives me itb tightness.

The fundamental point that you raise – it’s often the shoes themselves, and the athletes pressure pattern in them versus the unshod runner’s natural gait – is unquestionably seen in the video of yourself running barefoot and with VFFs – versus several of the other neutral shoes.

Since you’re in the very small percentile of runners who possess a high-speed camera and an ability to perform this type of analysis, it seems to me that this demonstrates the importance of receiving a *good* analysis when trying on new running shoes – particularly when a runner decides to make a significant migration in their type of running shoe.

I’ve been experiencing ankle pain on the lateral posterial side of my left ankle (sort of behind the achilles tendon), especially when at the extreme range of plantar flex. At first I thought it was something with my achilles, but after reading this, I’m thinking it might have something to do with my running shoe.

I run primarily in the Brooks Green Silence, which is totally neutral, but rather cushioned. I find I overpronate less in the fastwitch 4s, but, like Pete, don’t love the raised heel on them.

While I love my Soft Star running mocs (love love love), I’m not up to marathon distances in them. I’m thinking I might need to try either the Lunar Racer or a minimal shoe with a firmer cushion and thinner sole for marathons.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

Seriously, though, this is a great discussion. I have been trying to come to grips with why i was able to move from highly stable shoes with orthotics to VFF without any ankle or knee or shin issues. Obviously moving to a forestrike is a big part of that but Anders’ comments here make complete sense and I can confirm such from experience. as i was easing from my old shoes to VFFs, i also eased out of my orthotics. i noticed that my ankles & knees were objecting when i ran in my old shoes without orthotics.

Depends entirely on what you want in a shoe. Those are both
lightweight with some stability built in, but have a fairly high heel
to toe offset. I used to run in the Fastwitch without a problem and
they worked well for me, but my current preference is for shoes with
less heel. I can’t say I’m doing better or worse because of the
change, just a personal preference. I think the point Anders is making
is that true racing flats rarely have stability features.

Pete

On Wednesday, August 25, 2010, Disqus

Your density theory is intersting, and makes sense. My local shop is barefoot-friendly, and adviced me to get the Vivobarefoot Neo, as they made me pronate less than e.g. Green Silence when landing forefoot. It made me think that cushioning is not necessarily a good thing. But maybe not as bad as it looks in your videos:

1: Couldn’t it also be that a stability shoe pronates slightly less than the actual foot because of the stiffer sole and heelcap, while as a more flexible shoe, as in flats, could pronate even more than the foot? It’s hard to tell from a gait analysis video how the foot moves within the shoe.

2: I pronate more when forefoot striking than heel striking, but I have no problems whatsoever with my knees. The main problem with overpronation, as far as I know,  is the inward twist at the ankles travelling to the knees (and hips). I would think that landing on a weight-bearing pronating heel, and landing on a flexing arch would be two different movements, thus different kinds of pronation? Landing forefoot the heel pronates because the arch gives and not mechanically under the full body weight if you see what I mean?

Any way thanks for a good post!

Although angle differences are quite small and hard to see it does seem that compared to me you have a somewhat smaller range of pronation in your barefoot gait, which probably helps when using cushioned neutral shoes, less risk to get pressure out to the side.