Adarq.org

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl_b4jMrpAg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl_b4jMrpAg</a>

Interesting.. thoughts?

Relevant too: http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/forefootdominance.html

Well you can have the strongest hips and quads in the world, if the calves give out and the tibia collapses forward when you apply all that upperleg power into the ground, you're going to lose all that power and furthermore, that power will be translated into your knees since they are collapsing forward.

Interesting....

First thing I need to say is i didn;t watch the whole video so this is a half assed response... but some of the info and images were annoying me.

not sure if I buy what he is selling.  All high level athletes have these curved toes?  Is that because they are high level athletes or because they wear athletic shoes all day.  Look at a womens feet.  the ones that cram their feet into dress high heel shoes have curved toes.  The ladies that wear flip flops all day tend to have straight toes (no foot fetish, I just watch people move all day long).  Also looking at calluses is only half the story.  the foot is where the rubber meets the road.  literally.  but the engine comes around the hips.  so are the similar calluses the function of the foot or are they a result of the function of the hip muscles and their impact on leg swing and gait patterns.  In other words the foot doesn't necessarily dictate where it strikes and toes off (your calluses) it is the hip and core that mainly influence that.

Dwayne Wade lands on his heel, now I am not a big basketball fan so I have not analyzed his movement BUT the photo they chose you can clearly see that wade is about to change direction.  You do not change direction on your toes very well (not enough traction esp at full speed on the toes).  So to turn you need to slow down.  That involves braking forces and getting your COG behind your foot.  When we accelerate our COG is in front of the foot strike.  So Wade is slowing down and turning.  EVERY player in that instance would be heel striking.

I am not saying he is wrong but with an olympian, multi nba championship winner, all star, and probably future HOFer there sure should be a better photo showing wade heel striking during acceleration.

So foot function is important... Yes, We've been talking about it for years.  Broad generality here: You accelerate on forefoot, maintain speed on forefoot-mid foot, and slow down on heels (unless your name is reggie bush, then the rules go our the window)

I could make a video selling the foot and ankle as the key to high level football playing.  In it I could say that after evaluating a ton of NFL athletes that the commonality is they all have little to no ankle rocker (BTW this is true, it is a horrible weakness).  So is that why they are in the league OR is it because they tape the shit out of their ankles so they are basically walking around in casts 3-5 hours a day?  I could also say the key to being a lineman is having a flat foot (most do) but is that why they are in the league or because their foot experiences high forces and they weigh ~300lbs.  Most people around 300 have flat feet.  See what I am getting at.

Again i didn't watch the whole video and there could be some great info but...

alexv with the strong debunking.

I agree raptor.  Of course I have a bit of a WGF/Gait Guys Skew so the barefoot training, vibrams, and training foot function is not that new to me.  I wrote a series about it a while ago.  Loooong while ago.  The series was ripped off and turned into a book on amazon   I don't see too much new information in his material that Chris K, the gait guys, bosch and klomp haven covered. 

Basically you want a strong stable core, powerful glutes, hamstrings, quads, good foot function WITH ankle stiffness.  center your training around that and you should be fine.