WARNING: What Im about to post might offend some people. Those who recognize their own behavior might be offended. Those who recognize how theyve been deceived, but arent willing to admit it, might also be offended. For the rest of our running community this is a public service announcement. Enjoy... I was recently handed a training manual. In its pages there is a section discussing running shoes. It states that a professionally trained expert can diagnose your running needs by examining the wear pattern of your shoes and which of the three foot types you might fall into. This is pure malarky. One of the first things we learned in the field of sports medicine is that as clinicians we can observe and assess but only Doctors are legally allowed to make a diagnosis. As for wear patterns on a running shoe, this is only partly helpful in determining if the shoe is the source of an injury. It doesnt even begin to explain motion of the foot, ankle, knee or hip when you are running, otherwise known as biomechanics. Pretending to read the wear pattern of a shoe is no better then a cheap carnival trick. Its used to give the appearance of knowing something that in reality doesnt exist. As for the three foot types. Depending on which podiatric resource used, and the level of detail you want, there are between 6 and 16 different foot types. The concept of 3 foot types first appeared in a spring 1986 article published in Runners World magazine. Unfortunately the article did not have and author, references, foot notes or anything to authenticate its content. To this day Runners World refuses to explain how they came up with it. In 2001 a rudimentary study was done which concluded the three foot type theory is worthless. Whomever wrote the paragraph for this particular training manual either doesnt know their posterior from a hole in the ground or they are deliberately trying to mislead their readers. Either way, this kind of propaganda only serves to hurt our industry. It damages the credibility of those of us who own and work for local running shoe stores. True running shoe experts are professionally trained in anatomy, physiology, running and walking biomechanics. We understand how shoe technology can affect normal and abnormal gait. The only reason to look at the sole of your shoe is to see if you stepped in poop. ~ Jeff Van Horn, Lucky Foot
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 19:25:52 +0000