'Most elites are heel-strikers' ..... more research that is not quite what it seems

I don't usually disagree with Dr Ross Tucker, my South African mate, about the technical stuff he features on his Science of Sport blog, but this time....

Ross has picked up on some recently published research from Japan, in which scientists set up a high speed camera at the 15km mark of the 2004 Sapporro International Half Marathon, observed the foot strike of 248 men and 35 women, and characterized them as either heel-strikers, mid-foot or forefoot strikers.

Their conclusions, which surprised me until I figured out what exactly they had done, were that "25% of elite runners land on the midfoot and 74% land on the heel". This is surprising because current thinking is that heel-striking leads to a braking effect; most people (myself included) believe that if you want to run fast you are better off teaching yourself to land more flat-footed.

NOT surprisingly, the Japanese findings were quickly picked up by Runners' World and its kin, as they represent an important bit of ammunition in support of their major advertisers, the mainstream running shoe industry, which insists that heel-striking is "natural" but also something you need protection from in the form of ever more technical shoes.

The conclusion "25% of elite runners land on the midfoot, 74% land on the heel" is becoming a mantra. I didn't expect to see it repeated so often in Ross's main story and in the entertaining comments on his piece, without any challenge. It's as if everyone is accepting the finding as fact. I'm not.

Let's be honest: it is virtually impossible to categorise a bunch of runners as heel-strikers or not by studying video, not matter how sophisticated it is. The only definite categories you are going to pick up are at the extremes, and even then it is never conclusive. Here's a non-video example of what I mean.

Here's a picture of two fairly elite runners in the closing stages of the 1974 European championship 5000m:

The lead runner, Britain's own Brendan Foster, is "obviously" heel striking, while my role model Lasse Viren of Finland is going to land flat footed. This picture was taken with 5 laps to go, and they are in the middle of a 60.2 lap!

Compare this picture of the two take in the same race: lo and behold Foster now appears to be about to land on the forefoot, while Viren is also heading very much for a forefoot strike. (Foster won by 7 seconds, by the way; Viren was in the middle of his four gold medal Olympic spree.

So, two (at least) points:

1. Viren -- whether a forefoot or midfoot striker -- is "obviously" not a heel-striker... or is he? The only way you can really tell is by looking at the wear pattern on his racing shoes. I bet you'll find wear on the outside of his heels. That's because almost everyone except sprinters, even classic forefoot and midfoot strikers (and I am one) also puts the heel down, however fleetingly, and to varying degrees. This is even true -- shock, horror! -- in runners trained in and properly utilising the Pose Method, which is the ultimate non-heel-strike system. And that is direct, in person, live, face to face, from Dr Romanov himself.

So it's not surprising the Japanese researchers reported 75% of the elites as being heel-strikers: the definition is so imprecise as to be meaningless in the real world. The question isn't whether most elites are heel-strikers, but to what degree.

2. Footstrike -- as does gait and cadence -- varies not only with speed, but how fatigued you are. Taking pictures of elites at the 15k mark in a 22k-odd race only shows whether they are heel-strikers, or not, at the 15k mark in a 22k race. Let's see the pictures from the 5k point when they're all still fresh. Let's see the pictures at 20k when they're really fatigued and in the final 800 when they're raising their final gallops.

Given all that, let's not take this research too seriously, eh? An interesting piece of work but, in terms of advancing our knowledge in this area, not really up to much.

* Hasegawa H et al, Foot strike patterns of runners at the 15km point during an elite-level half marathon. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 2007. 21(3)(August): 888-93.