Toe Splay During Barefoot Running: Forefoot Landing in a 4-year Old Child

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Toe Splay During Barefoot Running: Forefoot Landing in a 4-year Old Child

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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Runblogger is edited and authored by Peter Larson. Pete is an anatomy professor, writer, and a fanatical runner with a bit of a shoe obsession. He is co-author of the book Tread Lightly. Follow Pete on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and via email.