Too much shoe - ELITETRACK

Too much shoe not enough skin.
Last night on ABC Evening news there was an interesting piece on barefoot running. It featured biomechanics expert Dr Irene Davis of the University of Delaware. The thesis of the program that as I interpreted it was that that running shoes have gotten too high tech. They have taken away form the feel for the ground. They have shut down the muscles of the foot by not allowing the foot to function naturally. The obvious remedy for this is barefoot running. The only problem is that I am not sure the human foot was designed to run barefoot on pavement. I think that is one reason why shoes have evolved to this and caused us to devolve ( sorry you intelligent designers). The reporter was shown running barefoot on a treadmill, this changed him from a heel strike to a mid foot strike. This is something track coached have done intuitively for years. If the runner was a ?loud? runner, a very flat foot strike or a heel striker we made then do endless strides barefoot on the grass. No doubt that barefoot running, even just cooling down barefoot will help. Nike?s solution is the so called Free Shoe ( They are not free) to simulate the feel of barefoot running. They have a good feel and allow the foot normal motion, they area actually very much like the original Nike Shoes from 30 years ago. Not much shoe. I have actually had athletes (Jumper & Sprinters) who preferred to do their plyometric work, hops & bounds, barefoot because they felt the ground better. Sometimes we should listen to the athletes. MORE SKIN IS BETTER!

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Vern Gambetta

Director at Gambetta Sports Training Systems

Vern is the Director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems. He has been the a conditioning coach for several MLS teams as well as the conditioning consultant to the US Men's World Cup Soccer team. Vern is the former Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox and New York Mets. He has lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe and has authored six books and over one hundred articles related to coaching and sport performance in a variety of sports. He has a BA in teaching with a coaching minor and an MA in Education with an emphasis in physical education from Stanford University.