Any reliable resources in SUPPORT of heel striking?

Ah, makes sense. Just wondering if there were any sources to be cited in contrast to the barefoot running posts. So basically anyone who's NOT trying to make money off of us silly triathletes

ChrisM - I wasn't doubting the validity of heel striking. We just see all of these books - Chi Running, Pose, Evolution Running - that tout that heel striking is BAD, so I was wondering who we could cite to say that it's not necessarily bad. Obviously, it's not - we've all see the picture or video footage of Craig McCormick - he's got the weirdest run ever, but it clearly works for him Oh, never mind, now I see you just wanted to post her pic She IS super-cute, I have to agree

Sorry, should have left a caveat - I understand that landing in front of your body with your heel is bad, for the reasons that you listed. But as others have explained here, that's wrong no matter what - but that doesn't mean your heel can't hit the ground first without it being detrimental. Sorry - I know what you all mean when you refer to the 'okay' kind of heel striking. But apparently, most folks on my tri team don't. Or rather, it's not being explained well enough.

Right. I guess in the limited experience OUTSIDE of BT that I've had this stuff explained, there seems to be a disconnect between these ideas - and it seems as though all of these books have the same disconnect. I understand what is said here by all of you. Just wondering if there were sources out there that pull it together, in order to counteract these misconceptions.

Having done a couple hundred run/gait analysis assessments with a couple DPT's and technology such as the EMEDx, I can tell you from our lit review on this very subject is that footstrike doesn't mean all that much, other than an area or location from which the assessor can begin to piece together information for the best fit when viewed from a pressure platform or video analysis.

There's nothing wrong with heelstriking, just like there isn't anything wrong with a forefoot strike, so any kineseologist who specializes in this area knows the worst thing you can do is try and force someone to change where the foot strikes.

What matters at the foot (overly simplified here) is the calcaneal drop and arch change during pronation.  Add that to the location of where the foot falls relative to the center of gravity, lumbo-pelvic-hip relationship, muscle weakness/tightness, rate of pronation, terrain, and training errors, and you can see fast why people end up injured-

Bottom line- train smart.  Don't get caught up with the gimmicks out there- because I'll put money any day on the runner who has a faster leg turnover and good backswing during their run stride with 10mls/kg/min less than someone who focuses their attention to landing midfoot first.

Actually, I was asking something the OPPOSITE of the topic that usually comes up. I already said that we've rehashed this issue several times. My question was an off-shoot of that topic, but slightly different.

Thanks to those who have provided links and such.

Oh, no worries - I don't plan to And I thought the article that was posted yesterday should be taken with a very large grain of salt. I just thought it was humorous that it was brought up today on my tri team's yahoo group.