Kevin, Jeff, Susan, Craig, Ray, et al:
I must admit that when Kevin goes half way with my theory - it's like a total
victory!! But Jan Tepper( of table 6 or 7 ) made the classic protest to the
proposed paradigm when he queried "How can the forefoot control the rearfoot
during the Contact Stage when the forefoot is not even on the ground"?
A racetrack analogy helps if we compare the control of the horse by the
reins to the "dorsiflexor reining of the forefoot" by the anterior crural
muscles wherein a medial or lateral dominance will turn the horse or tilt the
forefoot into an inversive( supinatory ) or eversive( pronatory ) attitude
for touchdown. The lateral forefoot touchdown, in my view, is slightly
inversive( viz. frontal plane input effect ) and no doubt results from a
relative dominance of eccentric tibialis anterior muscle contraction. We are
all aware of the polio victim with paralysis of the medial dorsiflexors in
which the medial dropfoot slaps to the ground, then rapidly pronates as full
contact is made; also the lateral dropfoot associated with the C-M-T type
peroneal palsy that invites lateral instability and ankle sprain tendency.
So, I am insisting that, even in the Contact Stage of stride, the old
forefoot is controlling the subtalar joint through a "DORSIFLEXOR REINING
ACTION"!!
peace,
Alan et al
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