Can someone please help me to understand why I do not see the doriflexion in ANY of the pictures posted? Agreed they are not plantar flexed but it almost looks neutral to me. Am I looking for something way to pronounced?
Those are great pics - keep them coming!
I don’t think the bluriness is a problem. It’s actually a good indication of speed relative to center of gravity! I think it is interesting to note that the front foot seems slightly more dorsiflexed in the preceeding frame/photo (where it is very close to neutral) and I suspect that we would see even less dorsiflexion just before the foot touches ground.
hmm… isn’t that the way the shoes are built? Do movements of the toes actually show on the outside? In my - way old - spikes it certainly wouldn’t.
The only photo that truly allows one to see dorsiflexion is photo 1. You can clearly see that the toes are up relative to every other portion of the foot.
Photo 3 appears to have been taken while Asafa was transitioning between his drive phase and top speed. (Look at his forward trunk position). Powell never runs with his trunk that far forward during max speed. Maurice never ran with such a dramatic forward lean during his max speed and his trunk position always kept his body driving forward.
Even in Photo 1 his foot seems to be in line with the ground. How can you seperate his toes from the rest of his foot when its actually the track shoe we are looking at?
these are all fair points and good to have been raised!
Maybe someone close to Asafa or Franno can ask them about what, if anything, they work on (or not) in their technical considerations during training.
It’s also interesting to me that sometime I see the same sprinter (not Asafa, from memory) sometimes with hands closed, sometimes with thumb and index finger touching lightly, sometimes with hands open and fingers extended if not stiff.
The other thing about training pix is that the snappers mostly don’t know what they’re shooting, so forget about them deliberately trying to capture a technicality. And sometimes athletes will be a bit casual and you won’t see a model they would necessarily care to have published because it might deviate from the model they’ve been working with their coach to produce in a best case race model scenario.
But anyway if I can find pix i will try to post. By the way theres nothing to prevent anyone else with time up their sleeve from posting images… (but no more of PJ’s dog, or was that, as CF suggests, PJ’s dog’s dog of a bitch) 
Would there be any agreement that dorsiflexion is in place with Jason Gardener’s action in this pre-Com Games race. Jason is in the middle with Asafa to his right.
Because even though sprint spikes are designed to enhance the athletes ability to land on the ball of the foot, the toe portion of Asafa’s shoe relative to his ankle is far greater dorsiflexed than what could be considered normal for a human being.
KK
have you got any front on shots of Ross?
have a look at the direction his left leg and knee is heading in that pic.
have noticed in training of late when he’s doing the slow long work this trait is coming into his action
and i wish nike would stop killing any hope the general public have on identifying the athletes by all turning out in the same colors, most think they are all just american sprinters
2006 Europa Cup 100m (Pognon, right, is the winner) ahead of Chambers (centre of picture)
they all seem to have lead foot dorsiflexion in this snap
The Fin does seem to possess dorsiflexion but for Chambers I don’t know. It’s hard to determine the degree of dorsiflexion from the front as you cannot really see the direction of the lower leg.
Look at this photosequence of Calvin Smith:
What would frame 12 look like from the front? Then look at frame 13. Very marked plantarflexion at the time of touchdown. Isn’t the supposed purpose of dorsiflexion to come into action at touchdown?
What stage of the race is Calvin - the final few meters?
I don’t know - does not look like full speed, more like some atypical “jump run” up to the finish line? Look how much height he looses at GC!
The whole thing loosing it’s mystery for me if that’s the case. A lot af athletes stop dorsiflexion increasing stride lenght close to finish line…
Interesting to compare to the foot that belongs to the guy in the lane outside Calvin’s (whoever it was) in frame 12 and 13.
Anders, it’s a great series of shots which raises questions…I originally thought dorsiflexion was more to encourage “cleaner” lines in recovery mechanics (rearside and beneath the thigh). I felt it would help with tucking the foot closer to buttock and so reduce the lenth of the line from hip to ankle, thereby improving gait rate (turnover speed). I also had in my mind, from Loren Seagrave i think, that this would help to give the hamstring of the swing leg a momentary “rest” before swinging back into action in reverse contact with the track and in helping with elevation (hammies as secondary hip extensor). But looks like nobody told Calvin about any of this.
maybe this has to do with how the new generation of sprint spikes are build. A rigid plate wich makes you automaticly run on the ball of the feet. So when you bring the heel of your shoe horizontal to the track, your toes will apear to be dorsiflexed, even when you don’t try to do this
It’s the final meters of 200m but I don’t agree on the jump.
More correctly, I think, there is more plantarflexion close to the finish line. I don’t think any sprinter posses dorsiflexion at touchdown. Perhaps they try to resist plantarflexion but they do not meet the ground with a dorsiflexed foot. If anyone can show me the opposite, please do.
Yes, but supination makes it hard to compare the foot away from the camera with the foot close to the camera.
Yeah, I am aware of that line of reasoning. I don’t buy it though :). I am all for stepping over and tucking the lower leg to the buttock but the degree of plantar/dorsiflexion of the foot won’t make much difference to the moment of intertia.
Hmm… I don’t follow how dorsiflexion affects the hammies?
As an example of what full dorsiflexion looks like:
Borzov at touchdown after the first step. Slightly dorsiflexed just before touch down and fully dorsiflexed (third picture) after the impact of touchdown.
All these photo sequences are from the IAAF book Athetes in Action (1985).
Don Quarrie this time:
Allan Wells
Middle distance runners on the other hand…
Coe:
And long distance runners!
Alberto Cova:
