Are smaller feet better for running fast?
good question. Im sure it can have some advantages. After all I 5’7 and i wear a size 7.5 spike and 8-8.5 in sneakers. And 2 of my teamates are actually also that size.
Damn, I’m in trouble then, I’m 5’8"1/2 and I wear 11 size spikes 
, then again, I’m slow. :o
Maybe, 6’0" wear size 12 spikes and I’m not exactly what you would call fast.
i think that if u have big feet and big body it ok and if u have samll feet and small body it ok but still the foot size has nothing to do with the speed as the speed depends on the time ur feet is in contact with the ground and the the frequency of striking the ground with ur feet
Look at Ato Boldon’s feet!!! He’s a size 10/11. The guys spikes are massive…and he’s no slow coach…And he has a small frame. As are Justin Gatlins feet too…he’s bulked up since the World Indoor Champs 2003…but either way his feet were still big then. Any others??
if anything i would think a larger foot would help becasue just like other muecles in the body your foot has tendons and muscles the stretch when force is applied. just like the calf muscle a stretch reflex cycle occurs increasing power out put. So why would a bigger foot help. a bigger foot would have longer tendons and the longer a tendon the more energy it can absorb and then display. that why ppl with calf that have a high insertion point usually display a better stretch reflex. Just an theroy tell me what u think.
p.s of course there is a limit u dont want to be 5 foot 5 and have a size 22 shoe
I’m same height and I wear size 7. But, you should wear same size for both sneakers and spikes (spikes I think you can go down 1/2 size, but never up).
Exactly what i said i wear a 7.5 in spikes (exept in shift sprints and zoom lj’s i wear a 8) and my trainers are a half size larger at an 8. I liek my spikes fitting tight and i do not wear socks. Sneakers i buy to chill in are usaully a 8.5.
I doubt it makes the slightest bit of difference. Alvin was 6’2 and wore 12 1/2, MJ was the same height and only wore 10 1/2 and linford was a 10.
It’s not something you can change so I wouldn’t go worrying about it …
Agreed, but it would still be interesting to know the answer.
James stole the words right out of my mouth. Dazed is right that we can’t change anything, but I do believe there is something behind it. I think there is a limit, but it would seem that having a longer or a larger foot would be better.
James i’m actually writing a paper as we speak, that includes the topic of a high calf insertion. I’ve learned that having big calves aren’t as important as having an achilies that can absorb abd return energy. So the high calf insertion along with a big foot should give results. My feet aren’t huge, I wear about an 11 and i’m about 5’9 - 5’10. But my calves are up there like we’ve stated.
I wonder why Kangaroo’s have such long feet. Would they be able to hop around the way they do without their feet being that long?
Really, how important is this? I know some people that have really high calves but don’t necesarily jump really high and run really fast. But some don’t have really high calves(still pretty high) but can jump out of the gym and sprint fast. Is it not just high calves=longer and more explosive achilles? How about optimizing an achilles tendon to be more explosive and efficient than a longer one? My right calf is a little higher than my left, but I think my left is more explosive-if I jump off one foot, I jump higher off my left, I’m better at depth drops and jumps with my left foot, etc… I’m not sure of the difference when sprinting. Maybe if I practiced jumping off my right leg than I could jump higher off my right leg.
For sprinting, would high calves help top speed the most? For example, some people say that Shawn Crawford has the highest top speed, he also has really high calves and long achilles. If you look at the other sprinters, Mo Greene, Justin Gatlin, Francis Obikwelu, Ato Boldon, etc most others, they’re calves aren’t ridiculously high. If high calves really helped significantly, then all the top sprinters would have 14 inch long achilles and 2 inch long calves.
Finally, is there any way to make your calves higher? Everyone says that it is genetic, but some people, like me, have one calf higher than their other. Unless that really was genetic, something made one higher than the other. I have also noticed some people having higher calves than the last time I noticed.
no high claves are not the end all to sprinting. no one component is. but it is a contributing factor in performance. there is no way to increase calf height, your differing calf heights are probably genetic. but lets look at the source of this speed componnet. its not the high calf thats really important its the ability of the achilles to abosorbe energy so the longer it is the more i can abosorb and then display. but if u cant increas its lenght why not increase it in another deminsion ie. width wise. tendons can grow thicker and stronger and therefore can absorb and display greater amounts of kinetic energy.
That’s what I was thinking. Will normal sprint training do this on it’s own or is there anything else that can be done to optimize the achilles tendon for sprinting and jumping?
I wouldn’t say it’s the most important thing, and I wouldn’t suggest that it become the focus of a persons training. But from an observation standpoint, along with some research high calf insertion usually leads an athlete having a good stretch reflex response. But as you’ve noticed there are always exeptions to the rule.
And you can have high calves and train to the point of growing bigger calves. My ankles are almost non existant, and my calves are high, but over the years from training my calves have gotten bigger. It still doesn’t change the height of my calves but visually they don’t look as high as they used to. Welll to me at least, since i’ve noticed the change.
This is maybe what you’re seeing in the sprinters that you mentioned. I’ve seen Gatlin in person while he was at Tenn. and his calves were plenty high. Greene doesn’t have very high calves, but he’s a lot more muscular than the other guys. So it may give the illusion of not having a higher calf insertion.
i read (somewhere) ages ago, the articles BBC did on john smith, mo greene et al, and they were commenting on one of the female sprinters feet, apparently she had tiny feet, and they were saying that small feet are better for sprinting…
that reads as a really general semi illiterate post i know, but if u think about it, short powerful spring puts out x amount of force a lot quicker than a longer spring…cuz the longer spring takes more time to compress…
im sure that theory is warped, but its one way of looking at it
5’8 best forty yard time 4.21 hand time out of blocks.
foot size 7.5-8.