The foot-strike patterns during horizontal jumping in track and field athletes

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the foot-strike patterns during alternate single leg bounding among in track and field athletes. The pressure distribution on the plantar surface was measured by F-SCAN system to evaluate and measure foot contact style. The subjects were five male athletes. Each subject wears an athletic shoe with a sole pressure distribution measurement system sensor sheet inserted and performs ten-steps of bounding (standing ten-steps jumps). The ground reaction force and the center of pressure (COP) was calculated. Among subjects, the jumping distance tended to increase as the ground reaction force increased during the grounding phase of bounding. It is presumed that hip adduction occurs and the foot is lowered to the little finger when landing of bounding. It is considered that the ground contact time is required to be as short as possible at each step of bounding. It was thought that it was necessary to increase the contact area of the sole and increase the area where the force was applied because it was necessary to apply force to the ground in a limited time.