Hi
My daughter started running in primary school and was good enough to get selected to run in the county cross country championships every year, as a result she was asked to if she would like to join the local track club, which she did. Trained once or twice a week with them depending on how much her obsession ballet and tap permitted . At age 12 she started having pain in her knees and quite often had to cut a training session short and maybe have a week or 2 off. After trying new track shoes, trainers chatting with the coaches about it etc which didn't work I took her to the hospital and luckily saw a specialist in A&E who diagnosed Osgood-Schlatters.
Anyway there was no improvement she stopped running in dec 2010.
Funnily enough despite all the jumping and pointe working in ballet and the tapping in Tap she very rarely finished a dance lesson in any discomfort.
While watching her running I had thought her gait was too springy - up and down- basically she was bounding along and heel striking but not knowing better and had no advice about this off her coaches at the club assumed this was just the way she ran and it was just unlucky she had Osgood -Schlatters which was being aggravated by the way she ran. Hence she stopped running.
Anyway now I am a bit more enlightened having read Born to Run, Barefoot Running Step by Step etc I decided to introduce the barefoot running concepts to my daughter as her school sports day is coming up and she has been selected to run 800 for her house and really wants to do it.
After having done a few sessions on technique with her she is running better but it seems the years of dance have moulded the way she holds her body ,arms and legs and are working against good running technique a bit.
The main barrier is the turn out of her feet (from the ballet) which is not a problem when heel striking but looking at her trying to forefoot land seems to cause trouble with the forefoot to heel landing on a turned out foot working against the natural alignment of the leg bones?
I'm just wondering whether
a) There are any folks out there who know anything about the chance of alleviating the knee pain from Osgood-Schlatters when changing to a forefoot/barefoot running technique, has it worked ? Are we just going to have to wait till she grows out of it?
and
b)Are there any ballet dancers out there (with consequently turn out feet when walking and running) who have successfully transitioned to forefoot/barefoot running?
I know this is a long post but if you have read this far and can help - thanks - A LOT!
My daughter started running in primary school and was good enough to get selected to run in the county cross country championships every year, as a result she was asked to if she would like to join the local track club, which she did. Trained once or twice a week with them depending on how much her obsession ballet and tap permitted . At age 12 she started having pain in her knees and quite often had to cut a training session short and maybe have a week or 2 off. After trying new track shoes, trainers chatting with the coaches about it etc which didn't work I took her to the hospital and luckily saw a specialist in A&E who diagnosed Osgood-Schlatters.
Anyway there was no improvement she stopped running in dec 2010.
Funnily enough despite all the jumping and pointe working in ballet and the tapping in Tap she very rarely finished a dance lesson in any discomfort.
While watching her running I had thought her gait was too springy - up and down- basically she was bounding along and heel striking but not knowing better and had no advice about this off her coaches at the club assumed this was just the way she ran and it was just unlucky she had Osgood -Schlatters which was being aggravated by the way she ran. Hence she stopped running.
Anyway now I am a bit more enlightened having read Born to Run, Barefoot Running Step by Step etc I decided to introduce the barefoot running concepts to my daughter as her school sports day is coming up and she has been selected to run 800 for her house and really wants to do it.
After having done a few sessions on technique with her she is running better but it seems the years of dance have moulded the way she holds her body ,arms and legs and are working against good running technique a bit.
The main barrier is the turn out of her feet (from the ballet) which is not a problem when heel striking but looking at her trying to forefoot land seems to cause trouble with the forefoot to heel landing on a turned out foot working against the natural alignment of the leg bones?
I'm just wondering whether
a) There are any folks out there who know anything about the chance of alleviating the knee pain from Osgood-Schlatters when changing to a forefoot/barefoot running technique, has it worked ? Are we just going to have to wait till she grows out of it?
and
b)Are there any ballet dancers out there (with consequently turn out feet when walking and running) who have successfully transitioned to forefoot/barefoot running?
I know this is a long post but if you have read this far and can help - thanks - A LOT!
