Foot Mechanics

Please share your thoughts!

Really interested in it.

Hopefully this helps!

I kind of figured, but still interested.  Not in insoles. My feet are among my healthier parts.

Now, let us proceed.  I have always been interested in the link between body mechanics and level of performance in sports (all sports, including table tennis).  

Ideally, all weight bearing joints should function around their anatomical neutral position (e.g., joint congruity).  This results in (1) linear mechanics which (2) automatically results in a minimal expenditure of energy in performing the task at hand.  This translates into optimal performance.

Conversely, if the weight bearing joints are forced to function around a skewed position (a position that alters the weight joints away from their anatomical neutral position), the athlete is (1) engaged in torsional mechanics which (2) automatically forces the athlete to expend a greater amount of energy to perform the task at hand.  This translates into a compromised level of performance.

If this interests you, I will continue.

Professor Rothbart

The effectiveness of Joyner forehand loop was most likely the result of linear mechanics.  This is true in all sports.  Those athletes who are the elite of the elite almost invariably have been blessed with linear mechanics.

Let me be more specific:  Speed, power, consistency of form, prone to resist overuse injuries are all subsets of mechanics.  They are enhanced with linear mechanics, compromised with torsional mechanics.

Once that is understood, the next logical question would be:  If one is born with torsional mechanics (and indeed it is an inherited trait), how can it be reversed.  That is kernel of my research, reversing torsional mechanics.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll tootsie pop?

Level of Performance in all sports revolves around the issue of Torsional mechanics.  The Russians have understood this for several decades.  In the United States and Europe it still is poorly understood.

If there is interest to discuss this in more detail, I would be happy to do so. 

OK, I can't resist noting that  the Russians certainly understood the effects of doping on athletic performance for decades and attributing their perfomance in sports to something related to podiatry is a very big stretch. 

Turns out that "Professor" Rothbart still has a website where he sells his services through a telephone consultation.  (I'm not going to link to it). 

He modestly calls himself "the Father of Chronic Pain Elimination".  He claims to have discovered something called Rothbart's Foot.  A search of Pubmed (the definitive repository of peer-reviewed biomedical publications) shows not a single publication from anyone referring to this condition, indeed any reference he himself has made to it does not appear in any journal indexed in PubMed.  There are always places that look like medical journals where you can publish pretty much any sort of quackery, and people who are not in the business can be easily taken in.     

Also on his website that I won't link to, he indeed does sell his insoles, apparently based on a telephone conference and his "proprietary" analysis of photos that you send him. Maybe he is not as retired as he claims (and he's doesn't seem to be a professor anywhere at the moment).  There are also  lots of patient "testimonials", which (and here is a pro tip) is almost always a sign of quackery.  But he wants you to know that he only takes on 20 patients at a time because his services are so valuable.  He also lists membership in so-called medical societies that are highly questionable by the following criteria:

I could go on, but this thread will not do anyone any good.  Time to lock it up.

One last thing, if you really do have foot or ankle problems, go see a podiatric physician or a specialist in orthopedics who works near where you live.  They will actually examine you, do whatever diagnostic imaging and functional analysis is necessary, and recommend a therapy.