Understand the rationale for tissue dysfunction that contributes to injury and performance. Understand the compounding effects of deficient stabilization and compensatory overuse patterns that individuals build into their activity. Develop a working hypothesis to best target the weak link. Progress clinical thought process from the exam room to functional sport training.

Be able to apply the load-deformation curve as it relates to stress, strain, and tissue remodeling. Understand the unique role of the structural alignment of collagen. Have a working understanding of the impact of training on tissue specificity, highlighting the capacity of each respective tissue within the body to adapt.

Discuss common questions regarding the clinician's role in endurance sports performance.

The participant will describe the relationship between running form and body function, and explain the need for a runner to adopt gait pattern that reflects their individual structural alignment. The participant will also describe the need for adequate mobility and dynamic stability to achieve a running gait that minimizes stress on the body and optimizes economy.

The participant will describe critical clinical tests and movement screens that are specific to running athletes, and be able to successfully conduct these assessments on their patients and athletes to identify specific deficits. Participants will also develop the skills to explain the impact of isolated deficits on body function both at the site, and the entire kinematic chain.

The participant will examine how clinical deficits in body function directly impact running gait, and describe how running with this compensated form can alter biomechanics and compromise the body via tissue overload or sub-optimal bioenergetics.

The participant will identify critical restrictions that impact postural alignment, joint mobility, stability, and end range control. Based on these observations the participant will develop a specific treatment plan to correct clinical imbalances and optimize body function for running.

The participant will demonstrate corrective techniques for tissue mobilization and elongation to the upper and lower quarter, and apply corrective exercises, drills, and feedback to optimize postural alignment and joint stability. The participant will learn to target specific techniques toward the level of deficit of each individual patient in order to optimize neuromuscular control, and to ensure that new movement skills are reflected in running training.

Participants will learn the need to objectively describe a runner’s gait, and how to use the visual gait tool as an evaluation algorithm. Participants will also create a framework to integrate clinical information to firmly grasp the link between form and function.

Participants will discover the gait patterns that influence key diagnoses in running athletes, and learn to integrate clinical skills into the patient’s motor patterns to minimize tissue strain, alter kinematics, and kinetics. The participant will also discuss observed problems in a runners gait and/or clinical presentation and systematically dissect ways to address each causative risk factor for a specific diagnosis.

Participants will apply critical gait analysis concepts by conducting three running analyses on actual subjects.

Participants will discuss additional topics related to clinical gait assessment.

Participants will discuss the need to understand a holistic model of causative mechanics (rather than isolated symptoms) when examining gait. Participants will also explore the need to look past kinematics, and develop a link between the abilities of the athlete and running gait.

Participants will develop an understanding of the importance of mobility, stability, strength, and power as they relate to the running athlete. Participants will also explain how ground reaction force influences the bioenergetics of running and discuss the role of symmetry, body stress, and economy with respect to optimal running form. The chapter concludes by describing how contact style, cadence, contact time, and stiffness influence form, and by applying these concepts to four real-world case scenarios.

Participants will discover how athlete’s symptoms, performance, and objective gait and body metrics are put to work to improve athletic capacity.

Participants will apply specific mobility, stability, strength, and power exercises and drills to optimize athletic capacity, with an understanding of its specific impact on running gait.

Participants will discuss common questions regarding the development of strength and power in endurance athletes.

Participants will review the history of shoes, identify classic footwear categories and how they match up with foot type, and review the conventional tests used to prescribe footwear. Participants will then understand why these categories are not supported by the research, and debunk conventional footwear classification.

Participants will understand the research in barefoot and shod running gait, identify the four aspects of conventional shoes that impact gait, and discuss how heel height impacts running. In this chapter participants will also learn the impact of posting on knee kinetics and arthritis, be able to describe the impact of midsole stiffness on gait and stability, and describe shoe wear and its effects on gait. This chapter will conclude by providing essential criteria for shoe prescription.

Participants will identify essential criteria to transition patients into different shoe types, and apply foot mobility and stability assessments to shoe prescription. Participants will also be introduced to shoe trends looking forward, and the need to answer the right questions about shoe prescription moving forward.