Foot strike is which part of your foot touches the ground first: heel (rearfoot), midfoot or forefoot. Most distance runners land heel-first, and a 2020 systematic review found no evidence that switching to a forefoot or midfoot strike makes you more economical, and no prospective evidence that it prevents injury. Each pattern loads different tissues, so this lesson is about knowing your strike, not forcing a new one.
The three types
Learn the three labels. Rearfoot: your heel touches first. Midfoot: heel and ball of the foot land together. Forefoot: the ball of your foot lands first and the heel comes down after.
noticing which part of your foot meets the ground first.
Know that heel striking is normal. In a study of 936 road-race runners, 88.9% landed heel-first at the 10 km mark. Other races found roughly 75% (an elite half marathon) to 94% (a large road race).
no need to feel you're doing it wrong if you land on your heel.
Expect your strike to change when you tire. In that same study, more runners were heel striking at 32 km than at 10 km, and many midfoot and forefoot strikers had switched to heel-first.
treating late-run heel landings as normal, not as a failure.
No type is 'best'
Treat strike type as a trade-off. Heel striking puts more demand on the knee. Forefoot and midfoot striking put more demand on the ankle, calf and Achilles tendon.
understanding it moves load around rather than removing it.
Don't switch for speed or economy. Habitual heel and non-heel strikers showed no difference in running economy. When heel strikers were switched to a forefoot or midfoot strike, their economy got worse in the short term at slow and moderate speeds.
dropping the idea that a forefoot strike is automatically faster.
Don't switch to remove impact. Forefoot striking lowers the visible impact peak and loading rate, but it does not remove impact at contact, and the link between impact and injury is not settled.
seeing impact as something every runner has.
Don't switch to prevent injury. The studies suggesting fewer injuries in forefoot strikers looked back in time; reviews found no prospective study comparing injury risk between strike patterns. Reviewers advise against changing strike in an uninjured heel striker.
confidence to leave a pain-free stride alone.
Fix the right thing
Watch where your foot lands, not which part lands. Landing with your foot further ahead of your hip was linked with larger braking forces, and further ahead of your knee with larger impact peaks. The cue from that research is to land with your shin close to vertical. See the Stop Overstriding lesson.
your foot meeting the ground under you, whatever part touches first.
Change strike only with a reason and help. If a clinician or coach suggests a strike change for a specific problem, make it gradually and stop if new calf, Achilles or foot pain appears. A change can stress tissue that isn't used to the load.
patience; the change is slow and supervised.
Feel it
Landings feel natural and unforced, with your foot arriving under you rather than reaching ahead. You aren't pointing your toes or digging in your heel on purpose. If you run pain-free, there's no evidence you need to change which part of your foot lands first.
Fix-its
- You force a forefoot strike because it seems 'correct' Return to your natural landing. Forcing it shifts load to your calf and Achilles and, in heel strikers, made running less economical in the short term.
- You think heel striking is wrong It's the most common pattern in distance runners. The thing to check is whether your foot lands well ahead of your body, not whether your heel lands first.
- You land heel-first with your foot far out in front That's overstriding. Work on landing under you, for example with a small step-rate increase (see the Stop Overstriding and Cadence lessons), and let your strike sort itself out.
- You changed your strike and now your calf or Achilles hurts Ease back toward your natural pattern and reduce training load. If pain persists, see a clinician.
Drill
- Film yourself side-on at hip height in slow motion (the highest frame rate your phone offers; a validation study used 240 fps) on a treadmill or a flat path, at your normal easy pace.
- Step through several landings frame by frame and note whether the heel or the front of the foot touches first. Heel-first versus not is easy to judge; telling midfoot from forefoot by eye is much less reliable. Just record it; don't change anything.
- On the same frames, check where your foot lands relative to your knee and hip. If it lands well in front, work on that (Stop Overstriding lesson), not on the strike.
- Film again near the end of a long run to see whether your strike shifts as you tire.
Sources
- Anderson, Bonanno, Hart & Barton — What are the benefits and risks associated with changing foot strike pattern during running? Systematic review and meta-analysis, Sports Med (2020)
- Hamill & Gruber — Is changing footstrike pattern beneficial to runners? J Sport Health Sci (2017)
- Larson et al. — Foot strike patterns of recreational and sub-elite runners in a long-distance road race, J Sports Sci (2011)
- Lieberman et al. — Effects of stride frequency and foot position at landing on braking force, hip torque, impact peak force and the metabolic cost of running, J Exp Biol (2015)
- Goto et al. — Agreement between 2D visual and 3D motion capture assessment of foot strike pattern, Int J Sports Phys Ther (2024)
- Altman & Davis — A kinematic method for footstrike pattern detection in barefoot and shod runners, Gait Posture (2012)
Last checked 2026-10-26.