worth it to try and change footstrike?

I did it. Except it took over a year for my body to adapt and I did everything under the guidance of a run specialty PT. It has involved a lot of barefoot grass running and lower leg strength training to get to where I am now. Started an overstriding mega heel striker and now have an efficient and elastic mid to forefoot strike

You will be injured in less than two weeks.

Find a rocketed shoe

Stupid autocorrect.. "rockered"

That was my experience.

I was a natural heel striker and was indestructible - never a single injury problem. Until "common knowledge" convinced me to try to change. Then my calves and Achilles tendons were so inflamed it hurt to walk. I went back to heel striking and the problem disappeared.

I say if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I also tried changing to a forefoot strike a few years ago after reading a bunch of crap on the internet. I had occasional minor Achilles issues before, but they went through the roof after. I ruptured one last spring, and am getting surgery to repair a partial tear on the other soon.

I would suggest allowing your body to do what it naturally wants to do. Do strides and speed work to improve your form, but don't try to change anything - at least not without guidance from a qualified physical therapist and/or coach.

From a performance perspective there's little evidence that changing makes much difference. Plenty of elite heel strikers around.

I actually made this transition without ever intending to. I switched to the Hoka Clifton for training and nike Dragonflys for racing and became a toe striker at all paces pace within about 3 years. It happened mostly organically, and may be in part due to the shoes, but I did put some emphasis on trying to run on my toes while doing strides or running middle-distance race paces, and eventually it became natural at all paces. I've improved a lot over the mile/800 over the time interval but there are a lot of confounding factors, especially my own physical development - I was 17 at the beginning of that range and 20 at the end. I also don't find that I'm any more injury prone than before the switch, although I do roll my ankles much more often now.

I'm not sure it would convey any benefit for someone running longer distances, as it looks from race footage that even most elites at longer distances heel strike. In support of this, I read several years ago that something like 90% of world 10k finalists heel strike - so toe strikers are over-represented among elites but still not very common.

Last thing - I wouldn't recommend doing this abruptly. At most, switch shoes and work on it while doing strides or intervals as I did. I actually tried to do an experiment on this in high school as part of a school research project (somewhat shocked it was approved) and most of the experimental (heel strike -> toe strike) group quit because they got hurt or were unbearably sore.

Whether or not you change your footstrike, what you wrote there is the wrong idea. You don't want to hit the ground farther forward. You want to hit the ground closer or the same, but with your foot already primed to push off or very close to that. So the idea is more like putting your forefoot straight down.

it's "worth it" if you want to use your body more naturally, yes

but you have to realize that your body has adapted to your current gait

that means your bones, connective tissue, muscles have adapted to being more of a heel striker, and likely began that adaptation when you started wearing shoes as a child

my suggestion that i don't expect you to listen to: begin the transition by changing your walking gait first

and in the meantime start doing seated calf-raises (with weight) so your lower legs will be ready for the different impact stresses the body sees when landing mid/forefoot instead of on the heel

it takes most people quite a long time to retrain their nervous system; in fact many never make meaningful changes when looking at historical videos of them running/walking/standing despite feeling like they worked on their form so much

Just run, baby!

I'm sure there are a lot of things you should change in your training before you would ever get to this.

Check out a recent edition of the Science of Sport podcast with Ross Tucker talking to Geoff Burns about this.

During the barefoot running trend (seven years ago maybe?), I changed my gait to a toe strike.

I personally believe it is a nice choice for someone who wants to run injury-free into their 60s and 70s.

I wish I could find the video that made it all click for me — it was a YouTube video by a guy who coached competitive obstacle course racers. He demonstrated with one of his athletes by speeding up a treadmill from nothing, to slow, and then finally to the athlete’s regular pace. If anyone knows of this video, I just thought it was so perfect.

I tend to think that I had an ideological bent — a basic belief that if a ballet dancer lands toe-heel, then a runner should do the same. (I am female and loved ballet when younger.).

So I guess I am saying, I believe a toe-strike is good for people who believe it is the anatomically correct way to absorb impact. It definitely didn’t make me fast or talented, and only time will tell whether I’m running injury-free into my 60s.

So you heel strike at 7 minute mile pace? What happens to your footstrike when you run at 6 m/mile pace?