Abstract Summary
Impact sound has been suggested to be an auditory feedback to modify footstrike pattern with an intention to reduce the vertical loading rates and injury risk in runners. However, the isolated effect of a change in footstrike pattern on the impact sound and vertical loading rates remains unclear. Thirty runners completed overground running trials with rearfoot (RFS), midfoot (MFS) and forefoot strike (FFS) in a randomized order. Landing with MFS or FFS resulted in greater peak sound amplitude (ps< 0.001) than RFS. MFS exhibited highest median frequency among three footstrike patterns, while FFS also demonstrated higher median frequency than RFS (ps< 0.001). We did not find significant relationship between vertical loading rates and any impact sound parameters (ps>0.115). The results suggest that impact sound characteristics may be able to be used to differentiate footstrike patterns in runners. However, impact sound should not be used to predict impact loading.
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