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Form fundamentals

Shank Angle at Contact

Whether your shin is vertical when the foot touches down — the clinical overstriding tell.

Healthy range: Within 5° of vertical at contact

What it is

At initial contact your shin (tibia) should be close to vertical, stacking the ankle under a bent, loaded knee. A shin angled forward means the foot is reaching out ahead of the knee — the precise thing clinicians freeze-frame to diagnose overstriding.

Why it matters

A forward-inclined shank at contact converts each landing into a brake and drives load into the shin and knee. Clinical 2D gait protocols treat tibia-within-5°-of-vertical as the contact-quality benchmark.

How we detect it

We detect each initial contact from your foot trajectory and measure the knee→ankle segment against vertical at that exact frame, taking the median across strides (left and right reported separately).

How to fix it

Same medicine as overstriding: cadence. A 5% step-rate bump pulls the foot back under the knee geometrically. Cue "land under your hips" on easy runs and let the shin verticalize itself.

Recommended drills

  • Metronome runs at +5-8% cadence (3x10 min)
  • A-skip drills (3x30m)
  • Wall drill posture resets (3x10)

Run these 2-3x per week. Expect to feel a change in form 4-6 weeks in.

Common symptoms when this is off

Shin splintsRunner's knee (PFPS)Braking feel at footstrike