Validation of foot-strike assessment using wearable sensors during running

Abstract

Wearable sensors are capable of capturing foot-strike positioning, which lends insight into landing biomechanics during running. The purpose of our study was to assess the relationship between foot-strike categorization and foot-strike angle during running to validate the sensor-derived foot-strike outcome. Twenty collegiate cross-country athletes (12 females, 8 males) ran at 2 speeds on an instrumented treadmill. RunScribe sensors were used to determine foot-strike categorizations (1-5 = rearfoot, 6-10 = midfoot, 11-16 = forefoot), and foot-strike angles were simultaneously assessed with 3-dimensional motion capture bilaterally. We calculated Pearson r correlation coefficients to compare footstrike categorizations and angles at initial contact over 800 steps as well as sensor foot-strike identification accuracy. A strong, inverse correlation between foot-strike categorizations and foot-strike angles was present (r = -0.86, P