All very interesting indeed thank you, quite a lot to take in but much more in depth rather than just a few short sentences.
Firstly I think the thing that struck me immediately was how close some of the words you’ve highlighted are to the English language of today and which soon gave me the overall concept of heel and toe. On the other hand I’d never heard of the word “pronate” before, so after a quick check I think the opposite of this is that one presumably has flat feet ?
I think being flatfooted or not is a different matter. Honestly I have a hard time remembering the nuances of these things. The main takeaway from it is that there's a way in which the foot would move ideally in an ideal person, I think, and that most of us aren't and thus we deviate from that. Shoes can be either "stability" shoes or shoes that offer mere "guidance" although the distinction is vague. (I'm talking about running shoes btw)
However what I did discover was by consciously placing my body weight onto the front balls of my feet, I was able to keep my balance much more easily though remembering it is taking some doing. So like you I’m now switching from heel striking to ball of foot striking, though now wondering what sort of injury you were thinking of !
The danger when switching is that you start using muscles and tendons to different degrees and perhaps differently than you did before the switch. If you imagine being barefoot and standing on a stool and jumping down on the floor there's a very different sensation between landing on your heels and landing on your forefoot. If you land on your heels, other than hurting, you also start cushioning the blow by bending your knees and using your quads etc. to counteract the downward motion. If you instead land on your forefoot the calf is going to activate a lot more to soften the impact. So the body's "suspension" happens to different degrees at different points.
If you're running and are used to heel striking the calf is likely going to do less work to cushion the impact when you land, and once you start with forefoot strikes it will increase the amount of work it does. Unfortunately it's not only about the calf though, which after all is just a big muscle you can train fairly easily. It's also about the tissues that connect to it, meaning tendons etc. So now if you're all of a sudden forefoot striking there's a lot more stress on your Achilles tendon.
So that's where a fair amount of runners get problems as they begin to transition. Add to that all the other muscles and tendons etc. that are involved from say the thigh on down and it's easy to overdo it. Especially if you're no longer 18 years old. I actually transitioned away from heel to midfoot, not forefoot. So right now I'm betting about 70% of my foot strikes are on the mid, with about 5% on the heel, and the rest forefoot. With shoes of course.
So just take it easy (I'm still talking about running btw).
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As an aside: There was a trend about 15 years ago or so where "minimalist" running was the thing. It was all about being natural. So people went from pretty cushioned shoes to "race flats" with minimal support, structure, guidance and cushioning, all the way to "foot gloves" basically, the Vibram Five Fingers being the main one I remember. Plenty of people loved it. Plenty of people got injured.
Today's trend is more cushion it seems, albeit with materials that offer more energy return at the end of your running gait-cycle.
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Secondly it would seem just like in English, that there can be many examples in a particularly long sentence or paragraph being interpreted in two or more different underlying ways, because of these little pronouns (på ?) always at the back of one’s mind. So I would guess that this is something that one just has to learn, remember and get used to just as in any foreign language. Nevertheless it’s all been extremely useful to be able to delve into and be prepared and forewarned thank you.
Is it the same for Swedes learning English and do you hopefully have any examples ?
I can't recall what it was like learning English because I was so young when I did. I think we started when I was 8, and it continued for a long time. I mean at least through high school. Add to the copious amount of entertainment we consume and it all felt pretty organic. If anything I think it's idioms and terminology relating to specific fields that are hard to decipher, and of course the difference between AE and BE. But yeah, it's just a matter of learning the rules and then the exceptions and the idioms I think.
PS: I should have maybe replied in Swedish, but I'm tired and under time constraints so.. next time
