Examining the Most Effective Method to Reduce Running Ground Contact Time
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Real-time Visual Feedback, Real-time Auditory Feedback, Real-time Verbal Feedback.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Healthy Runners. Basic parameters: 17 years — 60 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Overview
The purpose of our study is to establish the most effective running retraining technique to decrease ground contact time. This will be investigated by applying three running retraining conditions and assessing the change in ground contact time and other biomechanical variables between the runner's baseline running and each retraining technique.
Detailed description
The purpose of our study is to establish the most effective running retraining technique to decrease ground contact time utilizing three common running retraining methods in healthy runners.
The first aim will be to apply three running retraining conditions and assess the change in ground contact time and other spatiotemporal and biomechanical variables between the runner's baseline running and each retraining condition.
The three running conditions will be at the participant's self-selected speed corresponding to "a comfortable run for 30 minutes". The conditions will be, condition 1: a verbal cue to "pull your foot off the ground as quickly as you can," condition 2: a metronome set to 10% above their preferred cadence found during the baseline run, and condition 3: visual feedback to reduce their ground contact time through observing that number in real time provided by a commercial IMU. The participant will attempt to lower that to 5% below their baseline run ground contact time by being given that target number on a sheet of paper.
The second aim will be to examine the effect of the 3 running conditions on the runner's level of exertion and difficulty using the Omni Rate of Perceived Exertional Scale, the Rate of Perceived Difficulty, and ranking the techniques from 1 to 3 on which they felt was most natural.
We hypothesize that each method will reduce ground contact time, but condition 3 providing continuous visual feedback will result in the most consistent decrease to ground contact time across the runners and will be perceived as the easiest to perform.
Overall, this study will provide clinicians with a running retraining intervention that has been objectively shown to decrease ground contact time and provide researchers with a method to further investigate its effect on running injuries.
Interventions
- Other Real-time Visual Feedback
Runners will visualize their real-time ground contact time (GCT) measured by the RunScribe on a TV screen. They will be instructed to run with a goal of matching their target GCT. Their target GCT will be 5% less than their baseline. - Other Real-time Auditory Feedback
Runners will be instructed to match their step rate to a target step rate, 10% above their baseline step rate. A metronome will be played over a speaker to provide real-time auditory feedback of the target step rate. - Other Real-time Verbal Feedback
The clinician will provide real-time verbal feedback to runner to "pull your foot off the ground as quickly as you can," every 15 seconds during the retraining condition.
Primary outcome measures
- Ground Contact Time [Time frame: Within a single session, measured pre-intervention (baseline) and during each running condition intervention]
Secondary outcome measures (4)
- Step Rate [Time frame: Within a single session, measured pre-intervention (baseline) and during each running condition intervention]
- Average Vertical Loading Rate (AVLR) [Time frame: Within a single session, measured pre-intervention (baseline) and during each running condition intervention]
- Braking Impulse [Time frame: Within a single session, measured pre-intervention (baseline) and during each running condition intervention]
- Step Length [Time frame: Within a single session, measured pre-intervention (baseline) and during each running condition intervention]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Military Service Member or USMA cadet between the ages of 17-60
- Run at least 2 miles three times per week for the past 3 months
- Able to run for at least 15 continuous minutes at a self-selected speed
- Fluent in the English language to read and provide informed consent and follow study instructions
Exclusion criteria
- Lower extremity or low back pain in the previous 3 months
- Lower extremity or low back surgery in the previous 6 months
- Self-reported pregnancy or given birth within the last 6 months
- Currently on a profile that restricts or limits running
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Allocation
- N/A
- Model
- Single group
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Other
Study locations
United States · 1 center
- Keller Army Community Hospital — West Point
Identifiers
NCT: NCT06988709 · KACH.2025.0009 · 24KACH008