With the dramatic increase in the number of people participating in jogging and running during recent years, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of injuries directly attributable to such activity. In an effort to reduce the number of injuries, manufactures have attempted to design shoes which can lessen the undesirable effects of impact shock at heel strike, as well as the excessive pronation of the feet.
　The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between selected physical characteristics of runners and two different types of running shoe. Specifically, two different relationship, 1) the relationship between the individual's body weight and the shock attenuation characteristics of the shoe, and 2) the relationship between the individual's foot type and the foot control characteristics of the shoe, were examined. A force platform interfaced with a micro-computer system, a 16 mm motion camera, and a photo-electric timing system were used for the collection of data. Three different body weight groups (X=73.3, 65.1, and 58.0 kg) were formed from 15 rear-foot strikers, and following a static examination of the foot, three different foot-type groups (severe pronators, normals, and poor pronators) were formed from 13 runners. Each runner ran across the force platform at 3.9±4m・sec‐¹ for ten trials for each of the two shoe (soft and firm) conditions.
　A separate ANOVA was carried out on each selected kinematic and kinetic parameter. There were no significant interaction effects between body weight and shoe-type. However, significant main effects for body weight and shoe-type were found in some of the kinetic and kinematic parameters, suggesting that each factor could become a cause for the injuries. Additional cushioning mechanisms are needed in both the rear-foot and fore-foot portions of running shoes for heavy runners, in order that the weight of the body should neither limit running performance nor cause injuries.
　There were significant interaction effects between foot-type and shoe-type in the selected parameters of the pronation-time curve. This interaction resulted from the fact that the maximum pronation angles of the normals and poor pronators remained at similar values for the two different shoe conditions, while the angles of the severe pronators changed considerably from the firm shoe to the soft shoe condition. The finding suggested that matching the individual's foot-type with an appropriate shoe-type could help in the prevention of some lower extremity and foot injuries.

DESCENTE SPORTS SCIENCE Vol.7/THE DESCENTE AND ISHIMOTO MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION SPORTS SCIENCE