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From The Age newspaper:

Flat-footed 'are high achievers'
By Harriet Alexander
July 14, 2005

Flat-Footed people suffer pain, cannot join the army and are perceived as physically inept. But research on flat-footed children shows they can jump 15 per cent higher than average children and have equally good balance and motor skills. The only area they performed worse in was "lateral hopping" - hopping sideways over a piece of string.

Dara Twomey, a University of NSW biomechanics researcher, decided to study flat feet after working as a physical education teacher for 10 years and noticing that more children seemed to have them.

She was startled by her results. "I was expecting to find that they would be worse (at jumping). I didn't think they would be able to take off the ground as easily."

Flat feet can be rigid, where there is no discernible arch, or flexible, where the arch appears when the foot is lifted from the floor. They can be caused by such factors as obesity and genetics, and people who have them are more likely to get foot, knee and lower back pain.

The study tested 54 children aged between nine and 12, half with flat feet and half with normal arches, with exercises such as balancing on one leg, hopping over a string and jumping. Each child was fitted with 17 retro-reflective devices between the knee and the foot, which monitored the interaction of their joints.

Podiatrist Michael Kinchington said the findings were surprising.

 

Interested to know the criteria they used for flat foot...

 

Netizens

As far as I can recall Carl Lewis was reported to have flat feet. This did not stop him from winning gold with style but his lifetime of punishing training has left him crippled with severe osteoarthrosis. A common outcome for many elite athletes, sadly.

As to links with aptitude, like Craig I remain sceptical. Two hundred years ago flat footedness was referred to as the 'Jewish foot; and became a stigmatised physical condition associated with sloth and a non productive member of European Society. The medical anti-Semitic theorem came about from the Darwinian belief in the survival of the fitness. The poor white population were Jewish and hence their physical appearance was taken to represent the lowest of the low and states of health were measured against it. Prevalence of flat footedness was high amongst the population and subsequently became the mark of the Jew. Gentiles keen not to be so classified as anything other than Christian, sought out (quasi)medical treatments which gave rise to the origins of foot stretching and arch support. Diabetes was also prevalent in ghetto populations and much of what was known about the disease (the Jewish Disease) in the 1950s came from this time. Intermittent claudication was again the sign of the Jew in 17th and 18th century Europe. In many text books today there remains a vestige of this anti-Semitism when conditions like 'tailor's bunion' is referred to as ' common among Mediterranean populations."

Reference

Gilman SL 1990 The Jewish body: a "footnote" Bull Hist Med 64:4 588-602 You can also read more at: http://foottalk.blogspot.com/

The rather dubious origins of flat foot (as a medical condition) remain clouded today as does its treatment and in the absence of published RCTs like to do so for some time to come.

What say you?

Cameron

 

I have worked with both gentiles and jews (I am a jew) and joke that our forefather Abraham must have had flat feet it does appear ( to me anyway ) that we have flatter feet ... then again we have a diproportionate amount of people that wear glasses too. :D :D :D

 

yehuda

The are footprints of Mohammad somewhere and guess what? They are flat footed. Guess that just goes to show we are all the same.

Cheers
Cameron

 

mohamed was a descendent of Ishmael who was also a son of Abraham

:D :D