Just ordered my copy from Amazon

Dr Sha

 

Anyone buying this book is going to be disappointed in it.

 

Care to expand on this, as a rule by the time most books come out they are out of date, is this the case here ?

If not maybe some more info of why people will be disappointed.

 

I can't actually work out who the book is even written for. The content is so dumbed down, I would be horrified if this is the level that even undergraduate students are taught at. Yes, I know its a "pocket guide" and the content needs to be condensed. The paediatic one in this series is good. It is condensed down, but not dumbed down. This orthotic one is dumbed down and condensed down. Maybe someone else feels differently. Who else has a copy? DrSha?

 

I have my copy and am reading and reviewing it from the point of view that Professor Nestor has made some valuable additions atop the biomechanics teaching and publishing pyramids.

I think it assumes that there are clinicians at different levels of training and experience and that many are in need of foundational strength in order to make up their minds about a direction for their EB Biomechanical P's.

It is written to address those interested in biomechanics that can get lost in modeling and engineering yet still feel a need to address feet biomechanically for the good of mankind.

It is not meant for The Arena and should not be judged on these pages so harshly as it might be avoided by many that it would benefit from its use after reading harsh reviews from those they admire.

In my early reading, one seeming major mistake that I encountered was Dr. Nestor teaching that pronation involves a dorsiflexion of the foot towards the ankle and supination involves a plantarflexion away from the ankle.

Academically, I believe that Pronation involves plantarflexion of the talus and calcaneus from the ankle or towards the weighted surface and supination the opposite.

An inexperienced student or practitioner may think that to plantar flex the talus using biomechanical care would be a supinatory effect and that would lead to great confusion.

Instead, when teaching novices about pronation, in order to understand the modern paradigms, the important concept is that STJ pronation is examined on the frontal plane but that treatment for STJ pronation can be delivered on the frontal, sagital or transeverse planesand not just the orthodox frontal plane care recommend by Dr. Root and fostered by Dr. Kirby in SALRE. Exposing the weakness in these paradigms allows examination of others with small but devoted followings as well as others yet to come more openly.

Currently, the Rootian and SALRE Theories are frontal plane based theories, the Dananberg Model focuses on the sagital plane, the Glaser theory the sagital and transverse planes and the Shavelson Foot Centering Theory (huge personal bias) utilizes all three body planes, as needed, foot type-specific.

The great perspective that I applaud while reading this book is that often when the authors discuss the importance of literature and evidence, they interject a comment referencing that the variability of feet is so great that infers that the evidence does not apply equally for every foot. This interjects food for thought that every piece of evidence in the literature may have little to no clinical application when a practitioner of biomechanics is confronting a specific patient and that when it comes to biomechanical care, we may be more artists than scientists.

Using these concepts, the current paradigms of biomechanics can be appeciated and cherry picked for their additions as well as deferred for their weaknesses unlike the biased presentation of The Arena positively skewed towards Jeff Root and Kevin Kirby's work which is largely personal, incestuous, reductionist and unproven like the others.

Dr Sha

 

I have just received my copy.

There is only one chapter related to foot orthoses. It is woefully inadequate, even for an undergraduate student.

I'm afraid this is a great dissapointment and difficult to recommend to any podiatrist or student podiatrist.

LL

 

agree on the Paediatrics one.......very good.

 

I have completed my review of this book and must start by stating that including the words Foot Orthoses in the title is a total insult to us all.

This may have orthotic implications in a system that will not cover a custom orthotic for care or one where the population is so indigent that it could not afford them but for DPM's, this is beyond an insult.

What it does is allow any lesser practitioner, such as a kiosk worker with a scanner, to refer to this book in order to state that they are practicing biomechanics at a level equatable to mine.

I got positive information about shoes and foot wear, some of which I will incorporate into my EBP, but frankly, I expected more from Dr. Nester.

DrSha