Final Writing Assignment Draft 2

Sebastian Clore-Gronenborn

WRTG 1150-582

Final Writing Assignment Draft 2

Running With Purpose

The purpose of my final writing assignment is to raise awareness of the benefits of barefoot and minimal footwear running. This new awareness will then in-turn cause young athletes to switch to training with minimal footwear. The audience’s of my project are young athletes along with major athletic companies such as Nike and Adidas. I choose to emphasize these audience’s[N1] in order for them to work together to change the norm of athletic training footwear. These large companies will create a new hype for limited footwear products and if young athletes already have some awareness about barefoot running causing them to make the change. I truly believe that minimal footwear training can cause athletes to perform more efficiently and with less risk of injury.I choose to write a magazine article [N2]in order to have the young athlete audience as well as widespread group of readers in order to promote the barefoot running lifestyle to the world.

Running With Purpose

In the past two years there has been a new fad among certain athletes of barefoot or limited footwear running. New research has shown that this style of running positively affects ones [N3]running technique, which in turn reduces injury risk and maximizes efficiency.

It is well known that humans engaged in running before the invention of the shoe. Rebecca Hersher, a staff writer for the Harvard Gazette [N4]explains that, according to Daniel Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and co-author of a paper appearing in the journal Nature,“Humans have engaged in endurance running for millions of years, but the modern running shoe was not invented until the 1970s. For most of human evolutionary history, runners were either barefoot or wore minimal footwear such as sandals or moccasins with smaller heels and little cushioning. In Claudia Dreifus’ interview with Daniel Lieberman in the New York Times, Liebermanemphasizes that,“Before bows and arrows and before horses were tamed, we did “persistence hunting” where we ran kudu, wildebeest and zebra into exhaustion“. Due to the fact that humans have been running without sneakers since the beginning of time, wouldn’t the human body have adapted to running barefoot?Hersher goes on to explain how Lieberman believes that because of evolution,human’s feet have changed to be able to run by knowing, “our early Australopith ancestors had less-developed arches in their feet. Homo sapiens, by contrast, has evolved a strong, large arch that we use as a spring when running”. Michael Warburton a practicing physiotherapist for Gateway Physiotherapy explains why these findings lead to “running related injuries to bone and connective tissue in the legs are rare in developing countries, where most people are habitually barefooted”. Young athletes need to realize that working with their body is essential to maximize their body’s ability.

Training barefoot or in minimal footwearcould be the key to unlocking the generation of super athletes. Bill Hendrick in his article on WebMD explains that “barefoot runners point their toes more at landing, avoiding the collision effect by decreasing the “effective mass of the foot that comes to a sudden stop when you land, and by having a more compliant, or springy leg”. This is a clear advantage to making the change to running barefoot.Nicole Haas a physical therapist at San Francisco Sport and Spine Physical Therapy urges [N5]that“[N6]Barefoot running requires hip muscle strength and when your foot hits the ground; you must have control over your joints to be able to respond appropriately with key muscle groups. These skills are difficult to develop—especially when you are accustomed to wearing shoes. If young athletes start barefoot training early in their lives, their bodies can adapt easier to the running style and they will gain strength in muscle groups that they would otherwise never had used. With strength in these muscle groups, Elizabeth Quinn an exercise physiologist who has been writing about sports medicine, technique and injury for over ten years, explains “You may improve balance and proprioception[N7]. Without shoes, you activate the smaller muscles in your feet, ankles, legs, and hips that are responsible for better balance and coordination”. With a more complete muscle structure, young athletes would be able to train at a much more vigorous pace which will lead to a much greater performance in games. While [N8]this new training style continues to gain support, notable brands such as Nike, Adidas and Reebok will have no choice but to be on board and create their own limited footwear product that will provide some protection against road debris, while having the same effect as running barefoot. With these companies supporting the movement, more athletes will take note of the research being done and cause more to make the switch to barefoot or limited footwear running.

This training movement is focused on young athletes because as Ross Tucker and Jonathan Dugas, both PhD’s in exercise science and sports medicine, explain “Going from years of shoes into minimal shoes or barefoot will injure you if you are not careful”. In other words, athletes must transition slowly into running barefoot, because if a body is not used to this running technique, it can cause the muscles not previously used in running,[N9] to feel overworked. Yet, if an athlete were to successfully make this transition, the benefits would be astronomical. Warburton states that, “Running in bare feet reduces oxygen consumption by a few percent. Competitive running performance should therefore improve by a similar amount”. Thus, with the decreased chance of injury and the increased athletic ability that barefoot running brings, it is hard to think of any young athlete or big athletic company that will not want to exploit this new researched running technique for either a better performance or a big profit.

Gretchen Reynolds a physical education writer for the New York Times wrote “On this point, he and all of the scientists [N10]agree. Humans may have been built to run barefoot...” The increased support for humans to return to an ancient running technique shows a greater respect and trust for the human body, as it is completely natural. A return to the past barefoot running technique will cause the future generations of athletes to preform more efficiently and safely, and it is the responsibility of big corporations to come out with products that support this running technique, as well as the responsibility of young athletes to embrace running barefoot and demonstrating first hand its enormous benefits[N11].

Work Cited

Dreifus, C. (2011, August 22). Born, and evolved, to run. The New York Times, p. D3. . Retrieved from

Haas, N. (2011, May 11). Is barefoot best? the truth about running techniques [Web log message]. Retrieved from

Hendrick, B. (2010). Barefoot running laced with health benefits. Webmd, Retrieved from

Hersher, R. (2010). Perfect landing . Retrieved from

Quinn, E. (2011, March 03). Barefoot running-the pros and cons of going shoeless. Retrieved from

Reynolds, G. (2011, June 8). Are we built to run barefoot?. . Retrieved from

Tucker, R., & Dugas, J. (2010, January 29). Barefoot running-new evidence, same debate [Web log message]. Retrieved from

Warburton, M. (2001). Barefoot running. Sports Science, Retrieved from

[N1]No apostrophes in plurals, unless they are possessive plurals.

[N2]For which magazine?

[N3]Need an apostrophe here, since this is possessive.

[N4]You need a comma after “Gazette.” I know, that seems like a lot of commas in this sentence, but you need them all!

[N5]In cases like this, where you’re inserting information about a person after their name, you need to set that information off with commas. In this case, you need commas after “Haas” and “Therapy”. This situation occurs several other places in your work, both above and below, but I’ll let you find and correct them.

[N6]You’ve started a quotation here, but I can’t see where it ends.

Also, in general I think your paper is starting to get a little quote-heavy. MIght want to paraphrase a bunch of these quotes. Quote only when the author’s original use of words is particularly excellent or significant.

[N7]If you’re going to use this word, you should probably define it for people.

[N8]This paragraph, like some of your others, is too long. Magazine articles in particular tend to write with shorter paragraphs than you may be used to. 4-5 sentences per paragraph is usually the maximum. Split your paragraphs more often.

[N9]This comma needs to come out.

[N10]Note how this quote doesn’t really make sense because Reynolds is referring to something she wrote earlier, which doesn’t appear in your paper. This is a good sign that you should be paraphrasing, or at least excising certain information from your quote.

[N11]Off to a good start. You’re not quite at the word minimum, so might want to add some material. Perhaps examples of famous barefoot runners? More discussion of the concerns about possible injury? Overall, though, this is looking good and I imagine the final draft should be strong if you do a thorough revision and expansion.