Anja Wagner

Honestly I do not know yet. What I can say for me is that I did use the tripod theory for myself, I learned it in physiotherapy after a foot surgery on my right foot 9 years ago. On my way to functional feet (as far as I can go) I think now I have to leave the tripod theory - and learn to shift my weight evenly on the forefoot, not trying to lift any metatarsals to get a unweighted area/a arch while standing. That was what I thought it should be like - Lee´s theory got me thinking about that assumption of an unweighted area in the forefoot. The over-pronation in my right ankle is quite corrected when I get the hallux on the this side in the "right" position, more to the midline of the body. It might be an chicken or egg issue - what did came first - the over-pronation or the hallux ankle. What I think is that if I start to fix the function of the toes and the forefoot, the effect can go, after adaptation time, upstream the body. I´m just starting to earn practical experiences with other bodies and I will take the content of this discussion for me to learn more. Probably I will report back! Seems to be good times for the proprioreception in the feet! From my personal experience I can tell that this a good direction 🙂

Thanks Kit, for the context given. It is really helpful for me to read how you approach to look at reality in context with the body. I agree with you on that! As I am not that deep in sense of understanding into the mentioned theories yet, neither Kapandji´s nor Lee´s and as I wanted to respond something useful I posted our conversation first in to the "foot map practitioner forum", and asked if there is any comment - and Lee Saxby has a comment to it, I want to share with you: "Hi Anja,It's always a pleasure to see intelligent dialogue regarding the subject of the human foot and it's function : )This conversation is particularly interesting to me because discarding the conceptual model (and the subsequent visualisation ) of the human foot as a tripod was instrumental to my understanding of pedography and the creation of the foot map system.To quote one of my favourite 'thinkers' Alfred Korzybski, father of General Semantics:'The map is not the territory it represents but if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for it's usefulness'(This quote is the reason I labelled my pedograph the 'Functional Foot Map'.)In my experience, attempting to recaoncile the 'tripod theory' with my observations of healthy, functional footprints and gait patterns was consistently 'paradoxical' which motivated me to look for alternative models of foot function. Upon diving into the biomechanical literature on the subject I discovered that the 'tripod theory' appeared as a theory in the late 1800s in German medical textbooks and slowly evolved into a medical 'fact' over time and still exists today despite the anatomical and biomechanical evidence that disproves the theory (more details here https://functionalfootmap.com/pages/the-functional-foot-defined)Faulty maps usually lead to long painful journeysLee x"

Thanks, Kit! Here is how I understand it. I think the tripod perspective is a helpful cue to realign the movement pattern of the standing and walking, for example in a over-pronation scenario. The problem that might arise from the tripod perspective is, that the weight of the body is not necessarily evenly distributed over the foot, respectively on all of the five metatarsal heads and the half dome area between the heel and forefoot. In the tripod scenario the weight is more into the heel and the first and fifth metatarsal head. The functional foot as Lee defines it has the weight on the foot evenly distributed as a half dome. On a flat ground standing and relaxed foot, there is no transverse arch from the first to the fifth metatarsal and no longitudinal lateral arch from the fifth metatarsal to the heel. That´s a crucial difference to the tripod view, as far as I know. To correct over-pronation I think Lee would at first create a footprint on a pedograph and analyze this "snapshot" - for example to look at the current stabilisation line of the hallux, the hight of the arch and pressure patterns through the foot during walking. He uses as well the "twisted plate theory" of the foot. A over-pronated foot might be to "untwisted" and "twisting exercises" for the foot might be helpful to mobilize the heel and the forefoot. The way a human walks, his squat ability, pain patterns, injury history, currents sports, age, weight etc. should be put into context with the snapshot from the pedograph. All this information can be used to find exercises to correct over-pronation. This might be a simplification of Lee´s insights, anyway, that is what I got out of it. If this writing needs more clarification, I will write more about what I learned from Lee Saxby and maybe you could help me to put it more into context.

Dear members - I might have something that adds to your knowledge about feet. I had the opportunity to spent time with Lee Saxby, who invested quite a lot of time investigating the human foot. Before I met him I had the theory of the human foot as a tripod in mind. Lee Saxby and colleagues defined a functional foot in this way: "The functional foot provides a half-dome weight-bearing surface that is supported by the stabilising action of the toes." >>> https://www.leesaxby.com/functional-feet-defined I know you are aware about the importance of toe function already, but the references listed on the website might be something to refer to. And Lee writes about, why the foot as a tripod might be a theory to overcome. P.S.: This is my first post in this forum, I have been reading several posts in this forum already, had contact time with Kit and Olivia (Workshop and Teacher Training) - and hope the post adds to knowledge and improves foot function for people