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EBFA partners with OTP Books to provide the professional with the latest in human movement and neuroscience audio lectures.
ankle instability & Proprioception Training
When asked about ankle stability training, most people think of wobble boards and other forms of balance training. Podiatrist Emily Splichal flips that idea in this discussion of how proprioceptive training works, then provides her suggestions for building a successful ankle stability program.
"The Journal of Athletic Training study showed it took 54 milliseconds for the peroneal muscle proprioceptors-the muscle spindles-to detect the stretch of that inversion ankle moment. It took another 72 milliseconds for the peroneals to reactively contract to try to prevent the ankle sprain.
The afferent signal took 54 milliseconds. The efferent signal took 72 milliseconds. Together, that's 126 milliseconds, but guess what? It only takes 80 milliseconds to invert and sprain an ankle. This study and many others showed focusing on personal reaction time might not be the best for truly improving functional ankle instability." - Dr Emily Splichal
Price: $4.95 USD
Barefoot Training for power & agility
From heel strike to push-off, our foot dictates the way our body responds and reacts to human movement and athletic performance. The coordinated eccentric and concentric of the foot musculature often dictates the speed, strength and power of an athlete. Learn how to apply barefoot training principles to optimize foot function in the client or athlete that is looking for an advantage. Get ready to take the concept of barefoot training to a whole new level!
Price: $4.95 USD
Fascial tensioning & the future of proprioceptive training
In this 40-minute talk, podiatrist Emily Splichal talks about proprioceptive training by challenging our thinking of joint stability and unstable surface training. You'll finish this lecture with a new understanding of proprioception, kinesthetic awareness, joint position sense and small nerve barefoot fascial training.
"As we age, we start to lose or get a delayed response to shifts in joint position sense, which is often how we result in falls. The feedback or the connective tissue that provides this joint position sense is the joint capsule, the ligaments, the retinaculum, fascia and myotendinous junction structures as well as the skin.
What's important to note is that all of these connective tissues respond to similar stimuli, but they don't respond at the same rate, and that's important as well. When we think about the nervous system, proprioception movement and dynamic joint stability, the most important thing that I want you to think about is time.
How quickly can your nervous system 1. sense that shift, as well as 2. how quickly can your nervous system process it and then respond to it? That's ultimately how we control dynamic movement. With the nervous system, you want to think 'time.' How quickly can your nervous system sense, process and respond? That's really how you want to design your training" - Dr Emily Splichal
Price: $4.95 USD
Footwear for fitness & Performance
In this lecture, podiatrist Dr Emily Splichal discusses footwear, the most current footwear science, and the shoe needs of different sports. She also covers orthotics, minimalist shoes and other footwear topics.
"It's not the shoe that's absorbing the shock. Dr Nigg's research dispelled this myth and showered that impact forces increase as more cushioning is put in shoes. A little counterintuitive, yes, but also true.
Similar studies looked at the level of impact of gymnasts - how hard they would land. When a gymnast would land on a softer mat as opposed to a harder mat, the impact forces increased. The same concept applies to shoes. Put more cushioning in shoes, like they did in the 1970s and we will see an increase in impact forces.
Here's how it happens: That cushion bottoms out and increases the contact time with the ground. We know it is the amount of contact time that increases the risk of injury. When we work with athletes, our goal is to get them off of the ground as fast as we can. Cushioning the shoes is going to bell out that force curve and will increase the contact time." - Dr Emily Splichal
Price: $5.95 USD
Human Locomotion | Unleashing the power of propulsion
Dr Emily Splichal has a passion for teaching barefoot training. Her goal in this lecture is to teach you how to integrate corrective exercise techniques or strategies to optimize the propulsive phase of gait in your clients, athletes and patients.
"The key to unleashing the greatest amount of power of propulsion is hidden within the posterior tibialis. The optimal function within the posterior tibialis is linked through ankle joint dorsiflexion, the strength of that posterior tibialis muscle itself and a coupled motion through the hip external rotators." - Dr Emily Splichal
Price: $3.95 USD
understanding overuse injuries & impact forces
Overuse injuries are commonly associated with the force of impact from the ground, but is there more we should be watching for? And are there ways to mitigate impact force? In this session, podiatrist Dr Emily Splichal explains how to think about impact and how footwear can help or hurt your clients, athletes and patients.
"Every single one of us, our clients and our patients, use impact forces with every step we take, so regardless of our client's age and activity level, we need to think about this concept of impact forces and how we can actually start to shape our programming around improving movement efficiency or our perception of impact forces." - Dr Emily Splichal