Talk:Gait (human)

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Untitled[edit]

9/1/21 Would people mind if I made a crack at updating this page significantly? It is all over the place and somewhat unreadable. For example this article starts off with 'foot strike' during sprinting and running, then transitions into control of gait, and only then finally actually classifies the main human gaits (e.g. walking, running). I can't imagine that is what people actually want when looking at this page. I think it would be much better by just outlining the main actual information for these common, normal gaits. It seems like it should start with natural gaits and then get more involved from there rather than starting with some of the more random sub-ideas. It also seems like it should be broken up into several smaller pages, such as 'neuro control of gait', which is almost enough for its own page as written. Source- Have masters in biomechanics studying gait, now a medical doctor working in gait rehabilitation. Richgellis (talk) 19:39, 1 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]


So, um. If moonwalking gets its own paragraph, don't okuri-ashi and ayumi-ashi deserve at least a mention? Respectively, they are: Ayumi-ashi resembles a normal walk, but the toes slide on the ground instead of leaving it, and the body is pushed forward with the back foot. Okuri-ashi, in addition to those, maintains one foot in front of the other, so that one always pushes the body and the other always stabilizes it. They are taught in various schools of Japanese swordsmanship, and possibly other martial arts as well.


—Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.207.18.53 (talk) 11:48, 3 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I copyied the discussion page directly over, considering it was entirely about my addenda. I also blanked out the discussion page for gait.


Just some elaborations on my addenda:

  • Hop is a single-beat gait, where both legs take-off and land together. It's only practical use it to prevent potential differences when around downed high-voltage wires, although run proprely should provide the same safety. Hop also applies to when only a single foot is used. This gait is useful if one of the legs can no longer be used for locomotion.
  • Skip is a 3-beat gait where the beat of one foot is repeated (L,L,R, or R,R,L.) It is typically considered an expression of giddiness, but it can be used in the place of run when one limb is injured but can still be used.
    • I think of it as more like a 6-beat gait, where each foot is repeated in a "swing" rhythm (L,-,L,R,-,R). My daughter uses this to some effect since it enables her to match my stride when we're moving swiftly. --Phil | Talk 10:21, Aug 5, 2004 (UTC)
  • Hobble is a 2-beat gait where one foot travels significantly less than the other. This is typically used instead of a walk to favour a non-injured limb.
  • Crawl is a 4-beat gait of the hands and knees, similar to a horse's walk.
  • Bear Crawl is similar to crawl except that it uses the hands and feet instead of hands and knees.
  • Side-Step is a 2-beat gait where one foot travels to the side and then has the other foot is brought to meet it.
  • Leopard Crawl uses the elbows or forearms instead of hands and is a 2-beat gait that minimizes silouette. Where crawl keeps the body an arm's length from the ground, leopard crawl has the body near and often touching the ground.
  • Tiger Crawl uses hands and both the knees and feet (depending upon the situation.) It is similar to a horse's trot.
  • Knee Walk is a 2-beat gait that starts with one foot and the other knee on the ground. The kneeling foot is brought forward and the standing foot rotates down to a kneel. This is used to keep the centre-of-mass as close to the ground as possible, (by force or volition,) while still being able to fight and move.
  • March, Carry, Ghost Walk, Speed Walk, Flow and Backpedal are considered part of the walk gait, although they all use different geometries for locomotion.
  • Jog and Sprint are considered part of the run gait, although, like the previous, both offer different geometries.
  • Crawl refers to any gait that uses 4-limbs instead of the usual 2, and it is also a specific type of gait.
  • Hand walking, while it can be considered a sepperate gaits uses the movements of the other bipedals gaits, (Hand Walking, Hand Running, Hand Side-Step, etc.)

Lots of info[edit]

It looks like you have enough here to create a whole new article on the topic of human gaits. I recommend that they be put into an article dedicated to the specific topic (such as gait (human), perhaps) and out of this disambiguation page (or its discussion page). Discussion pages furthermore probably shouldn't be references for live content. KeithTyler 05:29, Aug 5, 2004 (UTC)

This page needs cleanup[edit]

It needs copy-editing and wikifying. I have done some of this, but there are proably still errors. Also, no sources have been quoted. All of this information needs to be verifyable.

Respecfully dispute teh uselessness of Bear Walk.[edit]

I have frequently seen elderly people in physiotherapy and rehabilitation asked to walk the Bear Walk. I would surmise, without any medical expertise whatsoever, that this is to improve balance, and particularly control of the point of contact the supporting foot has on the terrain. (Analogously, perhaps, to the reason why Sumo wrestlers do an exaggerated Bear Walk in place. Although that may be pure ceremony; I suppose.) -- Cimon avaro; on a pogostick. 01:59, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Order in terms of speed?[edit]

How are all these paces movement rates in rationship to each other? I know that these 8 are in order from slowest to fastest: tiptoe, crawl, hop, walk, skip, jog, dash, run. For those of you that don't know tiptoe is when move on your top of your toes by a toe length at a time while dash is moving along by sliding your feet and using your upper body weight to gain extra speed.

206.251.4.254 invinible

Dutch skipping video[edit]

That's got to be a joke, right? I'm pretty sure the "traffic cop" is just one of the two skipping guys wearing a windbreaker, sunglasses and a cop hat. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.76.226.135 (talk) 05:31, 5 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]


Yeah. It seems to be 100% a joke. The accents are ridiculous, and most of the audio is related only vaguely to the video. -Nathan M. Holden

Goose-step?[edit]

Where is the mention of goose-stepping? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.75.47.88 (talk) 19:01, 14 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And what about skootching?[edit]

Much as I LOVE LOVE LOVE the phrase "the fancy skun", it seems to exist only on this page and the various pages that have swiped its text. Somebody please prove me wrong and supply a credible example of someone skunning. I got burned bad on that whole "shpants/shankles" thing. Asat (talk) 09:40, 4 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Quick![edit]

I couldn't help but notice the animation on this page is nominated for deletion. It is the walking robot! Go here and here for the image and deletion notice and contest the deletion here.

Mod MMG (User Page) Reply on my talkpage. Do NOT click this link 22:04, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]


The discussion has been closed and the result was KEEP. The file is now safe again.
Mod MMG (User Page) Reply on my talkpage. Do NOT click this link 09:00, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]


Some other admin decided to change the outcome, the file has now been deleted and a new picture placed on the page.
Mod MMG (User Page) Reply on my talkpage. Do NOT click this link 22:18, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

mincing, swaggering etc[edit]

mincing, swaggering etc are missing as listed in one of desmond morrises books.--Penbat (talk) 13:22, 27 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Edit by user:Mokele[edit]

I totally disagree. Desmond Morris, in one of his books (Manwatching: A Field Guide to Human Behaviour if i remember rightly), gives an excellent list of about 15 common walking gait styles (including marching, swaggering and mincing) that apply to the average person rather than uncommon eccentric types of walking listed here such as moonwalking or knee-walking. I think there is a better case for chucking out some of the excentric gaits listed here and concentrating on Morris's gait styles which are more typical of an average person. And you can hardly say that swaggering in the sense of walking is not notable where here it is given as the first meaning of the word "swagger". http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/swagger --Penbat (talk) 15:59, 27 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"Presidential swaggering" is swaggering adopted by some US presidents.. You can't be serious. --Fama Clamosa (talk) 17:15, 27 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's complete horseshit. Fama, thanks for deleting that lot, I should have purged the article a long time ago. Mokele (talk) 03:27, 28 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Human locomotion[edit]

Much of the stuff in here is to do with human locomotion such as side stepping. We already have animal locomotion. We should have a "human locomotion" article so much of the crap here can be moved there so this article just covers gaits.--Penbat (talk) 20:33, 27 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Is that to add more unreferenced crap or just to add more void sub-sections? --Fama Clamosa (talk) 21:51, 27 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Change of terms[edit]

Move to change the "strike" patterns to "landing" patterns. Better fits the running... we land, if we strike - will not be doing it for long time as it hurts.

Gender differences[edit]

Reference 10 is highly questionable - the study only involved 16 subjects in one specific geographic location; I think we all know people are WAY to varied and complex to draw general conclusions from such a thing. Also, the evaluation by the experts seems really really fuzzy and not scientific (i.e., not repeatable). Furthermore, there were only two people that gave this subjective evaluation of the 16 subjects. I don't think the journalist of the article should even have reported on this, as it doesn't really tell us anything conclusively at all, but possibly suggests further research.

I think it should be removed as a reference from this article. This is one of the main things that gives Wikipedia the negative side of its reputation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eboomer (talkcontribs) 00:09, 28 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Walk[edit]

Is there really a description of how a human should go about walking? I mean, really? Not complaining about the content, it is clearly relevant, but isn't it a bit redundant, most people learn how to walk well before they can read these instructions.

m8e39 11:51, 4 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Understanding walking gait or any locomotion/movement task is important for determining deviations. The intent of studying walking is not to tell people how to walk, but rather understand the complex multijoint coordination strategy that is walking. Deviations from what is typically seen can suggest risks for injury, improve performance, and even inform technological advances for robotics. It can be important for individuals who need to re-learn how to walk after a traumatic injury and even elderly individuals who struggle to balance while walking. There are so many applications that could not be done without this basic understanding of human walking gait.

129.120.103.205 (talk) 17:58, 11 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

RM notice[edit]

 – Pointer to relevant discussion elsewhere

The discussion at Talk:Gait (dog)#RM may affect this article's title.  — SMcCandlish ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ʌ≼  13:09, 22 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Abnormal gait patterns[edit]

Could someone please expand on the abnormal gait patterns? Specifically, it would be nice to explain what each gait pattern looks like. It's a great start to have a description of the situations each gait pattern is most commonly found in, but actually giving a description of what each looks like would be helpful. NJ (talk) 00:37, 13 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Merge proposal[edit]

Proposing a merge to Key determinants of gait to here on the grounds that it is all about human gait (rather than gait in general) and might add something to the mechanics. It's also a long-standing orphan. Klbrain (talk) 18:02, 18 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

  checkY Merger complete. Klbrain (talk) 20:25, 20 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]