The way in which everyone walks is incredibly distinctive and hardly any one walks the same way. There are so many different major as well as slight minor variants. These variances can help to identify people on CCTV video clips as part of forensic investigations and also beneficial in gait studies to investigate clinical issues. There are now authorities in the analysis of gait for the forensic recognition. As well as that there are now some very sophisticated equipment and techniques for the clinical gait analysis. Both the forensic and clinical gait analyses focus on what it is that makes us distinctive in the manner which we walk and to evaluate those distinctions.
One of those varieties is what is known as an abductory twist. This is commonly observed in clinical gait analyses as it may have implications for the treatment of biomechanical abnormalities. When we walk, as the heel lifts of the ground, the hindfoot should comes up straight. However, in a group of people just as the heel comes up off the floor there can be a rapid movement of the heel medially or towards the opposite foot. Often it is only visible to those that are experienced with looking for it or on a video clip if the video clip is slowed down. There are several possible reasons for this. One is overpronation of the foot, which is a rolling of the ankle inwards and a flattening of the arch of the foot. An additional probable cause is a functional hallux limitus which is a problem with the big toe joint not functioning correctly. There is some discussion if this is actually a clinical problem or not. This is because many think about this as a symptom of the issue rather than a real issue. They consider that treatment really should be geared towards the reason why rather than the abductory twist. The presence or lack of an abductory twist could even be part of the forensic investigation.