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Ankle flexibility (ability to dorsiflex and plantarflex) is important to racewalkers for several reasons. General flexibility combined with appropriate strength is important in injury prevention. Plantarflexion (toes moved away from the shin) is part of the pushing movement as the foot leaves the ground that gives us power. Dorsiflexion (toes brought closer to the shin) is vital in extending the heel forward at the moment of contact, and pushing the heel towards the ground so as to comply with the contact rule. Dorsiflexion is also important in being able to squat – squatting being a basic athletic movement (and a basic human movement in everyday life), and also one of the best exercises available for increasing leg strength. If you try to squat but can’t get your bum down because it feels like you’re going to fall over backwards – then probably, you can’t dorsiflex your ankles sufficiently.
All sorts of things through life – inactivity, history of twisted ankles, history of wearing shoes with built-up heels – can work to reduce the flexibility of the ankle joint. If you have a dorsiflexion problem, it will sometimes be caused by a problem of bone positioning at the front of the ankle, but more often by lack of flexibility in the gastrocnemius muscle (the big muscle visible at the top of the calf), the achilles tendon (which attaches the gastrocnemius muscle to the heelbone) or the soleus muscle (the smaller and lower muscle of the calf which lies partly under the achilles tendon).
This Youtube clip – from 1:11 to 3:54 – describes how to do the Wall Test to see if you have enough dorsiflexion ability in your ankles. From 3:54 to 6:00 it describes stretching exercises to improve dorsiflexion.
This Youtube clip shows how to foam-roll calves – you can roll both the gastrocnemius and the soleus as shown, or just the lower part of your calf for the soleus, or just the upper (bulgy) part for the gastrocnemius. (But best done on bare skin or in thin, flexible clothing, rather than clothing with folds and gathers.)
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