Post 1 — Why Center of Pressure (COP) Is the Gold-Standard of Gait Control

What COP actually tells you

• Stability & balance control: COP motion quantifies postural control; greater variability/velocity often indicates lower stability.
• Dynamic gait mechanics: The COP trajectory is an indirect manifestation of COM (center of mass) control—useful for assessing walking stability.
• Clinical insights & orthotics: COP trajectory during stance can elucidate foot pathology and help assess orthotic effectiveness; COP velocity correlates with gait speed and efficiency.

Why many insoles can't do COP (and why walkpad can)

COP needs high-density pressure maps across the whole foot plus adequate sampling. Sparse sensors can't resolve a smooth, reliable COP path—so many "gait" insoles skip it. walkpad computes true COP from a dense sensor matrix with IMU fusion.

Takeaways for runners, coaches, clinicians

• If your gait tool doesn't compute COP path and velocity, you're missing the most informative stability/control signals.
• Use COP to track progress, orthotic tuning, and return-to-sport decisions.

Selected references