Like a lot of other topics (eg overpronation and supination resistance), I have a lot to say about the windlass mechanism of the foot. The windlass mechanism is the foot’s own natural way of supporting itself, so it is crucial that it functions well and there be nothing wrong with the way that it works. Interventions used to treat foot and lower limb problems need to facilitate rather than inhibit that mechanism
Podiatry Arena has a lot of valuable information and threads on the windlass mechanism including all of the research published over many years and I wrote about our research and all of the windlass dysfunctions at my running blog. I have just been tasked with sorting the windlass mechanism page at PodiaPaedia, so looking forward to sorting that out.