A few years ago I attended a coaches clinic at Park Center High School in Brooklyn Park. A mid-distance coach from Penn State spoke about shin splints. He suggested that the reason kids get shin splints is that they haven’t spent enough time running with their shoes off. Barefoot running, he argued, strengthens the feet and lower leg.
As a preventative measure for shin splints, the Penn State coach had his kids run on grass from time to time. This makes perfect sense because shin splints are caused by over-functioning shoes replacing the work that should be done by feet and muscles in the lower leg. The form closest to the form we should use when we run in shoes, is the form we have when we run without them.