Book excerpt: Observational Gait Analysis is written to assist physical therapists and physicians to effectively evaluate pathological gait. It presents a method of gait analysis which can easily be applied in the clinic. The first edition, Normal and Pathological Gait Syllabus, was published in 1981. In 1989 theObservational Gait Analysis Handbook was published. The third edition contains changes in the normal joint ranges of motion as a result of more sophisticated and accurateequipment. Muscle actively has been revised to reflect data from a larger sample size. The phases and functional tasks are defined, and a problem solving approach to observational gaitanalysis is presented.