The way to get to the proper technique is to continually reduce stress and energy waste.<p>For example, you start off landing heel first, and realize that when you do that, you can't effectively soften the landing and your heel hurts.  So you land on the ball of your big toe.  This allows the entire foot-ankle system to act as the initial shock absorber.<p>After that you realize the ball of your big toe might start hurting, so you adjust your foot so that you land with even pressure across the balls of all toes.<p>Then you learn to land with knees a little more bent.<p>Then you learn to reduce unnecessary vertical energy transfer.<p>Then you learn to balance your upper body in the proper position ...and so on until you can't figure out a way to reduce stress or energy waste any further.<p>If you've optimized for stress reduction and energy, you'll have nailed the perfect form for your given joint and muscle structure.<p>I broke my right ankle pretty badly (not from running) many years ago, and for that reason the positioning of my right foot when I land is slightly different than for my left foot.  This is because the joint structure is different between both ankles.