A biomechanical analysis of the plantar surface of soccer shoes

Harmful cleats of football boots: a biomechanical evaluation

BACKGROUND

Football players wear boots of varying cleat designs with some preferring the bladed cleats while others opting for the conventional studded cleats. The current study compares biomechanically the boots with differing cleat designs and their effect on feet, if any.

METHODS

Twenty-nine healthy male volunteers were recruited from amateur football teams. They were asked to perform three trials each of two activities: a straight run and a run cutting at a 60° angle wearing bladed and studded Adidas®-F series boots on artificial turf. Plantar pressure values were recorded using the Pedar®-X in-shoe pressure measuring device. Peak pressure and pressure-time integral were analysed over 11 clinically relevant areas under the foot.

RESULTS

While the in-shoe pressure and pressure-time integral were higher under the medial half of the foot with studded boots, they were higher under the lateral half of the foot with the bladed design.

CONCLUSIONS

The studded boots can be considered safer as the pressure distribution across the foot and the pattern of centre of pressure progression mimicked the normal motif, whereas the bladed boots could potentially be deemed relatively more harmful due to the unnatural increased loading under the lateral half of the foot, predisposing the foot to injuries.

Shoe-surface interaction and the reduction of injury in rugby union

While it is quite clear that footwear can provide protection against lower limb injury in running and some court sports, the literature related to footwear design and injury prevention in most sports played on natural turf is limited. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the design of footwear for rugby union and rugby league. Therefore, in this article, information from other sporting codes will be applied to the design and performance characteristics of footwear and surfaces in an attempt to understand the causes of equipment-related injuries in rugby. A complete understanding of the complex interactions between the leg, foot, footwear and the surface has not yet been achieved and as a consequence, precise footwear design criteria to minimise injury, while not compromising the performance aspects of shoe design, have yet to be established. The variable surface conditions experienced by players makes it difficult to provide recommendations as to the ideal footwear for all (or any) conditions. Equally, the ground reaction loads experienced by each player (and playing position) vary sufficiently to make generalisations difficult. Also the foot-fall pattern during weight-bearing is highly individualised and further prohibits making general recommendations about selecting footwear for rugby.

Biomechanics of sports and sports injuries

This overview paper summarizes recent work on the biomechanics of sports activities, prevention and repair of sporting injuries with reports on the papers presented at the Eighteenth Annual Day Conference, held in Leeds on 8 January 1993, by the Bioengineering Group for the Study of Human Joints in association with the Biological Engineering Society.