A Comparison of Cleat Types During Two Soccer Specific Tasks on FieldTurf

Robin M Queen ^1*, Brian L. Charnock ¹, William E Garrett Jr¹, W Mack Hardaker ², Ershela L Sims ¹ and Claude T Moorman III³

¹ Duke University, United States
² Duke Universtity, United States
³ Duke University Medical Center, United States

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: robin.queen{at}duke.edu.

Accepted 9 August 2007

Abstract

Objective: Examine the effect of different cleat plate configurations on plantar pressure during two tasks.

Design: Thirty-six athletes ran an agility course 5 times while wearing 4 different types of Nike Vitoria Cleats: 1) Bladed, 2) Elliptical Firm Ground, 3) Hard Ground, and 4) Turf. Plantar pressure data were recorded during a side cut and a cross cut using Pedar-X insoles.

Setting: Controlled Laboratory Study.

Participants: No history of lower extremity injury in the past six months, no previous foot or ankle surgery, not currently wearing foot orthotics, and play a cleated sport at least 2 times per week.

Main Outcome Measurements: Contact area, total foot contact time, maximum force, total foot peak pressure, and the force-time integral (FTI) in the medial, middle and lateral regions of the forefoot. A 1x4 ANOVA (alpha=0.05) was performed on each dependent variable. A Bonferroni adjustment was conducted (á=0.008). Results: In the cross cut task, statistical differences between cleats were observed in three variables: Total Foot Peak Pressure, Lateral Forefoot FTI, and Lateral Forefoot Normalized Maximum Force. In the side cut task, statistical differences between cleats were observed in 4 variables: Total Foot Peak Pressure, the Medial and Middle Forefoot FTI, and the Medial and Middle Forefoot Normalized Maximum Force.

Conclusions: Significant differences in forefoot loading patterns existed between cleat types. Based on the results of this study, it might be beneficial to increase the forefoot cushioning in cleats in an attempt to decrease loading of this region of the foot.

Key Words: cleat type comparison, cross cut, injury prevention, side cut, soccer

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Commentary 1 on "A comparison of cleat types during two football-specific tasks on FieldTurf"

Michael Orendurff
Br. J. Sports Med. 2008 42: 284. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]