DESIGN CRITERIA FOR SOCCER FOOTWEAR ON EARTH PITCHES

Antonio Martínez, Pedro Pérez, Javier Gámez, Juan Carlos González, Lirios Dueñas, Roberto Ferrandis.

Institute of Biomechanics of Valencia (IBV) Valencia. Spain.

The footwear used for soccer practise on earth pitches requires different characteristics from the one used on other surfaces. There are no studies focussed on this type of footwear. The study presented has two main objectives; knowing the actual problems related to the footwear used on earth pitches and generate suitable criteria for this type of footwear. User panels and surveys about epidemiology were carried out; The comfort perceived by footballers with different footwear models was valued, as well as the analysis of the plantar pressures in this footwear using the plantar pressures measuring equipment Biofoot/IBV. The results allowed to identify the most valuable aspects of this footwear; sprain of ankle and knee are the most frequent injuries, and the 1^st and 5^th metatarsian are the zones that undergo the highest magnitude of pressures with the analysed soccer footwear for earth pitches.