The influence of soccer cleat design on resultant joint moments

Footwear traction has previously been associated with lower extremity injury such as ankle and knee sprains. Recent changes in soccer shoe cleat design such as the introduction of bladed cleats have the potential to dramatically affect footwear traction. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine how soccer cleats of different designs and traction influence resultant ankle and knee joint moments during soccer movements. Two traditional soccer cleat designs and one bladed cleat design were compared to a standard running shoe as the control condition. Translational and rotational traction of the shoes on artificial turf were measured using a Stewart platform. Ankle and knee joint moments were quantified on a group of 12 recreational soccer players while performing cutting and turning movements at 4.0 m s−1 on the same artificial turf. All soccer shoes had significantly higher rotational traction than the running shoe but there were no significant differences between cleat designs. The bladed cleat design had significantly higher translational traction than the traditional cleat designs. As a result, the bladed cleat design that was tested appears effective at decoupling translational and rotational traction characteristics of soccer shoes, which could potentially be beneficial in reducing injuries. There were no significant differences in resultant ankle and knee joint moments between the shoes during the cutting movement. During the turning movement, the cleated shoes had significantly higher ankle and knee rotation moments than the control running shoe. Thus, increased rotational traction increases ankle and knee joint loading which in turn could lead to a greater incidence of injury, however, it is important to note that this was only true during a rotational movement.