Effects of badminton insole design on stress distribution, displacement and bone rotation of ankle joint during single-leg landing: a finite element analysis

Previous research has reported that up to 92% of injuries amongst badminton players consist of lower limb, whereby 35% of foot fractures occurred at the metatarsal bone. In sports, insoles are widely used to increase athletes' performance and prevent many injuries. However, there is still a lack of badminton insole analysis and improvements. Therefore, this study aimed to biomechanically analyse three different insole designs. A validated and converged three-dimensional (3D) finite element model of ankle–foot complex was developed, which consisted of the skin, talus, calcaneus, navicular, three cuneiform, cuboid, five metatarsals and five phalanges. Three existing insoles from the market, (1) Yonex Active Pro Truactive, (2) Victor VT-XD 8 and (3) Li-Ning L6200LA, were scanned using a 3D scanner. For the analysis, single-leg landing was simulated. On the superior surface of the skin, 2.57 times of the bodyweight was axially applied, and the inferior surface of the outsole was fixed. The results showed that Insole 3 was the most optimum design to reduce peak stress on the metatarsals (3.807 MPa). In conclusion, the optimum design of Insole 3, based on the finite element analysis, could be a justification of athletes' choices to prevent injury and other complications.