Understanding the impact of athlete footwear selection on performance and injury risk with Athol Thomson

In this episode of the Pacey Performance Podcast, Rob is speaking to Podiatrist & Research Scientist at Aspetar, Athol Thomson. Athol is on the podcast to speak about the impact of athlete footwear on performance and injury risk but also about playing surface and how that affects injury risk. But not only that, he is hear to give recommendations for what practitioners can do to reduce these risks.

In the first half of the episode Athol discusses what impact footwear can have on injuries from a global perspective. He then dives into the detail when it comes to footwear that is made for soft ground, hard ground and artificial ground. This leads to him discussing rotational forces and why its important to consider these forces when advising on footwear.

In the second half of the episode he discusses if we can mitigate some of the unresearched (but well discussed) issues when transitioning between different surfaces. And can practitioners get a better, more detailed idea about the playing surface prior to his/her players running out so more objective decisions can be made on footwear selection.

This is an under discussed area among the sports science and S&C community but it could have a huge impact on our athletes injury risk should we understand more.

Give it a listen!

Main talking points -

• Population specific footwear
• "Pink it and shrink it" philosophy of boot manufactuers
• Guidance for practitioners on understanding their playing surfaces better
• Shoe selection and playing surface
• The importance of understanding rotational forces and footwear
• Training the foot - this could be a big topic if you're up for going deeper on it?
• Boot selection and injury risk