The Biomechanical Analysis of Cleat vs Trainers on Running Form in Soccer Athletes

Anterior and posterior tibial stress injuries in soccer athletes are prevalent, especially during collegiate preseason training. During soccer preseason, there is typically an increase in the volume and intensity of aerobic and anaerobic conditioning as well as increased focus on soccer-specific skill and technique development compared to the summer off-season training. In addition to this increase in physical demand, players often transition from wearing predominantly running shoes (i.e. trainers) to cleats. The structural differences of these pieces of footwear vary greatly and could lead to different biomechanical stresses to the lower limb. In this study, we tested 17 female and 9 male Division III collegiate soccer athletes using RunScribe shoe pods to examine biomechanical differences during jogging and sprinting in cleats versus trainers. The main purpose of this study was to examine the differences in foot biomechanics between cleats and running shoes in female and male NCAA collegiate soccer athletes. We hypothesized that there would be significant biomechanical differences between the two shoes.