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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of soccer shoes with differing bending stiffness on physiological and performance variables in a game-like situation. A sample of 13 male soccer players was recruited to complete this study. Three soccer shoes with different forefoot bending stiffness (low, medium, high) were compared using a continuous field-based work protocol (the Soccer-25). Participants performed the Soccer-25 while the physiological (rate of oxygen consumption, heart rate, ventilation, and rate of energy expenditure) and performance variables (drill completion times) were recorded. The Soccer-25 consists of seven phases, Drills 1–3 and Shuttle Runs 1–4. A one-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to determine whether there were any significant effects for soccer shoe condition for each of the physiological and performance variables. The medium-stiffness shoe was significantly lower than the high-stiffness shoe for a number of physiological variables, including global oxygen consumption (p = 0.044), heart rate during Drills 2 (p = 0.043), ventilation during Shuttle Run 4 (p = 0.016), global energy expenditure (p = 0.043), and rate of energy expenditure during Drills 1 (p = 0.044). The low stiffness shoe was not significantly different from the medium- or high-stiffness shoes. No significant differences were found for any of the performance variables. Soccer shoe forefoot bending stiffness significantly affects the physiological variables in a game-like situation.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all participants for their time and effort with this study. This work was supported by adidas, AG.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.