Football boots in the AFL. Interview with Matthew Appleton, Melbourne Football Club Podiatrist.

We’ve hit round 7 of the amateur football season which see’s us continuing to help many eager player’s in to boots for the 2012 season. With a mix of warmer weekends and rainy game days we’ve found our customers have been searching for one pair of boots that can handle differing ground conditions.

Our Asics range was selected due to its EVA (foam) midsole which offers protection from impact on harder grounds, and the versatile cleat and moulded stud configurations.

I spoke with Matt Appleton, Podiatrist to Melbourne Football Club, during the week about his experience with professional football players. For Matt the most common preventable foot related injuries he sees in professional athletes are Plantar Fasciitis, Achilles and calf soreness along with Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome (commonly known as ‘shin splints’). When asked about common complaints that players have with their football boots he reported ‘there are few issues with boots these days, the modern boot is a very good bit of kit’, he went on to explain ‘the only trouble occurs if they fail to break them in slowly’, which is important for players from any code or any level to learn from.

Like with most AFL clubs, Matt explains that the use of football boots during training sessions is limited throughout pre-season, ‘the transition from runners to a hard ground boot like the [Asics] Lethal is a carefully controlled process’, and when it comes to having a few different boots on the go Matt says ‘some players will train in say a [Asics] Lethal and play in their traditional boot like a [Asics]Tigreor. Most will never train in a screw in boot’. Unfortunately, for most junior or amateur players having two boot options would be a luxury they are not exposed to, which is why Asics have designed their range especially for our Aussie ground conditions and variations.