EFFECT OF EXERCISE TRAINING AND ARCH SUPPORTED INSOLES ON BALANCE AND VERTICAL JUMP PERFORMANCE IN FOOTBALL PLAYERS WITH FOOT PRONATION

G. Karadeniz¹, E. Üstün²

¹FootBalance Turkey, Istanbul, Turkey, ²Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey

Background: Football is one of the most popular sports in the world and participation in the sport causes a large amount of acute and chronic injuries in players of every age and at all playing levels. Lower extremity injuries are an ongoing concern for professional football players and according the surveillance system reports football injuries have steadily increased. Pronation is one of the most common problem in daily life and in many sports. These can cause loss of matches, increased health expenditures and future problems in athletes. Therefore, it is important to follow up and analyse foot posture. Proprioception and balance problems seen in people with pronated foot are risk factors for recurrent injuries. However, it is unclear if foot orthoses use affects balance in football players with overpronatin foot The effects on performance test in pronation foot in have not been fully explained in the literature.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effects of foot pronation exercises and arch support insoles on balance and vertical jump test in football players.

Methods: The study took place in FootBalance Turkey, which works on foot analysis and insoles.
30 professional football players with pronation who divided into two groups. The football players in the Experimental Group (EG; n=15; 24 ± 4.30years old) used insoles and also participated the foot core exercise program twice a week for 4 weeks duration. The football players in the Control Group (CG; n=15; 23.67 ± 4.37years old) just used the insoles. We used the FootBalance assessmnet system for insoles. Navicular Drop Test, Y Balance Test, Flamingo Test and Vertical Jump Test applied to evalute foot pronation, dynamic balance, static balance and jump performace respectively.

Results: According to this study, it was observed that there is a significant difference in Navicular Drop Test and Y Balance Test anterior translation in dominant of the football players comparing two groups (p<0.05).
EG had the -1.06 ± 0.70cm and CG had 0.46± 0.63cm diffrence in Navicular Drop Test between before and after analysis. Moreover, EG had 2.26 ± 0.96 cm and CG had 1.26 ± 0.70 cm difference before and after analysis in Y balance score of dominant foot.

Conclusions: The study showed that adding foot core exercises to insole for footbal players who have foot pronation deformatiy had the higher improvements in navicular drop test and Y Balance Test anterior translation in dominant foot. Thus, we belived that football players may have performance level can assist in establishing a preventive protocol and offer new options to add to the rehabilitation programs. Rehabilitation and training programs focusing on the affected performance parameters are envisaged.Also, with these results, it is aimed to contribute to the literature for the effectiveness of using insoles with pronation foot with football players.

Implications: The findings suggest that after detailed foot analyse , whole kinetic chain should be evaluated. As a result of the evaluation, a special exercise prescription should be given to the athlete and followed.Football player can be directed to use insoles specially made for his, as they increase her performance and quality of life.

Funding acknowledgements: None

Keywords:
Foot pronation
Insoles
Football players

Topics:
Sport & sports injuries
Musculoskeletal: lower limb
Orthopaedics

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Yeditepe University

Committee: Non-Inverventional Clinical Research Ethics Committee

Ethics number: 202203Y0193