Sports Injuries
Sports Injuries
When you’re active in sports, understanding how your feet work can make a real difference to your performance and comfort. Here’s what you need to know about how your feet handle the impact of running and playing sports.
The Natural Movement Pattern
Every time your foot hits the ground while running, it follows a specific pattern. The outside of your heel lands first, then your foot rolls slightly inward to spread the impact across the front of your foot. This natural movement (called pronation) helps your feet absorb shock and adapt to different surfaces.
When Things Get Out of Balance
Sometimes feet can roll inward too much or not enough – particularly during repetitive movements in sport. Over-pronation is common, especially in people with lower arches, and it can throw your whole body slightly out of alignment. Think of it as a chain reaction – when your feet aren’t moving efficiently, other joints have to compensate.
Impact on Your Training
When your feet aren’t moving optimally, your muscles and tendons work harder to provide extra support. This can lead to various sports injuries:
- Ankle sprains
- Achilles tendon problems
- Knee issues
- Shin splints
These issues often develop gradually through repeated strain from the extra pressure on these areas.
Getting Back on Track
We assess how your whole body moves – not just your feet, but your ankles, knees and hips too. This helps us understand exactly how your feet are functioning during activity. Often, the solution involves looking at your sports shoes and possibly using orthotics to provide better support and reduce strain on your muscles and joints.
Practical Steps
- Pay attention to any persistent discomfort during sport
- Ensure your sports shoes are still providing good support
- Include rest days in your training schedule
- Address any concerns early
If you’re experiencing foot or leg pain during sport, come in for an assessment. Early intervention can help keep you doing the activities you enjoy.
Sports Podiatry
High-impact sports such as basketball, soccer, running, football, cricket and indeed any sport involving use of your feet can all lead to injuries requiring specialist treatment. Sports podiatry looks specifically at injuries to the foot, ankle and lower leg sustained through participation in physical activity. It is easy to injure your feet while playing sport as the forces between your feet and the ground are amplified during high-impact activity.
Sports podiatric injuries come in two forms: overuse injuries caused by repeated pressure on tendons and joints; and movement or biomechanical injuries caused by the way your feet are impacting with the ground and incorrect movement patterns. Movement injuries are often impacted by overuse problems as you may be changing the way you walk, run or jump to compensate for an existing injury, thereby causing other injuries through moving in a different way to what would come naturally.
The most prevalent sports injuries include shin splints, runner’s knee, Achilles tendonitis, corns and bunions through to postural issues and lower back pain. Runners also complain of thickened nails that are also often ingrown. Long distance running is gruelling on your feet and mangled, unsightly nails is a standard consequence.
Treatment for sports podiatric injuries includes screening to look at your posture and movement, and analysis of how the movement of your feet affects your lower limbs. Painful corns, bunions, shin splints or other injuries can all be caused by unnatural movement patterns that can be corrected by the evaluation of sports shoes and the fitting of orthotics. Overuse injuries involving the skin and nails also benefit from medicinal treatments, and in some cases surgery for problems such as ingrown nails. Some injuries also benefit from sports massage therapy and corrective exercise regimes.
For optimal recovery after a sports-related injury a podiatrist can give you the targeted help you need to get you back on the playing field.
Sports Orthotics
Runners often complain about knee pain, particularly when running downhill. Tendonitis, particularly of the Achilles tendon is another common problem for a lot of athletes. These sorts of injuries — and many more! — are caused through the increased force placed on your joints and tendons through high-impact sport.
Wearing correct footwear is critical to healthy feet. We can evaluate your sports shoes to check that they are suitable for your chosen sport and can offer advice on changes that may make the world of difference to any pain or discomfort you are experiencing. Athletes put huge amounts of pressure on their feet and a little extra support can go a long way.
Beyond choice of sport-appropriate footwear, orthotics provide that extra support when you need it most, reducing pain and discomfort so you can get out there and enjoy the sports you love.
Orthotics are inserts that are placed inside your shoes to adjust imbalances and restore the natural movement of your feet, which is often altered through compensating for other injuries or just plain bad habits! Customised sports orthotics help to realign your posture by restoring natural balance in your range of movement and also cushioning the impact through added silicone pads placed in the insole to absorb some of the force created during high-impact activity.
Sports orthotics are specially designed to work with your sports shoes and are customised both to your feet and with intended use in mind, as you need different levels of support and your movement
can change depending on the type of sport that you’re participating in. Orthotics have loads of benefits not limited to the feet by supporting you in such a way that your knees, hips and spine are better aligned, so orthotics can be a simple cure for that nasty case of runner’s knee or lower back pain.