Influence of forefoot bending stiffness on American football performance and metatarsophalangeal joint bending angle

Physiological and Biomechanical Monitoring in American Football Players: A Scoping Review

“…Therefore, footwear plays an important role in limiting the torque forces applied to this joint. Consequently, a line of research focuses on the quantification of forefoot bending stiffness (FBS) with the aim of understanding if the footwear is protective against metatarsophalangeal injuries [ 105 , 106 , 107 ]. On the other hand, a second line of research regards field–footwear interactions (FFI), taking into consideration the evidence of increased lower extremity injuries in artificial grass when compared to natural turf [ 108 ].…”

“…Moreover, Crandall et al [ 105 ] reported a high linear correlation (0.91) between shoe stiffness and peak torque. In a more recent study by Wannop et al [ 107 ], ten American football players were enrolled to investigate the effect of three types of footwear with increasing bending stiffness while performing sport-specific movements. The forefoot bending stiffness of American football shoes does not produce enough torque to counteract the torques experienced by professional athletes [ 112 ] and, thus, the footwear is not protective against metatarsophalangeal hyperextension.…”

“…Thus, contactless methods based on video analysis or radar analysis could be promising to extract important information without the need for wearing sensors. Future industrial research in the field of footwear should focus on improving the innovation of artificial turf design, with the aim of reproducing the mechanical qualities of natural grass [ 111 ], and the design of shoes, with the aim of finding a trade-off between performance, comfort, and prevention [ 105 , 106 , 107 ]. Despite many studies evaluating the design of helmets, no studies dealt with the evaluation of new designs of shoulder pads; only one study proposed an integrated solution of helmet and shoulder pads [ 56 ].…”