PREFERRED MOVEMENT PATHWAY
‘ Good Balance ’ is essential to athleticism , it is the common thread amongst all athletes on all levels . Balance or postural stability is also what separates leading elite athletes from other competitors . How one ’ s body generates balance is the major contributing factor to their unique athletic ability . Athletes move at very high speeds in multiple directions on a variety of surfaces . Proper footwear is essential for providing support for athletes while performing . The International Journal of Physical Education reports that more than 60 % of the most common athletic foot injuries are directly associated with alignment issues . This is mainly due to the fact that clinicians and footwear engineers have not been successful at consistently providing subjective orthotic alignment modalities prior to dysfunction . Given the amount of variables the body has to account for during a single athletic movement , it is almost inevitable that dysfunction from pathology will follow overuse . Functions such as speed , torque , and power are calculated based on feedback like foot spatial orientation , pressure , and ground ( athletic surface ) contour .
Shoes are constructed to minimize organic feedback and replace it with inorganic footwear support that aim to absorb forces and protect feet from substantial injury . However , given that the center of pressure is projected to the ground and not the foot , postural stability is still at risk . While wearing athletic shoes , balance for athletes remain invariant because insole and outer sole composite materials change overtime which subsequently result in postural instability and misalignment . Therefore , it is my belief that balance is subjective and is not predicated on a specific predetermined position . We know that an upright weight bearing stance requires two actions . The first action is maintaining support against gravity keeping the center of mass at some
A MORE THAN 60 % OF THE MOST COMMON ATHLETIC FOOT INJURIES ARE DIRECTLY ASSOCIATED WITH ALIGNMENT ISSUES .
18 Pedorthic Footcare Association www . pedorthics . org