Shaping of the Foot Arch and Full-Time Sport Activities - Novotny - 1986

The study is concerned with foot formation in persons subjecting their feet in various ways to intense load. 680 males and 460 females, actively engaged in sport activities for a long time were subjected to thorough plantographic and fluorescent pedobraographic examination. According to the load men were divided into 34 groups and women into 23 groups covering a wide range of sports and competitive games. In comparison with the general population the mean results correspond to the standards. In the sense of longitudinal arching they have somewhat lower, and in the transverse sense somewhat higher arches than the general population. Lower foot arch is typical of sprinters, high jumpers, pole jumpers, basketball players and gymnasts and modern gymnasts. Lower foot arch is typical of weight lifters, fencers, long jumpers, Marathon racers, Alpine skiers and table-tennis players. The discussion stresses the importance of primary foot formation. It includes also the results of the examinations of the world's best sportsmen and also mentions data from a number of authors. In conclusion it contains various ways of using the results in the practice, in the evaluation of foot formation, its influencing by varying sporting load and application in the prevention of defective foot formation, both in active sportsmen and in the general population. The foot formation of man is a characteristic, but to a certain extent also specific phenomenon. The dominating feature is the inborn genetic inclination. For these reasons the findings in adulthood cannot be interpreted without a reliable knowledge of the situation in the youth. Without such a knowledge it can be explained only as a phenomenon appearing more or less frequently in connection with a certain load. Only a long-term study of the individuals can explain the influence of a certain load on foot formation, both in the positive and in the negative sense. At the same time increased flattening is not always prognostically unfavourable, as it was in this paper. It is documented also by a recently published paper by Linc (1985). On studying the electric activity of the shin muscles in connection with foot formation in sportsmen he did not find worse functional effect in subjects with lowever foot arch.

Keywords

Foot formation - Morphological adaptability - Sports medicine - Functional anthropology

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