Blades on boots

Henwin

I heard last night that blades on boots are definetly not advisable for playing GAA. That they increase the chances of knee and ankle injuries. I never heard that before. I have played ladies rugby for 5 years then went on to ladies football for the last 6 years. I'm 32 now, and i always wore blades. I would say my knees are fairly weak, often get pain in them and they crack. Dont know if that is down to blades, but i would have bought studs if I had known. this advice was given by sports and leisure students so they are knowlegeble.
What are your thoughts, have ye heard this before?

Realt Dearg Sec

Henwin wrote: »

I heard last night that blades on boots are definetly not advisable for playing GAA. That they increase the chances of knee and ankle injuries. I never heard that before. I have played ladies rugby for 5 years then went on to ladies football for the last 6 years. I'm 32 now, and i always wore blades. I would say my knees are fairly weak, often get pain in them and they crack. Dont know if that is down to blades, but i would have bought studs if I had known. this advice was given by sports and leisure students so they are knowlegeble.
What are your thoughts, have ye heard this before?

It's one of those situations where evidence instead of anecdote is needed, but I wore them last year for the first time and got plantar fasciitis (sharp heel pain) which I never had before.

Clareman

Personally I'm a firm believer that you should choose your boots depending on the conditions and pitch you are going to be playing on, also, it might be worth finding out what training you will be doing and choosing the boots to cater for that. Also, Orthotic Insoles can be great and can take the variance in boots out of the equation.

By the way, in rugby, refs will be very strict on blades if they look at all sharp, a lot of clubs have banned their use because of the amount of players that are being forced to change.

rebel girl 15

I know of an unofficial study, done through word of mouth research within the ladies game that blades were the most form of footwear worn in the event of cruciate ligament injuries with ladies. Now that was based on conversations with the players involved, and wasn't a full list - but it should be the basis for further study.

Knee problems are not uncommon in women playing sport, I think women are 2-4 times more likely to develop knee problems such as runner's knee, which can lead to the cartilage in the knee wearing down, and are more likely to do damage to their cruciate ligaments. Anatomically, the wider pelvis of women tends to make the angle of the thigh bone to the knee more acute (Q angle), which then contributes to a greater than normal imbalance of the quads and hamstrings. Biomechanically, women and men can differ in the way they run and land when jumping.

I've worn blades and mouldies, and actually prefer playing in the blades, though I can tend to get pain in the sole of my feet at times. Need to change the insoles of the boots to make them completely comfortable.

Bottom line - your knee problems are more likely because you are female and have played sports. I'd be heading to a physio if I was you and get your knees looked at professionally, just to make sure there are no underlying problems, and prevent any further problems arising.

Henwin

thanks for that, good advice, ya ill head to a physio and see what they say.

elefant

I always wear blades, molded ones, not steel, in all conditions.

I've never had any foot pain caused by my boots, and I've never had any knee or ligament injuries up to now (touch wood). The way I see it, it's worth slipping every so often and not having steel blades or studs, and my feet giving way instead of catching in the ground with big studs and damaging my knees.

I don't know about any studies done on the issue, but I can't imagine blades being to blame for any more knee injuries than studs. By anecdotal evidence, auld lads who played 30 years ago seem to have been plagued by knee injuries back then, and everyone was wearing studs.

skaface

My son ruptured his cruciate two years ago when he was 15 :-( ... He was just after getting a new pair of Addidas Predator boots with the blades. He had always worn the plastic blades and never had a problem.. The new boots were the ones with the steel blades and his leg stuck in the ground when turning.. I'm convinced this caused the injury, but his surgeon said he was just unlucky. He is back playing now with over 12 months ( touch wood), he now wears Teimpo boots with half blade, half stud plastic and finds them very good all year round. I also think a lot of pitches are not up to the proper standard all over the country, and this is the cause of a lot of injuries to players.

slingerz

from my understanding of things, cruciate ligament injuries are more common for ladies footballers than mens footballers due to the influence of hormones on the muscle composition and structure meaning the knee of a ladies footballer would not have the same support as a man's and the ligament itself would not be as strong due to the absence of the testosterone hormone.

secondly for gaa, i believe that there is a correlation between sand based pitches and the bladed boots for cruciate injuries. also for rugby i think it is down to the game as it would have much less in the way of change of direction movements that gaa so the chance of cruciate injuries would diminish

Rebelgirl15's post above explains my first paragraph better than i could

Rubylolz

Majority of physios will advise against the use of blades due to the increased amount of injuries in people that wear them.
Personally, I hate to see young lads \ girls wearing them however, the vast majority of boots currently on sale for younger kids are blades rather than cogs...

keane2097

Crying out for someone to do a Masters thesis on the topic.

bruschi

keane2097 wrote: »

Crying out for someone to do a Masters thesis on the topic.

Some girls from the Loreto in Wexford are doing a study on cruciate injuries for the Young Scientist next year. they are doing a survey thing for it, so would be interesting to see how it goes for them. dont have a link to any site for it other than the survey monkey link. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZMKZWBN

keane2097

Excellent, thanks for the link.

rebel girl 15

I'm sure that there was a small study done on it before - I remember filling in some survey for it a few years ago.

I know a 15 year old girl who did her cruciate, and was told that the fact she was playing camogie and basketball, going from a very soft surface to a hard surface impacted on the strength of her ligaments

Clareman

Clareman wrote: »

Personally I'm a firm believer that you should choose your boots depending on the conditions and pitch you are going to be playing on

elefant wrote: »

I always wear blades, molded ones, not steel, in all conditions.

And therein lies the problem.

As someone who's been involved in various sports over the years, I know first hand that most lads will wear HG/FG boots regardless of how soft the ground is.
It's funny, considering we live in such a wet country, you'd think the first thing someone would buy would be SG boots.

It's something I could never understand when watching GAA in particular, lads missing out on scores and giving up scores because they're losing their footing. If I was a manager, I'd enforce a strict policy on proper footwear. Safety aside it can be the difference between winning and losing.

I've often went out for a game of soccer in the rain being the only player on my team wearing the proper footwear.

I don't think the shape of the cog is the issue, it's the lack of preparation on the players part coupled with the fact that 99% of the big brands come with a blade shape(the only round shape HG cog I can think of comes on the Adidas Copa's)

hardybuck

I've heard criticism before that the blades offered too much grip, hence causing the injury outlined above when someone was turning and their foot caught in the ground.

Alex Ferguson went as far as banning blades at Man Utd after a number of players were injured either wearing them, or by someone else wearing them.

A number of players have had received serious gashes when tackled by players wearing blades, which is a seperate issue. There was one story of a goalkeeper who had over 30 stitches in his face, another who nearly lost an eye, and loads more serious leg wounds associated with blades.

rebel girl 15

I normally wear my metal blades when training/playing, wore studs last night and went over on my ankle

Puma Kings have round shaped HG cogs as well - but I think a lot of fellas and girls have a certain boot they like to wear no matter the weather!