SIMPLY wearing shoes with textured insoles improves people’s awareness of the position of their feet and could help prevent knee and ankle injuries.
The smooth insoles and high shock-absorbing properties of many sports shoes mask pressure cues from the soles of the feet, says George Waddington, a physiotherapist at the Canberra Hospital in Australia. For instance, a study of basketball players in 2001 found that those who wore expensive air-cell shoes were four times as likely to suffer an ankle injury as those wearing standard trainers.
“Shock absorption has been the focus of design,” Waddington says. “That is important for some sports, such as running, but…
