Steel cleats and sprained ankles

[DonnieS]

For you that have started and have been using steel cleats for a long time, have you seen an upturn in ankle injuries? Maybe its a coincidence but I have seen that.

[sbcoachblue]

On my team I have not seen anty ankle injuries,some sore feet the first few days of practice but thats it. The more my players wear them the more they like them.

[Cannonball]

With this change in rules, I'm most worried about ACL injuries. In basketball, the ACL injuries are prominent. Now, with the way these ladies will cut laterally and the nature of preparing to slide etc. I expect many a young lady to end her athletic careers. JMHO!

Oh, the feet, yes, how many of us remember how sore our feet got with steel spikes when the ground was hard? I know I do.

[Tucson]

Back 35 years ago when steel was all we knew, I didn't see any sprained ankles.

As far as the sore feet, remove the insole and get a really good one as a replacement. You will be surprised how quick they go through insoles. "Ah, I'm gellin'" (I hate that commercial.)

[DonnieS]

>> Back 35 years ago when steel was all we knew, I didn't see any sprained ankles. <<

Just like I thought, my daughter's a wuss. Funny thing, we have some offical raggers on our team, both the travel and I get to rag on the high school team. Our jobs are to tease the kids when they make mistakes, when they run, we yell 'Run Forrest - Run' and so on. My daughter went to get her ankles taped - everyone was ready to rag her but good - - she walks back in and some one threw her a ball while she was getting ready to catch another, smack in the jaw, knocked her down. She is crying , I am laughing, which makes her madder, and better yet, I am doing this over the phone, my wife is telling me all this over the phone, I am 2000 miles away and she can't peg me with a ball or anything. I will need to be careful when I get home.

[traveldude]

My DD is in her 2nd full year of college ball and wearing metal cleats. She has never had an ankle sprain regarding metal cleats nor have her teammates. Use a little common sense here. If a player was going to injure her ankle it would be from the crap rubber cleats most of your DD's are wearing ( nothing personal). The rubber plastic cleats wear quite quickly which increases the flat surface which would normally sink into the dirt/clay. Resulting in the shoe sitting on top rather than sinking in. Before my DD entered college ball she used the Adidas excel I/C which had replacable hard rubber cleats. We always kept fresh cleats ($4.99) on the shoes without ever having an injury. The metal cleats have very little surface area where the end of the cleat is so they almost always bottom out so the sole of the shoe is resting on the ground. Now there is one argument regarding the fields that have not seen water in months than All I can say is get out the hose. Regarding knee injuries, My DD had surgery hey junior year of HS to repair her knee cap. She dislocated it 3 times in 3 years. She has not had an injury due to the metal cleats and she plays second base. Sorry to ramble on and I hope this is semi helpful.
Traveldude

[DonnieS]

>> Use a little common sense here. If a player was going to injure her ankle it would be from the crap rubber cleats most of your DD's are wearing ( nothing personal). <<

She went from Ringor non metal to Ringor metal. DW decided that since both of these sprains occured after that switch, that this must be the problem. She wants her to lay off the metal and go back to her non metal Ringor cleats - .

[traveldude]

Perfect do whatever works. You could also use a lace on ankle support I believe Mueller is the company or try the mid or high top shoe/cleat. I didn't mean any thing by the "common sence thing. Just do whatever works for each individual player. Different brands have different patterns on the bottom. I can only speak for adidas. If I recall Ringors have a roud pattern in the front, I could be wrong. The Adidas has more of a block pattern which gives outside stability and less of a chance of "rolling" the ankle. My DD had an ankle injury from surfing and the lace on support helped. Please keep in mind these are my own observations after years of being a softball parent and coaching FP I absolutely am not an expert. I just love the game, the players and all of the parents even though I don't know ya. Traveldude

[DonnieS]

>> I just love the game, the players and all of the parents even though I don't know ya. Traveldude <<

Same here, pal, thanks for the advice about the lace up ankle support. DW was supposed to buy the elastic ankle supports - but if I can find the lace up, thats that I will do. Do you know where the Mueller product is sold? The point about the Ringor vs Adidas sounds like something to consider - but a high top shoe might work. The kid is freakishly fast and does some strange things on the field, she 'hurdled' a catcher back in the fall to avoid running in to her at mach speed and killing both of them. I just have to work through which shoe is best for her. When DW made her announcement that she had figured the problem out to be the steel cleats, I suggested that she go on CNN and let the millions of professional and collegiate athletes that are wearing the metal know that they are all wrong and will be injured shortly.

Dont worry about the 'common sense' comment , since my son went away to school, I now live in a house with 3 blonde females, all 3 televisions have 'Do you want to be the next Model' , the bathrooms have all kinds of disgusting girl stuff that I am too embarrassed to even ask what the stuff is for, my only hope is to buy a few more mirrors to put up around the house so maybe they will be too busy looking at themselves to cause me more grief.


THANKS - found the Mueller product and ordered two. They had 4 sizes, small, medium , large and x-large. I assume size 9 is medium -

[Blind Squirrel]

Curious what the purpose of the ankle support is? I never wore high top basketball shoes when I was a kid because I figured that any force on an ankle that had restricted movement would transfer to the knee. I'm certainly not an MD so maybe I had/have it all wrong.

John