Associations of Sole Morphology with Body Mass Index of Soccer Players

The foot is one of the most important interaction parts of the body with the ground in upright posture. The structure of the foot is critical to bear the load absorbed by the bones in the foot and the force transferred to lower extremity when performing exercise with weight bearing on foot. Football is usually seen as a team sport whereby players attempt to move the ball, primarily with the action of the foot to an opponents goal area to score. Methods A survey study was carried out on sixty (n=60) National soccer players, aged 18-22 years, belonging to different clubs of Arunachal Pradesh with a view to characterize the associations of Sole Morphology with BMI. Footprint images of both feet were obtained by blue ink on plain paper. Maximum effort and meticulous care have been put to precision and accuracy in the measurements. Footprint indices were calculated the Arch (Clarke) Angle and the longitudinal Arch length Index. Results Arch angle were calculated for both left and right feet, to determine the association between Foot Arch with BMI of soccer players, the data collected were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and the level of significance was set at 0.05. Conclusion Foot morphology of football players may assist in the design of the best football boots for the sport, and may also be used for talent identification. The foot arch index measured in a static position could be a functional index to predict the dynamic foot functions when running and tackling ball.