I had my first bout with plantar fasciitis back when I was playing on the national team. We had just signed a new shoe sponsor that shall remain nameless and they had never made volleyball shoes before. To the company's credit they were very attentive to our needs and immediately took our feedback back to the shoe designers and accommodated us any way they could.
Unfortunately, any changes they made had come too late for me.
The prototype shoes had very little support and it wasn't long until many of the players on the team came down with cases of plantar fasciitis. Our trainers got very good at the tape job for this injury and we utilized their expertise as well as that of the local podiatrist who fit us all for custom orthotics.
The doctor took plaster molds of our feet and a few weeks later we had special inserts for our shoes that were built just for us. It worked immediately. My plantar fasciitis went away within days of trying the new orthotic and I was thrilled. Once the problem went away, I didn't need the orthotic anymore and the problem never returned.
Until now. I made the mistake of doing a ton of walking one month in shoes that were very worn down to the point of having no arch support left. By the end of the month, I felt the familiar pain of my old friend plantar fasciitis. So this month, I did some research on the subject and wrote about this common volleyball injury which is prevalent in many other high impact sports as well.
I also got a chance to try a couple of semi-custom orthotics which are more specific to your foot than what you usually find at the drug store, but not as specific as a full custom orthotic from a podiatrist. If you can afford the custom orthotic from a podiatrist, I would recommend that option. If you can't, these semi-custom ones could do the job.
Of course there is a ton of debate that I encountered while researching this project about using arch support at all. The new minimalist shoe movement says that we are doing more harm than good to our feet by using all of those contraptions to support our arches. They claim that all that "support" actually weakens the arch and causes most of the pain we experience.
You can look to the Kenyan barefoot runners and see that having no support at all actually allows them to run with fewer injuries than our western runners with their fancy schmancy shock absorption. The Stanford track team was known to train barefoot because the coach saw many fewer injuries than when the team was wearing shoes.
This all seems very counter-intuitive to me. I mean, all that research Nike and the other shoe companies do on impact and shock and the shoes are worse than going barefoot? But once I heard the arguments it started to make me curious.
First, they cite that the arch is one of the most sturdy designs in creation. In fact, if people want to tear down an arch they go at it from the underside because the arch is built to withstand pressure. So the idea is to let your arch be an arch and support your weight.
When we add all this support beneath the arch we are actually weakening it. That is why we tend to get plantar fasciitis as I did when my shoes got old and flimsy. My arch is so used to depending on that support that it was too weak to support itself once the support was gone. Makes sense to me.
Another argument is that all that shock absorption on the heel of the shoe makes us more likely to run with a heel-toe motion. That heel strike is not the way humans are meant to run. If you go back to the Kenyan runners you'll find that they do more of a mid-foot strike which helps to distribute the shock and allows your arch to do its job. If you try running barefoot you'll find pretty quickly that you can't do that heel strike motion because it hurts. Thus all the injuries related to wearing super supportive and shock absorbing shoes.
Now the trend is for shoes to have less support. The Stanford track coach said that when his athletes do wear shoes, they wear the low-cost ones with the least support. Now Nike, Adidas and others are following the lead of minimalist shoe companies like Vibram Five Fingers and creating shoes with very little arch support that focus more on the protection of the feet from rocks and debris as you're running.
The minimalist shoe movement has not yet reached volleyball or basketball and maybe it shouldn't. In sports like ours there is far more contact with other players that could end in a broken toe or other similar injuries. Plus, there hasn't been any research on minimalist shoes and sports that involve a lot of jumping and landing. Though some studies say that the pounding of jumping creates no more shock than the pounding of running, I'd certainly like to see more evidence of that.
So, the jury is still out for me about whether to try a minimalist shoe and see if I have less pain. Orthotics worked for me once, they'd probably work for me again. But weaning myself off of arch support could solve the problem forever. I'm told that if I make the switch, I should do so gradually to allow my arch a chance to regain its strength. The arguments are compelling, but old habits die hard.
Unfortunately, any changes they made had come too late for me.
The prototype shoes had very little support and it wasn't long until many of the players on the team came down with cases of plantar fasciitis. Our trainers got very good at the tape job for this injury and we utilized their expertise as well as that of the local podiatrist who fit us all for custom orthotics.
The doctor took plaster molds of our feet and a few weeks later we had special inserts for our shoes that were built just for us. It worked immediately. My plantar fasciitis went away within days of trying the new orthotic and I was thrilled. Once the problem went away, I didn't need the orthotic anymore and the problem never returned.
Until now. I made the mistake of doing a ton of walking one month in shoes that were very worn down to the point of having no arch support left. By the end of the month, I felt the familiar pain of my old friend plantar fasciitis. So this month, I did some research on the subject and wrote about this common volleyball injury which is prevalent in many other high impact sports as well.
I also got a chance to try a couple of semi-custom orthotics which are more specific to your foot than what you usually find at the drug store, but not as specific as a full custom orthotic from a podiatrist. If you can afford the custom orthotic from a podiatrist, I would recommend that option. If you can't, these semi-custom ones could do the job.
Of course there is a ton of debate that I encountered while researching this project about using arch support at all. The new minimalist shoe movement says that we are doing more harm than good to our feet by using all of those contraptions to support our arches. They claim that all that "support" actually weakens the arch and causes most of the pain we experience.
You can look to the Kenyan barefoot runners and see that having no support at all actually allows them to run with fewer injuries than our western runners with their fancy schmancy shock absorption. The Stanford track team was known to train barefoot because the coach saw many fewer injuries than when the team was wearing shoes.
This all seems very counter-intuitive to me. I mean, all that research Nike and the other shoe companies do on impact and shock and the shoes are worse than going barefoot? But once I heard the arguments it started to make me curious.
First, they cite that the arch is one of the most sturdy designs in creation. In fact, if people want to tear down an arch they go at it from the underside because the arch is built to withstand pressure. So the idea is to let your arch be an arch and support your weight.
When we add all this support beneath the arch we are actually weakening it. That is why we tend to get plantar fasciitis as I did when my shoes got old and flimsy. My arch is so used to depending on that support that it was too weak to support itself once the support was gone. Makes sense to me.
Another argument is that all that shock absorption on the heel of the shoe makes us more likely to run with a heel-toe motion. That heel strike is not the way humans are meant to run. If you go back to the Kenyan runners you'll find that they do more of a mid-foot strike which helps to distribute the shock and allows your arch to do its job. If you try running barefoot you'll find pretty quickly that you can't do that heel strike motion because it hurts. Thus all the injuries related to wearing super supportive and shock absorbing shoes.
Now the trend is for shoes to have less support. The Stanford track coach said that when his athletes do wear shoes, they wear the low-cost ones with the least support. Now Nike, Adidas and others are following the lead of minimalist shoe companies like Vibram Five Fingers and creating shoes with very little arch support that focus more on the protection of the feet from rocks and debris as you're running.
The minimalist shoe movement has not yet reached volleyball or basketball and maybe it shouldn't. In sports like ours there is far more contact with other players that could end in a broken toe or other similar injuries. Plus, there hasn't been any research on minimalist shoes and sports that involve a lot of jumping and landing. Though some studies say that the pounding of jumping creates no more shock than the pounding of running, I'd certainly like to see more evidence of that.
So, the jury is still out for me about whether to try a minimalist shoe and see if I have less pain. Orthotics worked for me once, they'd probably work for me again. But weaning myself off of arch support could solve the problem forever. I'm told that if I make the switch, I should do so gradually to allow my arch a chance to regain its strength. The arguments are compelling, but old habits die hard.
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