Biomechanical comparison between sport shoes and marching boots during marching

• Main Author: Ng, Shan Yi
• Other Authors: Tan Cher Chay, John
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/66542
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Marching is part of basic military training for new army recruits and also part of secondary school uniformed groups’ training. Long and intensive marching can lead to marching-related overuse injuries. Sport shoes with inherent shock-absorbing properties could replace marching boots during marching training sessions to lower the risk of marching-related injuries. The aims of this study were to find out if there are biomechanical differences between wearing sport shoes and marching boots during marching, and determine if sport shoes would be a good alternative to marching boots. Peak pressure was measured with the Pedar-X® insoles system while maximum force, cadence, step length and step width were measured with the Gaitway instrumented treadmill. Ten healthy male adults performed two marching trials on the treadmill, with Pedar X® insoles inserted into their footwear. One marching trial was performed in sport shoes while the other was performed in marching boots. Descriptive statistics and paired t-tests were used to analyse the data. Results showed significant difference in normalised peak pressure (NPP) (t (9) = -2.38, p = 0.042, d = 0.826) and normalised maximum force (NMF) (t (9) = -3.25, p = 0.01, d = 0.426). Both NPP and NMF were higher when wearing marching boots as compared to wearing sport shoes during marching. Cadence, step length and step width were similar in both footwear conditions. In conclusion, this study suggested that sport shoes, with significantly lower NPP and NMF as compared to marching boots during marching, could replace marching boots during marching training sessions.