Does the Location of Shoe Upper Support on Basketball Shoes Influence Ground Reaction Force and Ankle Mechanics during Cutting Maneuvers?

This study examined the location effect of lateral shoe upper supports on the ground reaction forces, as well as ankle kinematics and moments during the change of direction maneuvers using a statistical parametric mapping approach. University basketball athletes performed side-cuts, complete turns and lateral shuffle maneuvers with their maximum-effort in four shoe conditions with varying shoe upper support locations: full-length, forefoot, rearfoot, none (control). The statistical parametric mapping repeated measures ANOVA test was applied to compare differences between the shoe conditions, followed-up with post-hoc statistical parametric mapping paired t-tests between all shoe conditions.