Sex-Moderated Effects of Soccer Cleat Stud Shape and Fatigue on Traction and Knee Joint Mechanics During Lateral...

Market-available soccer footwear is predominantly designed according to male athlete mechanics. With known sex differences in cutting strategies, it should not be assumed that the female body can withstand the same amount of traction as males. Mechanical stability of the lower limbs is affected by fatigue, with negative effects most pronounced in female athletes. Soccer cleats could play a key role in moderating female athletes' exposure to torsional injury mechanisms across game play, such as those mechanisms in anterior cruciate ligament injury. This study investigates the influence of soccer cleat stud shape, elliptical, and bladed on traction utilization and knee mechanics of male and female participants during lateral cutting before and after fatigue progression. College-aged soccer participants (10 males, 10 females) performed 2 data collections in cleated footwear of different stud shapes. Lower limb kinetics and kinematics were compared between cleats and across fatigue states. No interaction effects were found on knee mechanics, though main effects of sex and fatigue were observed. A 3-way interaction on the rate of traction utilized at initial contact was found, demonstrating the influence of fatigue and cleat on sex-specific ground interactions. Future works are warranted to understand the effect of high-performance product on female mechanics.