The Arches of the Feet of Competitors in Selected Sporting Disciplines

Introduction. The human foot is an important and individual static-dynamic part of the movement apparatus. Physical activity is one of the many factors which has an impact on the arch of the foot, and specific sporting disciplines affect the morphological construction and active efficiency of the foot to differing degrees. The aim of this study was to evaluate the foot-arches of competitors training in the disciplines of athletics, handball, volleyball and taekwon-do, and to demon­strate the differences in the arching of the foot, depending on the discipline of the participant. Material and methods. Observation of a group of 46 student-competitors at the sports club of the Academic Sports Association (ASA) of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport in Biała Podlaska, training in handball, volleyball, athletics and taekwon-do. Using information from plantograms, obtained using a podoscope, the following were analyzed: Wejsflog's indicator, the position of the big toe (hallux) - angle γ; theposition of toe V - angle β;the position of the heel - angle α. Results. The values given by Wejsflog's indicator show the presence of an asymmetry in the arch of the right foot compared to that of the left foot. The reason for this, according to Demczuk-Włodarczyk and Biec [1] may be the type of surface on which training is conducted. The authors demonstrate that fallen arches are less common in practitioners of taekwon-do, who usually train on an elastic mat, which confirms the results of earlier research conducted on competitors at the Academic Sports Association of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport in Biała Podlaska. Conclusions. The occurrence of an abnormal formation of the arches that make up the arch of the foot, and of asymmetry in the arch between the left and right feet observed in the sample, shows the necessity of devoting greater attention to compensatory exercises that strengthen the short muscles of the foot and the muscles of the calf in the training process, in order to make up for frequently unbal­anced strain.