About to Throw on a Pair of Sneakers and Hit the Court? 

Here’s Why It ISN'T Always the Best Idea!

Court shoes are very different from regular shoes or running/walking/pickleball shoes.

To understand this, you need to look at the three main parts of a shoe. 

A great court shoe is all about providing stability, and a great pickleball shoe gives you especially lateral stability.

This means when running or stepping sideways, the shoe completely stabilises your foot and lower leg, so you don’t need to take an extra step for balance or use your lower leg muscles to keep your balance.

The Three Main Parts of a Shoe are:

• Outsole – the part that contacts the ground and creates good grip.
• Midsole – the most important and most overlooked part of a shoe, the foam or rubber that provides cushioning to absorb the impact of every step. It joins the outsole to the Upper.
• Upper - the top part forming the shape of the shoe fitting around your toes and heel.

All three components are very different on a court shoe than on a running or leisure shoe.

They have to be because we need a very different performance when playing a court sport than when running or walking.

THE OUTSOLE

This provides you with your grip. It might sound obvious, but the best way to get a lot of grip is to have a lot of contact with the floor. So, a good court shoe will give you a lot of floor contact in the heel and front of the foot.

This means the shoe is often quite flat. A good court shoe should enable your contact with the floor to be the same as if standing barefoot.

In addition to this, it is very common for good court shoes to have multiple grip patterns running in numerous directions.

This enables full grip and control when stepping forward, backward, or sideways (lateral). In pickleball (particularly doubles), there are an enormous amount of lateral steps along the kitchen line as you reach for a volley or look for an opening.

THE MIDSOLE

This is the most important component of the shoe, as this softens the impact travelling through your ankle, knee, hip, and lower back. However, players mustn't confuse this and think they need or will benefit from a soft (spongy) midsole.

As mentioned above, there are many movements (particularly lateral) when playing pickleball. These result in putting pressure on the front, back, and sides of your shoe. This means the midsole rubber/foam of your shoe MUST HAVE consistent density and performance throughout the entire midsole.

When you step sideways, your shoe mustn't collapse on the sides which a running shoe will do, because then it will be up to the muscles of your lower leg to keep you on balance. If you do this enough times, you run the risk of ankle and achilles injuries. And it’s very easy to test for this when you try your shoes on.

THE UPPER

Now, this is where the ‘feel’ of the shoe comes into play. This is entirely down to the personal feel that you like, but there are a couple of factors to consider before we talk about the structure you should have.

The shoe shape should be comfortable around your toes, heel, and the top of your foot. In general, you need some space in front of your toes.

The usual recommendation is ½ to a full thumb width. This allows room for your foot to move when you put your foot down hard in a forward direction, which is typical when you move towards the net. This gives space for the toes and stops them from hitting the end of the shoe, resulting in blisters and lost toenails.

The shoe should also fit firmly and comfortably around your ankle. Your foot should not slip out of the shoe when you step forward.

As previously mentioned, lateral stability is critical in a pickleball court shoe, and the structure of the Upper plays a strong role here also.

On a typical running/walking shoe, the upper will be mesh with no panels or stabilizing structure on the sides of the shoe, particularly on the “outside”.

A court shoe will have definite layers making it very hard to roll your ankle in or out. This is due to material connecting the lacing area to the outside of the shoe and the layers of stiffer material that keep the foot upright no matter what movement is being taken.

So, before you slip on your runners next time you play pickleball, think about how stable you are on the court and how your form begins from the ground up!

Salming - Shoes: 20% OFF

www.salming.com.au Code: SALPIC20

[Words by: Salming]