ABSTRACT
Injuries to the lower extremity frequently occur in sports which involve a large amount of lateral movement. For example, soccer players experience a relatively high number of injuries to the knee and ankle (Muckle, 1981). American football, with its high frequency of hitting and collisions, is probably the sport that accounts for the greatest percentage of lower extremity injuries (DeHaven and Lintner, 1986). Many of the knee injuries are caused by large torques that are developed at the interface between the foot and playing surface. Excessive traction due to the type of shoe (Torg and Ouedenfeld, 1974) or due to the type of playing surface (Morehouse and Morrison, 1975) has often been implicated in many of these injuries.
