The effectiveness of the use of special shoes to improve speed performance of football players on artificial turf

Problem and purpose. The annual modernization of synthetic lawns and football shoes make topical the study of the effectiveness of the use of special shoes with a certain type of soles in order to increase the speed of football players in the conditions of modern artificial turfs. The purpose of the article is to reveal the effectiveness of using special footwear on artificial turf to increase the speed qualities of football players. Research methodology. The analysis and generalization of scientific and methodical literature by Russian and foreign authors were carried out on the following issues: (1) popularization of artificial turfs in Russia; (2) biomechanics of sportsmen’s movements on synthetic turfs; (3) functional correspondence data of football footwear and artificial pitches; (4) influence of special football footwear on speed performance of football players. On the basis of the assortment of modern football shoes models and the table of correspondence between certain types of football footwear and surfaces of different types of artificial turf was drawn up. In order to prove the interdependence between different models of football shoes, on the one hand, and various types of artificial turf, on the other, a pedagogical experiment making use of testing methods, control tests and mathematical statistics was held. Results. The results obtained during the experiment confirmed the dependence of footballers’ speed performance from the usage of footwear of different models on different types of artificial turf. It was proved during the experiment that the football players of the experimental group, the members of which used in the course of their training sessions special footwear on artificial turfs, surpassed their agemates from the control group in terms of speed characteristics. The appropriate usage during training sessions of a certain model of footwear, which is optimal for the artificial turf surface of a certain type, increases the speed performance of footballers, and the results of the football team achieved during the season depend on this a great deal. To achieve this goal, an experiment was conducted using testing methods, control tests and mathematical statistics.