INFLUENCES OF THE SHOE SOLE HARDNESS ON THE PERCEPTION OF BELT SPEED CHANGE DURING TREADMILL RUNNING

Abstract

Twenty-three subjects wore shoes with hardness of shore 45C and 70C to run on a motor-driven treadmill in this study. During the testing session, the console of the treadmill was covered by a black cloth and each subject must wear an earphone to isolate the external sound, in order to avoid the subject noticing the speed change of the treadmill. The runner was asked to say “Yes” of signal if he was aware of changing of the belt speed. The results showed that wearing the soft soled shoe, the mean correct and wrong responses are 2.3(±1.4) and 4.3(±3.6) times, respectively. With the hard soled shoe, the mean correct and wrong responses are 2.3(±1.2) and 4.8(±3.5) times, respectively. In conclusion, the shoe sole hardness did not affect the bad speed change perception of the subjects during treadmill running.