Happy Feet

When thinking about injuries in bowling, I imagine that a foot injury isn’t the first or most likely one that comes to mind. We know that knee, hip, wrist, and elbow injuries come up often, along with complaints of low back pain, and I have covered most of that in previous articles. The piece that I think often gets overlooked is that many lower-body injuries are rooted in issues in the foot or ankle.

Legendary strength and conditioning coaches Mike Boyle and Gray Cook are the masterminds who coined the “joint-by-joint approach” in the strength and conditioning and physical therapy world. This approach entails examining the function of each joint and how it affects the adjacent joints through the kinetic chain. Where there is pain, injury, or weakness, you can look at the joint above or below the “problem” area and often find causative dysfunction. For example, if you examine an individual with knee pain, you’re likely to find dysfunction in the ankle or the hips.

Given the prevalence of knee pain and injuries among bowlers, one could hypothesize that the foot and ankle joints often might benefit from some improvements in function and strength. After all, bowling shoes were never designed for orthopedic purposes, and their stiffness often doesn’t allow for much freedom of movement or mobilization within those joints. Bowling shoe design has come a long way since the invention of house shoes, but there are still some other ways that bowlers can give their feet some extra love and attention to ...