When I was
sixteen I was talking to my club coach, a Rice University men’s volleyball
alum, about volleyball shoes. He pointed out that when he was playing in
college, the team bought them a new pair of shoes every month because that’s
how hard they were on their shoes.
Personally, between club, high school, and personal training, I went through
two pairs of shoes and four insoles a year between the ages of fourteen and
nineteen. I wished my family could afford to change that to four shoes a year
and eight insoles but that wasn’t in the cards. The constant jumping and change
of direction wears down shoes very quickly and the longer you go in an over
worn pair of shoes, the more likely you are to get injured.
I found MY pair of shoes when I was thirteen and it was the only model I bought after that. I had a dalliance with a pair of Addidas (three pairs until I finally realized they were too heavy), was forced to wear a few pairs of Mizuno team shoes (they weren’t bad but they weren’t quite right), and I spent one week in a pair of Nike volleyball shoes (I feel horrid for the college girls forced to wear those, they don’t make them like they used to). I’ve enjoyed two different models of the Asics Gel 1100s series and they are my favorite by far.
Care to guess how many pairs of Asics I’ve worn? Nine. At least nine that I can remember, there could have been more. I wear them because they are the right fit for my foot. There was a booth at one of the tournaments I went to where I was able to try on a few different pairs of Asics and that’s where I found my Gel 1130vs, my first pair. I tried on the volleycross, which one of my friends got, but they didn’t feel as good though she loved them.
I was reading
an article in Runner’s World on how to pick the right shoe for your foot type
as well as how much you run. There was a flow chart and questions to narrow
down what kind of shoe you need for your arch support, your BMI, if you were
injury prone, and your weekly mileage. Suffice it to say, volleyball players do
not get that flow chart. You pick out a pair of volleyball shoes and go ‘this
will work perfect for my high arch.’ WRONG!
Your feet are
precious; they balance over fifty pounds each on those small spaces. If you are
competitively playing volleyball then you definitely need sport specific shoes.
If you aren’t so competitive, a pair of cross trainers will do. But you need to
try on a variety of models to see how the shoe fits. Best website for this in
my opinion? EastBay.com,
hands down. You can’t go into a store and ask for them to bring out their
volleyball shoes, we’re lucky if Sports Authority has a pair. So we have to go
online and East Bay, for the most part, has a very good exchange and
return policy so that you can send the shoe back and get a different pair.
But once you
find your shoe, you will hate wearing anything else. Believe me, I’ve suffered
through a few pairs that resulted in me glaring at the coach for the better
part of some running drills. Like I said, I’ve gone through nine pairs of my
shoe and it would be more if it wasn’t for team shoes. There’s an argument that
can be made for specialized insoles but that doesn’t make up for everything.
The shoes themselves are what provide ankle stability as well as being made for
different foot widths. They also each have different soles that are specially
designed for the sport however someone with a high arch is going to need
something different than someone with flat feet.
Even if you
have a sponsor, you should still allow your players to pick which model in a
particular brand works best for them. Let me know what your favorite volleyball
shoe model is!
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