Breaking in Cleats for the Season

            The beginning of spring is always an exciting time of year. Gone are the dreary, cold days of winter and hello to the warm, crisp days of spring. Also with the better weather that comes along with the change of seasons, is the start of new sports seasons. This past week was the beginning of my junior high school soccer season, where my team began to work to defend our state championship.
            With a new sports season, there comes new gear, and two weeks ago I bought a new pair of the Adidas Predator Absolion FG soccer cleats. Being a very superstitious person, I continued to wear my old pair of cleats for the first week of practice because it was tryouts week and I knew I would play well in cleats I was already comfortable in. But, with the second week of the season starting, and games starting less than a week, I need to begin to break in my new cleats.
            When wearing new cleats for the first time do not, and I repeat DO NOT, wear them in a game. You need to spend time, possibly days in advance before a game, to break them in so they will be comfortable. Another important aspect of breaking in your cleats is that you will know what kind of touch you will get on the ball because your feet are a big part of soccer, so you want to know exactly how it will feel when you kick the ball with different parts of your feet.
           To start breaking you cleats in, I recommend that you wear them around your house or go outside in your yard and jog around in them for a while, you don’t even need a ball to do this first step, you just want to make sure that the cleats aren’t too tight and get them worn down a little bit so they will fit your foot better. Next, wear them to a few practices before the game so you can get a feel for the ball in the new cleats. During these few days of practice, you may develop some blisters or calluses. To combat the pain you can cover the affected area on your foot with a Band-Aid and then wear double socks over your feet because it will decrease the amount of rubbing between your feet and the cleats, which will lessen the pain of the blisters. There is also a blister kit called Second Skin that can help decrease irritation. Finally, once you feel like you are comfortable in your new cleats, it’s time to go test them out in the game. During the first few games of wearing new cleats, I always make sure to bring my old pair of cleats along with me just in case if the new ones start to hurt, I have something to fall back on that I know I am comfortable in.
            It’s always exciting getting a new pair of cleats and being able to show them off and impress your teammates, but you want to make sure that in the process you break them in so that they don’t affect your playing on the field.

Image courtesy of www.sportsphyscologytoday.com