Will the wrong shoes inhibit your child's learning to kick?
From the age of 18 months old children can start to make contact with their foot to a ball on the ground and from the age of 2 years they are able to start kicking with direction control and more power.
To optimise your children’s kicking development you want shoes that meet the following two standards:
- The shoes must have a flexible sole and ankle region. Young kids including all toddlers should be in flexible soled shoes regardless. For kicking it’s important that they can balance on the ground while moving into position and their ankle can move freely to allow them to naturally position the foot for kicking.
- Some protection at the toe is very helpful for when they do connect with the toes. Kids should learn to kick with the top of the foot so the toes are pointing down, but when they are learning they commonly strike the ball with their toes. Some basic toe covering helps protect and build their kicking confidence.
So the answer is “yes”. The wrong shoes – stiff inflexible shoes – will inhibit children’s learning to kick.
Treddies are the latest in shoe design to help optimise young children’s movement skills …..from first walkers up to 4 years old. Treddies have been specifically developed by a leading Sports Physiotherapist to be the right shoes for your children’s feet, and will help them learn to kick and move with balance.