“TENNIS FEET”

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 48, 20 November 1926, Page 24

“TENNIS FEET”

Tenuis elbow has long been a recognised, if rather uncommon, occupational disease. “Tenuis feet” is to-day, in the ever-growing popularity of the game, filling the waiting rooms of orthopaedic surgeons with devotees whose foot and leg muscles have failed to keep pace with their enthusiasm (writes “A Surgeon” in the “Daily Mail”). , , . . It would be outside the scope of Uns article to touch upon tlie relative advantages of the naked foot, to which the flexible, soft-soled tennis shoe is the nearest approach in use to-day, and the stiff-soled and comparatively highbeeled.shoc of everyday wear. What is indubitable is the difference between the two. , , The human foot has been compared often to an arch. A better comparison would be a bow, held bent and taut bv the muscles and ligaments that -amis Xnoq oqj, ‘ll RC I °l 1 331 l UIO H nnj ture of the arch would not pass the scrutiny of any architect. Deprived of its muscular support it will sag, and the result will be the splayedout, aching, incipient flat-foot that is beginning to be known as “tennis feet.’’ . Muscles and ligaments ire living things, and living things grow tired. Thev will tire less quickly if they arc given a little assistance, a little respite from the unrelaxed strain of holding together the twin ends of the bow-stave that is the arch of the foot. The stiff sole of everyday wear gives that, but takes awav while it gives, for the muscles, which are (as is the nature of all living things) a lazy folk, forget that there may . come a time when their strength will be needed. The bowstring relaxes and the foot flattens into an unshnnely and mechanically unsound assembly cf bones and muscles. The remedy is, as usual, to remember that the human body can adapt itself almost alwavs to new conditions, provided onlv that it be given reasonable time in which to do it. Any athletic trainer knows as well as a doctor the follv of the sudden transition from a sedentarv life to hard exercise.

And what is true of the bodv cs a whole is true of a part of it. The feet must be "broken in” qraduallv to their new conditions, accustomed to dispense with supporting leather, as flic voun« evmnast is trained to do without Mie helping hand of his instructor Given that one condition, there is little reason whv anv player should be put out of action by “tennis fset.”