Cobbler-altered soccer shoes working great

On May 18 (David Virgil's Blog: Adidas Top Sala X IN my choice for soccer shoes) I reported how I had bought a new pair of indoor soccer shoes.

For 3 months, until August 22, I suffered through what could be called a 'defect' in the Top Sala X IN shoe: it features a stout high thick horizontally and vertically prominent toe-ridge, in between the sole and the soft top of the shoe.

This toe-ridge caused problems for my style of game: it was very difficult to roll the ball back with the right foot and then immediately flip it up and forwards to start an aerial run (I am left-footed). It was very difficult to start a run by flipping the ball up high with the right-foot after rolling it back, so as to be able to contact the ball with the thigh not the foot on the first touch of the run; it was difficult to do such with the left-foot.

I suffered through the impairment caused by the prominent toe-ridge for too long. I felt as if I would simply be able to tough it out, and develop the skills I wanted to develop, despite the toe-ridge issue. Since the toe-ridge generally speaking was impairing my right-footed work and not my left-footed work (I am left-footed) I felt as if the problem was a skill problem not a foot problem.

Darius from Lithuania showed me that when it comes to doing the 'sombrero' move wherein the ball is flipped up without it first being rolled back, that this move could be done with my Top Sala shoes featuring the prominent toe-ridge.

Finally I got around to looking around for a cobbler who would be able to sand down the prominent toe-ridge, and who would take a credit card I use to spend a certain private fund's money. Most of the cobblers did not take credit cards. The closest one was working only two days a week, and I remembered how he usually told me that the work I wanted to do on a shoe should not be done because it would be too expensive and a new pair of shoes should be bought instead.

I found a cobbler (Shoe Repair Newton, MA - The Cobbler Shop) who did an excellent job sanding down the toe-ridge, using a powered machine-sander type tool he had in his shop; and he only charged me $10, the credit card minimum. This cobbler looked like a soccer player; the result produced by the machine sander was so perfect it looked like the shoe came straight out of the factory after he sanded down the toe-ridge.

The cobbler warned me before he did the work, that there was a possibility that my shoe would not survive the work, but I told him to go ahead, and everthing worked out great.

The first couple of days after he sanded down the toes on August 22, I did not notice improvement, but after August 24th improvement accelerated dramatically, compared to how things were going before the cobbler machine-sanded down the toes.

I am now convinced that the Adidas Top Sala X IN shoes with the prominent toe-ridge sanded down, are the best shoes available for my kind of game. The mesh helps to catch the ball like a basket for glancing blows to the underside of the ball with the top of the foot; the shoelaces run down the middle which enhances backspin; the prominent toe-ridge is no longer a problem for flipping the ball up, or in terms of having to get the foot extra low when kicking the underside of the ball.

Come to think of it, the toe-ridge is not a defect, in that if you know how to work with a competent cobbler, you can customize the size and shape of the toe-ridge.

Note: Darius seemed convinced that his method of flipping the ball up, which does not involve having to roll it backwards immediately before flipping it up and forwards, was superior to my method involving flipping the ball up after rolling it backwards. However I am sure that my method is superior. Fact is that in reality, to use Darius' method, one must first stop the ball with the sole of the foot on top of the ball. Once the ball is thus stopped, taking the foot off the ball without rolling it back, & then flipping it up, simply greatly reduces speed, accuracy and range.

Adidas Top Sala X IN my choice for soccer shoes

Today I bought, for my new pair of soccer shoes, a pair of Adidas Top Sala X IN indoor soccer shoes. Since June 2010 I had been using Adidas Predator Absolado X IN indoor soccer shoes, which lasted for 23 months before beginning to fall apart in the right heel area (one reason for the problem in the right heel area, I suspect, was a shock absorbing layer I added to the inside of the shoe).

In June 2010, I explained my reasoning behind getting the Adidas Predator Absolado X indoor shoes, in a blog-post entitled, "Adidas Absolado X IN my choice for soccer shoes".

Since the previous post re choosing the Absolado, my reasoning regarding soccer shoes has changed as a result of experience.

Previously I felt that shoelaces running down the outside of the foot would be an advantage, because they would provide grip and spin for the ball, when I used the foot to kick an airborne ball outwards at a 90 degree angle. However with the passage of time I learned that this outwards aerial turn, is best accomplished by contacting the ball with the front top of the foot, not the side of the foot.

While using the Predator Absolados, which feature the shoelaces running down the outside of the foot, I came to realize that because of the shoelaces running down the outside of the foot, I was experiencing performance impairment doing one of my most impressive, important aerial tricks.

The impaired aerial trick involves: touching the ball on every step while keeping the ball in the air while moving forwards at a brisk pace; (optionally) skipping on every step; the ball being kept approx one foot above the ground the entire time; strong backspin being put on the ball. I came to realize that the shoelaces running down the outside of the shoe, resulted in impairment of the backspin that is a natural intrinsic element of this and other similar tricks.

In general I arrived at the conclusion that the shoelaces running down the outside of the foot (Predator Absolado) is an option that is in a sense inferior to the shoelaces running down the middle of the foot, because of the mental confusion and complexity created by the lack of symmetry.

Performing difficult aerial tricks like sprinting 15 meters touching the ball with alternating left and right feet every three paces while keeping the ball close to the body but off the ground, while zig-zagging, involves split-second calculations that are already complex enough, without the entire matter being complicated even further, due to the inside of the foot interacting with the ball differently than the outside of the foot does (because of the shoelaces running down the outside of the foot).

I found that the best technique for aerial turns to the outside, involved striking the ball with the front top of the foot. I could find on the internet only two "indoor" shoes which combined unusual surfacing on the front top of the foot (which might be expected to increase control when the ball is struck with the front top of the foot), with ALSO the shoelaces running down the middle.

The two were the Adidas Top Sala and the Adidas Adi5 Xite. The Top Sala features a "mesh" type surface on the top front, and the Adi5 features a "touch compound grid" type surface on the top front of the foot.

But as it turned out, at the store, I saw that the official Adidas sign under the Adi5 said that the shoe was designed for "artificial grass".

The sole of the Adi5 contains lots of little knobs, like miniature cleats. The man at the store told me such would leave markings on a basketball court floor and not be allowed by the court management.

I could not find any shoes designed for the basketball court with soles like the Adi5. But there were many basketball shoes with soles similar to those found on the Top Sala.

I am convinced people understimate the advantages of practicing soccer on an indoor basketball court. For example, on an indoor basketball court, one can execute corner drills, involving facing a corner, and alternating between kicking the ball at the left wall and the right wall. A couple of hours spent doing such corner drills, can improve one's skills more than ten hours spent booting the ball around outdoors.

Indoor shoes can be used on any surface. But outdoors shoes, cannot be used indoors.

@2012 David Virgil Hobbs

Adidas Absolodo X IN my choice for soccer shoes

After several hours of tiring time consuming research, I made my choice for a new pair of soccer shoes. I decided to buy the Adidas Absolodo P X IN, or the Adidas Absalodo X IN (as of now I can discern no difference between the two shoes except for the outer coloring). I now explain the reasoning behind this choice.

I have been practicing soccer on a basketball court using Adidas Bracara shoes, which have served me well. But with the passage of time, the Bracaras have become smoother and smoother on the sole area of the foot, and I have been slipping more and more. It got to the point where I felt sort of as if I was ice skating. I decided that my next pair of shoes should as much as possible, on the sole area that contacts the ground, resemble a basketball shoe. Basketball shoes are made for basketball courts so such is simple common sense.

Secondly, I decided that the shoe laces on the shoe should be "asymmetric", "offset", "off center" lacing type shoes, meaning that the shoelace holes should not go straight down the middle of the shoe, but off to the side of the shoe; and I decided that the shoelace holes should angle to the outside of the foot not the inside of the foot (Nike is now making best I can tell--the photos at their website are confusing--at least one indoor soccer shoe featuring laces that angle off towards the inside of the foot).

My Adidas Bracara shoes feature a row of shoelace holes that angle off towards the outside of the foot; when I bought them it had become no longer possible to buy shoes with laces going down the middle. The shoes I used before the Bracaras, Pumas, had the shoelace holes right down the middle of the foot. At first I was worried that such shoelace angling might mess up my game, which involves alot of keeping the ball off the ground and backspinning the ball. I thought that since the shoelace holes angle off to the outside of the foot the result would be that I would not be able to use the shoelaces and the shoelace holes to aid in the backspin of the ball. But as it turned out, while using the Bracaras I was able to competently backspin the ball keeping it off the ground and close to the body while running around, despite the shoelaces angling off to the outside of the foot.

As I progressed in skill I entered into a long struggle involving an attempt to master the difficult skill of keeping the ball close to the body but off the ground while running, by way of chipping the ball to my right with my right foot despite being left-footed. I found this skill to be the most difficult skill I had ever attempted to master. Finally after several weeks of practice, in the past couple of days I've gotten to the point where I consider myself on the verge of mastering it. As I finally succeeded, I realized that the success was associated with putting plenty of backspin on the ball. I decided that the shoelaces and shoelace holes angling off to the outside of the foot, help me to succeed in accurately chipping the ball to my right with my right foot because they help me to backspin the ball. Thus I decided that I want shoes with shoelaces and shoelace holes angling off to the right of the foot.

The Adidas Absolado P X IN, and its twin the Adidas Absolado X IN, both feature soles that are like basketball shoe soles and that have a relatively large number of grooves in the sole per square inch, with the grooves being relatively deep. Also they both have the shoelaces angling towards the outside of the foot. Therefore these are the shoes I favor.

The shoes that I decided not to buy fell short of the Adidas Absolado X In shoes for several reasons: the groove patterns on the soles of the shoes did not resemble the groove patterns in basketball shoes; the grooves were too shallow; there were not enough grooves per square inch; the shoelace holes did not angle off towards the outside of the foot.

I spent some time studying tennis and I read about how the loosely strung tennis rackets allow the player to put more spin on the ball, which supports the idea that shoelaces help to put backspin on the ball.

I don't really need the help the shoelaces provide when it comes to backspinning the ball for air-dribbling tricks such as: cutting to the left with my left foot; cutting to my right with my left foot (I am left footed); cutting to my left with my right foot (more natural than cutting to my right with my right foot). I need the help the shoelaces provide for backspinning, for cutting to my right with my right foot.

I've read plenty of text re the supposed impact of shoelaces in terms of the power and precision of shots and passes. My personal experience with the Adidas Bracaras has been that I've been able to get off (my estimates using stopwatch) accurate 100 mph shots with the outside of the foot despite the shoelaces angling off to the outside of the foot. My opinion is that power and accuracy are produced not by extreme effort or by the position of the shoelaces, but rather by the ball and the body in the optimal positions.