After our adventures in Oregon, I thought it would be helpful to talk about blisters, and how to help prevent them.

The main cause of blisters is a sock rubbing against the skin when the shoe moves as you run or walk.  Since our soccer boots are moving more than most (we do more running than anybody) we can have this problem.  There are a couple of simple remedies that will prevent most blisters. 

1. Wear two pairs of socks.  The underneath pair can be a pair of the low ankle socks, as long as they cover the entire foot and come up out of the top of the boot.  Especially with new boots, which are stiff and don’t flex with the feet until well broken in, this causes rubbing.  If there is only one layer of sock then the rubbing gets through to the skin causing the blisters.  The boot moves the first sock against the second sock which doesn’t move and therefore protects the skin.  Be sure that both pairs of socks are pulled up snugly over the feet, with no loose fabric down inside the boot.  This can roll up and cause blisters at those points.

2.  Lace your boots up tightly.  Most soccer boots are bought a little big so there is room to grow into them.  This is fine, within reason (1/2 a size or so).  The extra room means that the boot has a lot of room to move around on the foot to cause blisters.  Particularly at the heel, since the foot slides forward into the boot when you run and all of the space goes to the back where the rubbing occurs.  Put on the boot, bang your heel on the ground to get your foot to the back of the boot, and tighten the laces all the way down to the toes.  This will make your boots ride closer to your feet and cause fewer problems.

After the practice or match be sure to get out of your shoes and socks as soon as you can so your feet can dry.  Wet skin is more likely to get blisters so try to make sure your boots and socks can dry out as much as possible.  Be sure to take them out of your bag so they can get air (our backpacks are waterproof so the moisture cannot get out if you leave them zipped up).  This is particularly important at tournaments (as we found out).  We will also have some Saturday/Sunday weekends this season.

Last thing:  If you do get blisters, make sure the coaches know right away.  We can help with the problem so they don’t get worse.  Small blisters are much better than big ones.  They hurt less, are easier to deal with, and heal much faster.

Thanks for your attention, folks,

Coach Rodney Bodden

August 2007