Casey Bass: We all know that any building is only as good as it's foundation. Well, Doctor Marshall, believes the same thing, but about, a different type of structure, the human body. We spent a lot of time and energy as coaches, working on every area of athletic development to make our kids better. We run drills, we lift weights, we can do sprints, run stairs. But Dr. David Marshall, friend of the show and Director of Sports Medicine at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, kind of has a different opinion about, something that might get overlooked a lot? And that has to do with our feet. What is it about, our feet that's so important? David Marshall: Well, I think the most important thing about, the feet is that's the place where your body hits the road, that's where the rubber hits the road. So these athletes I guess, these sites and swimmers and cyclists, the feet and how the foot interacts with the ground is very important, with athletic performance and injury prevention. Casey Bass: So what are some of the problems that we face, as far as our kids go, with their feet? David Marshall: One of the things that I'm starting to see very common in my Sports Medicine practice is pronation. Pronation, the Latin term, is flat feet. If you look at the kid's feet from behind, you want to make sure, that they don't collapse their arches. The kids that collapse their arches or lose that arch a little bit, pronate and that can have significant, impact on increase in the development of low extremity pain syndrome or injury and also performance. Casey Bass: Alright. So once you've figured that your kids flat foot. What can you do about it? David Marshall: Well, you need to correct the flat footedness. In other words, if you find that your kid is an nearsighted, you get them glasses. If you find out they have flat feet, you get them some kind of orthotics and pronation it varies a different degrees. We've all seen that. You walk behind a child whether be it six flags or at school that's in bare feet or flip flops and they're actually bearing weight on their in-steps. That's really flat feet and that kid is going to be at a high risk of injuries. Well, the kids just might pronate ever, so slightly. So that the way that you treat it depends on the degree of the pronation. Casey Bass: How does pronation affect athlete performance? David Marshall: Well, it can really effect in two ways. It can increase injury or increase the risk of injury. It can also decrease performance. The way, it increases injury, is pretty simple. If you think, you've taken the foot there's 26 bones that make up, the foot and the ankle and it was designed to hit the ground, roll to the neutral position and then push off. When the kids pronate, they still hit the ground with the outside of their foot like they should and then they pronate to the neutral position during stance and that gives those 26 bones, the proper alignment to develop the most torque to push off on. So you're vertical leap and your proportion forces are going to be better as long as those feet are lined up. In the kid that pronates, number one, they hit the ground. They roll into the neutral position, but they don't stop. They roll inward farther, and collapse those arches. When those arches collapse then, those 26 bones of the foot and the ankle tend to collapse a little bit. Think of a 26 brick wall, if there is 26 bricks in a wall and they collapse a little, it becomes a much less stable wall. So number one, that athlete's foot is on the ground, longer than it should be which slows him down. And number two, when they decide to push off, they don't have near the stability to push off, to gain forces. So they can lose speed and they can lose performance if they pronate. Casey Bass: And they can also get injured. Show us, some of your little toy to that you bought? David Marshall: Well, they -- can I get the injuries? That is I can get injured and the injuries can be just as generalizes, ankle plain, shi