As an alternative to natural grass playing fields, the installation of artificial turf surfaces has grown exponentially over the past several decades. Despite the growing popularity of artificial turf, little is known about the interaction between the player’s shoe and the turf surface. Previous research has cited the difficulty in maximizing performance (high traction), yet minimizing the risk of injury (low traction) [2]. Due to numerous factors that affect the turf-shoe interaction, determining safe traction ranges for artificial turf is very difficult. However, the first step needs to be taken to determine the safe range between performance and risk of injury for traction.

The purpose of this study was to investigate variances in peak traction coefficients based on a particular cleated athletic shoe on artificial turf at various angles of internal rotation during a linear translational motion. It was hypothesized that a variety of cleated athletic shoes at various angles of internal rotations would not exhibit different peak traction coefficients. Secondly, there would be no difference in peak traction coefficients within a cleated athletic shoe at the various angles of internal rotation.