The evolution of athletes has been stark over the past century. Old school professional and amateur golfers, for example, smoked freely on the course, and more often than not retreated to the bar after a bad (or good) round, rather than heading to the range to work things out.

Today, if you want to mingle with Tour players at a big event, you are more likely to run into them in the fitness center. And when it comes to equipment, both professionals and amateurs today hone in on every potential advantage they can find to better their chances of success.

Most serious golfers have been custom fitted for clubs and can recite the specifics of all 14 weapons in their bag from memory. The days of finding a club that provides an extra 20 yards are largely behind us, due to the improvements in fitting technology and USGA limits.

But what if you could find an edge right under your feet? VKTRY's gold and silver insoles -- which slide into most shoes in about 3 minutes -- are used by all sorts of action sports athletes and provide noticeable returns for golfers like Padraig Harrington as well. I recently tried a pair in both athletic and golf shoes, and loved the results.

For starters, I took them on a run after working them in as recommended by VKTRY. I noticed the substantial amount of force I felt back through my foot compared to the standard insoles of my running shoes. I felt more energy from every step I took.

VKTRY's website explains well why this is the case, with their carbon fiber technology acting as a supportive spring, keeping my feet on balance yet adding an additional piston of force with every step I took. They note that there's an increase of nine percent rate of force development with the insoles.

I then moved them from my running shoes to my golf shoes and headed for the course. Given that my back foot tends to finish at angles even contortionists would struggle to find themselves in, I gravely appreciated the extra stability provided by the insoles.

Unexpectedly, they provided their most significant assistance on the course for me with my misses. My tendency on my driver is to have my whole body slide towards the target, shortening the follow-through and forcing me to go over the top. When you play a draw (sometimes too idealistically), a weak fade to slice is not an optimal miss. With the additional stability and force pushing off my front side, even when my body would start to slide, it helped by a slight margin more to keep me behind the ball, providing a little more time to accelerate into the ball and generate more force on my mishits.

After walking a hilly California golf course, I felt relief from the plantar fasciitis pain I suffer from in my left foot. Once again, VKTRY's website explains why these insoles did this: with the added shock absorption, their studies found a 41 percent reduction in foot injuries, including plantar fasciitis on the list.

The Gold VKTRY insoles retail for $169.99, and the silver VTRY insoles retail for $99.99. The gold has more customization options, such as how thick the insole is based on the primary sport the buyer would use it for, fits in all footwear, and uses 100 percent aerospace-grade carbon fiber. The silver comes in one thickness size, doesn't fit in soccer shoes or track spikes, and utilizes a carbon fiber composite.

The options give athletes from the amateur ranks to professionals access to the competitive advantage they need to take another step towards their competitive goals.

AmateurGolf.com members can save $20 off any model of VKTRY insoles using the code AG20 - it will be automatically applied when you click the link below:

www.VKTRYgear.com

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