DOES ANKLE TAPING or BRACING REALLY HELP?

Almost every basketball player in his or her lifetime has either had their ankles taped or wore braces to help increase stability and decrease the chance of spraining his or her ankle.  Does this common practice actually aide in decreasing the chance of spraining an individual’s ankle?

If talking about helping decrease the severity of an ankle sprain from stepping/landing on someone else’s foot, yes.  As to prevent spraining an ankle all together, I would have to say no.

Several studies report ankle taping actually increase proprioception of an individual in non-weight bearing (foot off the ground).  As for when an individual is weight bearing, foot on the ground, there is inconclusive evidence at best.  Ankle stability and balance has contributions from 3 systems within the body:  vestibular, vision, and sensorimotor.  Vestibular deals with the inner ear and helps with the body’s understanding of head position.  Vision is self-explanatory.  Eyes allow visual information to be relayed to various centers in the body.  This visual information allows an individual’s body to adapt to varying surfaces and/or obstacles in order to maintain overall balance. The sensorimotor system utilizes receptors within the joints, tendons, and ligaments to sense positional changes.  Slight stretches to ligaments and tendons along with joint changes send information to allow adjustments to be made by the body.  Taking any one of these systems away or having a deficit to one of these components requires increased reliance on the other two systems.  In order to maximize the efficiency of these systems, an individual must challenge these systems in a variety of ways.

Exercises to improve ankle stability should be performed without shoes since shoes are designed, especially basketball shoes, to provide increased stability and support for the most part.  A variety of double and single leg balance exercises, hops, lunges, and isolated ankle strengthening with bands are necessary to perform.  Also, one must perform recovery or maintenance routines in order to decrease tone/tension in calves, Achilles, plantar fascia, and hamstrings.  This maintenance can be performed using foam rollers, rolling sticks, stretching, monster bands, and various types of balls (ie: lacrosse, softball, tennis, and golf).

Taping or wearing braces may be beneficial for individuals who play or practice 6 to 7 days per week because muscle, tendons, and ligaments need time to recover.  With back-to-back games or consecutive practices, those components of the body do not have adequate amount of time to recover.  Being in the vulnerable state may benefit from increased support to decrease the chance of serious damage.

All in all, ankle taping or bracing is a common practice among the basketball world especially as athletes enter high school level of competition.  A basketball player’s feet are a major factor in the success of the player yet very little time is spent on care of one’s feet.  This neglect of the basketball player’s feet leads to several ankle injuries but almost always plays an important aspect in the severity of the injuries.  By spending time improving a player’s own systems designed to enhance balance and stability, I believe many foot/ankle injuries can be prevented as well as decreasing the severity of an injury if one occurs.

A Physical Therapist can help through a formal evaluation or movement screen to determine possible deficits or limitations in ROM, strength, flexibility, stability, and balance.  A well-designed program can address many if not all the deficits and allow the basketball player to return to optimal athletic performance.

References:

Arnold BL, Docherty CL. Bracing and rehabilitation—what’s new. Clin Sports Med 2004;23(1):83-95.

Broglio SP, Monk A, Sopiarz K, Cooper ER. The influence of ankle support on postural control. J Sci Med Sport 2009;12(3):388-392.

Plisky PJ, Rauh MJ, Kaminski TW, Underwood FB. Star Excursion Balance Test as a predictor of lower extremity injury in high school basketball players. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2006;36(12):911-919.

Wilkerson, Gary B.  Biomechanical and Neuromuscular Effects of Ankle Taping and Bracing.  Journal of Athletic Training. 2002; 37(4): 436-445.