Ankle stabilizers affect agility but not vertical jump or dynamic balance performance.

Area of Science:

• Sports Medicine
• Biomechanics
• Orthopedics

Background:

• Ankle sprains are common injuries, and ankle stabilizers are often used to mitigate their incidence and severity.
• The impact of various ankle stabilizers on athletic performance, particularly in terms of agility, vertical jump, and dynamic balance, remains incompletely understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the effects of three different ankle stabilizers (athletic tape, lace-up brace, and semirigid brace) versus a no-support control on key athletic performance metrics.

Main Methods:

• A repeated-measures ANOVA design was employed with 10 healthy volunteers performing the Sargent Jump Test, Right-Boomerang Run test, and Modified Bass Test under four conditions: no support, athletic tape, lace-up brace, and semirigid brace.
• Performance metrics included vertical jump height, agility time, and dynamic balance scores.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were observed in vertical jump or dynamic balance performance across the conditions.
• Agility scores showed a statistically significant difference (P = .03) between the control and the semirigid brace, with all stabilizers trending to increase agility times.
• Effect size calculations indicated a moderate negative impact on agility with all tested ankle stabilizers.

Conclusions:

• Ankle stabilizers do not appear to significantly impair vertical jump or dynamic balance performance, likely due to the movement patterns involved in these tests.
• However, ankle stabilizers can negatively affect agility, particularly those with greater rigidity, by hindering rapid directional changes.
• Clinicians and athletes should consider that while stabilizers offer protection, they may compromise certain aspects of athletic performance, necessitating further research in larger populations.