The influence of ankle strapping on wobbleboard performance, before and after exercise

Twenty four uninjured female volunteers (mean age = 19.6 years) were utilised to study the effect of modified Gibney ankle strapping on proprioception before, during and after exercise, by measuring performance on an instrumented wobbleboard. Following a familiarisation session, testing was conducted on two occasions using a crossover research design, utilising strapped and unstrapped conditions. The time in contact, the number of contacts and the average time in contact that the wobbleboard made with a metal baseplate under the wobbleboard were recorded during a ten second test duration. Tests were conducted at the times of 0, 5, 10 and 15 minutes of a standardised exercise regime performed by the subjects. Results revealed that strapping had no significant effect on wobbleboard performance. Since the wobbleboard is widely accepted as a method of training as well as a clinical assessment of ankle proprioception, it could be inferred that strapping had no effect on proprioception before, during or after exercise.