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Ankle injuries are common among athletes, often leading to breaks in sports participation. These injuries range from simple sprains to chronic instabilities and cartilage loss, with lateral ankle sprains being the most prevalent. Recurrent sprains can sideline athletes for extended periods or end their careers. Ankle taping is a widespread method to prevent such injuries, as it reduces peak ankle excursions, thereby lessening ligament strain during activities like landing and sudden direction changes.
However, taping can also alter ground reaction force application and lower extremity joint kinematics, potentially increasing the risk of other injuries such as ACL tears or overuse injuries like plantar fasciitis and iliotibial band syndrome. Reduced ankle dorsiflexion due to taping might raise ground reaction force loading rates, a factor in overuse injuries. Assessing the effects of taping should include these biomechanical changes during specific sports movements.
Changes in ACL injury risk with ankle taping are influenced by increased knee abduction angles and internal knee adduction moments, which are affected by the kinematic chain, including trunk and hip mechanics. Thus, peak hip abduction moments and adduction angles should be considered.
Running, integral to many sports, is also affected by taping. It’s essential to evaluate how taping influences biomechanical risk factors for running-related overuse injuries. Despite reports on taping’s effects on joint kinematics, its impact on lower limb kinetics, especially for proximal joints like the knee and hip, remains unclear. Different taping methods and reduced ankle excursion-restrictive properties after 15 minutes of activity add variability to these findings.
Taping also interacts with athletic footwear, whose effects vary between shod and barefoot conditions. This variability complicates the understanding of taping’s isolated effects on ankle biomechanics. Thus, this study aims to determine the changes in kinetics and kinematics of lower extremity joints during sports-specific tasks with and without taping, both initially and after 15 minutes of use. The hypothesis is that taping reduces peak joint excursions in the ankle and alters joint angles and moments associated with ACL and running overuse injury risks, but these effects diminish after prolonged use.
Twenty-five healthy participants (10 women, 15 men; average age 24.8 years) were studied to assess the impact of ankle taping on movement. They had no recent lower extremity or ankle injuries. The study was approved by the ethics committee, and participants gave informed consent. Each participant performed a 10-minute warm-up before testing three conditions: barefoot (BF), fresh tape (TF), and tape after sports-specific use (TU). Randomization was used for BF and TF conditions to avoid bias, while TU followed TF.
A standardized ankle taping method was applied by a sports physician. Participants then performed movements mimicking sports actions—running, sudden acceleration, direction changes, and jumping—while wearing their own sports shoes. This phase lasted 15 minutes. Data were collected for the TU condition afterward, without shoes.
Movements were performed on a tartan floor, including drop jumping (DJ), running (RUN), and 180° changes of direction (COD). RUN and COD speeds were measured using a wireless light barrier system, and valid trials were defined by stable landing for DJ. Three valid trials per condition were analyzed.
Kinematic data were recorded with 22 tracking cameras, and kinetic data with two force platforms. Markers tracked motion of the right lower extremity. The data were filtered and used in a six-degrees-of-freedom model to analyze ankle joint motion. Joint angles and moments were calculated, and traumatic or overuse injury risk parameters were extracted and averaged for each condition.
Statistical analysis involved repeated measures ANOVAs and Bonferroni adjusted t-tests, with effect sizes calculated using Cohen’s d. The significance level was set at 5%.
This study aimed to investigate the effects of ankle taping on the kinetics and kinematics of lower extremity joints during sports-specific tasks, both barefoot and with taping. Specifically, it explored how taping impacts movements related to traumatic or overuse injuries and whether these effects change over time.
The results showed that taping significantly restricted peak ankle inversion and dorsiflexion during various dynamic movements, potentially increasing the maximum loading rate of the ground reaction force (GRF). This is significant because higher loading rates can elevate the risk of overuse injuries like plantar fasciitis. The study found that while ankle taping reduced joint excursions, it did not significantly alter knee joint kinetics associated with ACL injury risk or patellofemoral pain syndrome. Interestingly, peak ankle eversion angles and eversion range of motion during running were significantly reduced with taping, indicating a potential risk for conditions such as medial tibial stress syndrome and Achilles tendinopathy.
The restrictive effect of taping on ankle motion persisted even after 15 minutes of sports-specific activity, although some kinetic parameters returned closer to baseline. This suggests that different components of the tape respond differently to prolonged use.
The study highlighted several limitations, including focusing on a limited number of movements, using only one taping technique, and testing on healthy volunteers. Future research should consider a broader range of movements, multiple taping techniques, and the inclusion of athletic footwear to better understand the effects of taping in real-world sports settings. Additionally, performance and subjective perceptions should be evaluated to provide a more comprehensive understanding of taping technologies in sports.
This study examined the effects of ankle taping on lower extremity joint kinetics and kinematics during sports-specific movements and how these effects change after use. The results indicate that ankle taping effectively reduces peak ankle inversion angles, providing protection against ankle sprains during dynamic activities. Most biomechanical risk factors for ACL or running overuse injuries either remained unchanged or decreased with fresh tape, except for the peak loading rate of the resultant ground reaction force, which increased by 4% to 18%. The protective effects of ankle taping diminish after 15 minutes of use, especially for peak ankle dorsiflexion during direction changes and running, though the reduction in peak ankle inversion angles is less affected. These findings highlight the need for further research into the duration and consistency of taping’s effects and its impact on various biomechanical variables over time. Ankle taping appears to offer significant protection against ankle sprains without significantly increasing ACL or running overuse injury risks, but the increased loading rates warrant caution and further investigation. Future studies should explore the long-term effects of ankle taping, its impact on athletes with chronic ankle instability, and its interaction with different types of athletic footwear.
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