How to Reduce Your Chance of An Ankle Sprain
Source:
"5 Ways to Reduce Your Chance of an Ankle Sprain - Athletico."Athletico. 15 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
Date:
November 30th, 2015
Analysis:
Ankle sprains are arguably the most devastating injury in sports, and thus, I have decided to focus my original work around exploring the true effects of ankle sprains in high school sports. Being the most common injury, there are a multitude of different sources with different solutions to preventing this sprain, but I will specifically be looking at more practical methods that people can actually use without spending an excessive amount of money or time.
According to the article, one in seventeen high school players will receive an ankle sprains, and although this is a seemingly trivial statistic, but paired with the fact that more than 7.5 million high school students participated in the 2010-2011 school year, the number of athletes getting injured is on the rise. The strength of an athlete’s ankles is directly correlated with their ability to balance, and in volatile sports such as basketball and volleyball, this skill is invaluable. In my earlier assessments, I mentioned proprioception- one’s ability to balance- and the article states that one of the best ways to maintain and improve this skill is by doing one simple exercise. By standing on one foot and balancing for short amounts of time each day can drastically improve an athlete’s performance. The second way to better prevent sprains is to work on increasing the actual strength of the ankle. The article reports that the stronger the muscles around the joint of the ankle are, the harder it will be to sprain it. The article suggests an easy way to improve ankle resistance is to wrap a towel around your foot, and move it up, down, in and out. After taking off the towel, the muscles around the ankle joint will gain resistance to injury.
The next way to improve the chances of avoiding ankle sprains is increasing the flexibility of the ankle. One of the easiest ways to injure your ankle is when you land awkwardly after jumping, causing the ankle to twist. By constantly stretching and loosening up the ankle, an athlete can make sure that his ankle is perfectly flexible, and can take hard falls or twists. The fourth method of preventing ankle sprains according to the article is properly taping and bracing the ankle. This method is not as certain when it comes to actual benefits, so this one is up to the athlete. If the athlete feels comfortable using braces and tape, then he/she should definitely go for it, but the last thing an athlete wants is a dependence on a brace. Finally, the last way to reduce the chance of spraining your ankle is simply keeping your body in shape and preparing yourself before physical activity. The first thing that comes to mind with this is stretching and drinking water, but another less talked about aspect is to simply ease yourself back into a sport if you have not played for a long time. The body needs time to rebuild flexibility and stamina, so it is always important not to overwork yourself or jump right back into a sport after a long break.
In all, I can use this information to better improve the efficiency of my original work, and could potentially implement these methods in the survey questions I ask. Furthermore, in all of these methods it is always important to consult with the athletic trainer, so I can also stress the importance of an athlete-trainer-coach relationship.
