Do you tape or brace your ankles?

[coerciveutopian]

Hi Folks, I'm doing research on the fencing lunge as part of my Masters in Mechanical Engineering. The thread on that is here. I am wondering how many of you regularly use tape or braces to support your ankles during competitions or training whether it is for a specific injury or done prophylacticly. Thank you for your help.

[Craig]

I'll expand on the answer:

I have had multiple ankle spains in the past, at least one which took me out of fencing for 6 weeks.

I keep a lace-up ankle brace in my fencing bag and if it's either a very long fencing day and/or my ankle feels tired or is exhibiting some warning signs of injury, I'll wear the brace.

As a general rule, I avoid the brace and work on the rehab exercises and stretching as preventative measures.

[shlepzig]

++ to what Craig said

I am the same way. If I have pain right then (the right kind of pain) I will put an ankle brace on (I keep a lace-up handy as well as an ace and tape). I will keep it on for a little while and focus on recovery and identifying the root cause.

If it feels really hurt, I put the gear up for the night. I might use a brace during healing depending on how things feel.

I'm a vet (a baby vet, but a vet nonetheless) , so sometimes things just hurt.

-Shlep'

[erooMynohtnA]

No, never

[kalivor]

I'll expand on the answer:

I have had multiple ankle spains in the past, at least one which took me out of fencing for 6 weeks.

I keep a lace-up ankle brace in my fencing bag and if it's either a very long fencing day and/or my ankle feels tired or is exhibiting some warning signs of injury, I'll wear the brace.

As a general rule, I avoid the brace and work on the rehab exercises and stretching as preventative measures.

I could have written the same thing, although I'm pretty lousy at remembering to do the rehab exercises unless those warning signs are flashing.

[TBean]

I am hyper-flexible, and have to careful because of that fact. I routinely twist my ankles in spite of numerous courses of rehab that have included strengthening. I can almost get my ankles strong enough to make up for how flexible I am, but I am very prone to twisting my ankle. I keep, and routinely wear, a lace up ankle brace for my back foot - this is also the ankle I dislocated at 14 when I still entertained hopes of being a ballerina, the poor joint never really recovered. As I gained experience in fencing - really that means improving my footwork - I found I get away with not wearing the brace if all other conditions are ideal - I'm rested, haven't recently twisted it, etc, but for the most part I fence with consistent, light support of my back ankle.

[oiuyt]

I used to wear ankle braces.

I had various ankle injuries through high school and college (sprains, a couple of breaks), both fencing and non-fencing (basketball, volleyball). By the end of college I routinely wore a lace-up brace on each ankle. During my first year post-college I was still fencing 4 days/week but decided to start the season trying to do so without bracing. After a month or so of being a bit cautious, my ankles had strengthened enough that it was rarely a concern.

One minor tweak 2-3 years later, which led to using a brace for a week or so before intentionally weaning myself off of it again. Anther a bit more serious 3-4 years later, with the same recovery plan. No issues since then. I'm not even sure where my braces are currently.

I strongly believe that braces are an important tool, but that I became over-reliant on them in college and suffered additional injuries and difficulty due to a weakening of my ankles as a result of my routine use of them.

When I was using them I did so both in response to acute injury and prophylactically, depending on time frame. I have no direct experience with taping my ankles, although I've had a number of students over the years who did so.

-B

[Superscribe]

I have a question. Do you think that people knowing you suspect that taping or bracing and ankle may cause injury to a knee might somehow affect their answers to your poll?

[ladyofshalott99]

I do neither, but this makes me wonder if injury requring tape is due to a rolling of the back foot, which our coaches have all told us since the dawn of time we're not to do?


(...I still do it )

[eac]

I sprained an ankle many times that ruined multiple Div I's; I did the rehab thing for a while, but after tweaking it a few more times, got tired of it, and now wear one whenever I fence. The brace doesn't really come into play except at the joint limits, so I don't really think it causes atrophy, but it does prevent further injury. I don't understand the point of not wearing one once you've sprained an ankle and thus permanently weakened the tendons/ligaments/whatever down there.

There's never a time where you're not allowed to wear one. Either a) you need those muscles to fence anyway, and they'll be strong from training, or b) you don't, and they don't matter except as injury protection, which the brace does better anyway. So why bother not wearing a brace?

[coerciveutopian]

Do you think that people knowing you suspect that taping or bracing and ankle may cause injury to a knee might somehow affect their answers to your poll?

I don't think so. It's not like I am suggesting people are bad for taping or bracing. I really don't know whether it causes injury to the knee. That's kinda the point of science : ). Right now I am just trying to get a sense of how many people do it. From my experience at touraments it seems like a lot of people wear ankle braces or tape.

[Goldgar]

I have worn a lace-up brace in the past when I was recovering from an ankle sprain, but don't wear one regularly when uninjured.

[egillette]

After having to have surgery to reconnect the torn tendons in my ankle (3 full and one partial tear, all sustained while fencing), and on the advice of my orthopedic surgeon, I always wear a brace when I fence, but I don't wear it while cross-training, etc. and try to keep up the rehab exercises, so the muscles in the ankle don't get weak.

[eac]

I have a question. Do you think that people knowing you suspect that taping or bracing and ankle may cause injury to a knee might somehow affect their answers to your poll?

If the leg is stressed such that the ankle would fail first but for the brace, the knee may fail instead. You could call that the brace causing the knee to fail, but I don't see the point. If you think both are in danger of injury, wear braces on both. Then the next point of failure would be the hip (or one of the leg bones), and if you're in major danger of injuring those during normal fencing, well, maybe non-wheelchair fencing isn't for you.

[Superscribe]

If the leg is stressed such that the ankle would fail first but for the brace, the knee may fail instead. You could call that the brace causing the knee to fail, but I don't see the point. If you think both are in danger of injury, wear braces on both. Then the next point of failure would be the hip (or one of the leg bones), and if you're in major danger of injuring those during normal fencing, well, maybe non-wheelchair fencing isn't for you.

my point, dear Watson, is that there are two possible answers of yes. I'm assuming it matters which yes you pick. I'm also saying knowing the hypothesis, regardless of whether or not the null is rejected, can affect how you justify your yes. I don't know how this data is being used, so it might not matter.

[Inquartata]

1) No, I have never worn a brace/taped my ankles.

2) I do wear high-top fencing shoes.

3) The poll is you-know-what.

Addendum: Does it also work in the other direction, eg does wearing knee braces cause ankle injuries?

[shlepzig]

I may have misinterpreted the answers YES I provided in the survey here.

I do not habitually tape or brace my ankle (presumably due to long-term or permanent injury to the joint).

I do regularly (predictably under specific conditions) tape or brace my ankle, for a period of time, to prevent aggravating a recent injury.

I do not tape or brace my ankle to prevent new injury when I have none.

[coerciveutopian]

Thanks for the responses. There wasn't anything scientific about this poll. I just wanted to get a sense of how many people were using tape or braces on their ankles.

I'm not suggesting that fencing in an ankle brace will cause you to blow out your knee, but I do think it will increases the forces in the knee and that is worth considering. Can't make any conclusions until I have data though!