Ankle-guards

[Jams]

You know those little ankle-guard things netballers wear to stop jarring/hurting their ankles? well does anyone wear them while tricking? logically sounds like a good idea, just wondering if anyone uses them.

[Skilzat85X]

If your ankles have recently been injured, wait until your ankles are sound enough to trick on in general without injury, and wear them for a while, and gradually ease yourself off of them over the course of a few sessions.

Or, seek medical advice, which I find in the case of these particular kinds of things is pretty useless haha.

[BboyShinez]

If your ankles have recently been injured, wait until your ankles are sound enough to trick on in general without injury, and wear them for a while, and gradually ease yourself off of them over the course of a few sessions.

Or, seek medical advice, which I find in the case of these particular kinds of things is pretty useless haha.

i would if i had them...
sometimes ill wrap my ankles if they hurt before a session though...

[Taimatsu]

DO NOT wear them if you aren't injured. If you do, you're only weakening your ankle over time by relying on the support provided by the brace.

you'll weaken over time, then injure yourself, then you really WILL need one.

[Skilzat85X]

I can't agree totally with that. Braces should be used at times wear they will provide needed support and comfort to keep more stress from coming to your almost healed injury. Stressing your joints will only hinder the healing process, as opposed to stressing the joint when it's already in good condition, which (if given enough time between stressing periods) will allow it to get stronger.

Wear your brace during a few sessions, take it off after the session. If your joint is in pain with the brace during the session at all, you're not healed enough to be training at all.

The important thing is not to wear the braces during your rest period, only this will significantly decrease your joint strength. Even if that happened though, a period of disciplined reconditioning could help negate the damage, although it'd be better to do the disciplined conditioning before the injury...

It comes down to this: would you rather have the joint 'stronger' and not healing or 'weaker' and healed?

[A_Wilhelm]

DO NOT wear them if you aren't injured. If you do, you're only weakening your ankle over time by relying on the support provided by the brace.

you'll weaken over time, then injure yourself, then you really WILL need one.

I don't see how wearing braces for a few hours a week weakens your ancles, it's not like you wear them 24/7.

It's only that they aren't trained as much as if you'd trick without them, so if you don't "use" your ancles often enough without braces, they aren't as strong as they could be. There are safer ways to train your ancles than tricking though.

I think if you don't have problems with your ancles why use braces, but if you had already ancle injuries I think it's better to prevent further ones.

I had many ancle injurys in the past, since 2 years I wear really strong ancle braces and I hadn't any injuries since then, so I'm a really big fan of braces.

Another opportunity is to just wear them to prevent injuries, even though you hadn't any in the past. I have not really an oppinion on that, on the one hand it doesn't seem really needed, on the other hand there are always people who never had problems with such things and then get injured all of a sudden. (Even people with really great technique like nick vail and andy ward, so you can't really be safe from that)
But by this logic you had to wear braces and armor all over your body, which would be a little too much haha

So yeah I think you should only use them if you already had problems with your ancles.

The light ancle braces just make injuries more unlikely to happen, because they force your foot to be in the right position (not tilted to the side, which could cause injuries), but if you twist your ancle they don't help much.
So yeah you can use them if you had problems, want to prevent further ones, but still want good flexibility etc. But to be honest I think strengthening your ancles would be better than those.

If you really want to prevent ancle injuries there are really strong braces which make it nearly impossible to twist your ancle. I use those, and I hadn't any injuries since then.

In the end I think that it's really a matter of circumstances. If you just had one ancle injury, I think skilzats solution is the best, just rehab and strengthen them, but if it's "chronically" you really shouldn't risk further ones.

A way too long post, considering that it's just your choice and everyone has differnet views anyway.

[Jams]

thanks for the replies guys
helped me out :P

[DYoo]

no, what tai said is right. the more you wear a brace, the more your body will rely on it to provide the support. think about it, we're naturally lazy, if there is a way for your body to conserve energy, it'll do it.

plus what is a brace for? to provide support. if your body is healthy and doesnt need it, there's no reason for added support. its like eating too many vitamins, it'll have a reverse effect.