Clare Sottile

Youth and adolescent sports are constantly riddled with lower leg injuries, specifically ankle sprains and breaks. Ankle injuries are the single most common injury related to sports (Tropp et al., 1985, Young et al., 2019). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of ankle support on speed and agility. Amplified ankle support was expected to increase agility and ease lateral movement, but inhibit speed. All 13 of the participants for the survey were gathered from a pool of Spackenkill High School students. Participants had to be from grades 9-12, but could be any age, sex, height, weight, and athletic level. The two kinds of ankle support being tested were the ASO Ankle Brace and a closed basketweave ankle taping method. To test speed and agility, the T-test, Y-Balance evaluation, shuffling test, hop test, and a 30 yard sprint were used. The method of data analysis used was ANOVA and performed using the XLMiner Analysis ToolPak. Because of the small participant pool, none of the data that was collected was statistically significant, however, some similar previous studies have concurrent results with those seen in this study. The non-significant data allows for this study to be repeated, ideally with a larger participant pool.