Introduction
The ankle joint is one of the joints most frequently affected by injuries. These include contusions, slight stretching of the ligaments or even torn ligaments and injuries to the joint capsule. In addition to the injuries that occur in everyday life, a large proportion of injuries are due to sports accidents, e.g. while playing soccer or jogging.
Therefore, in many cases it has proven to be a good idea to tap the ankle joint to give it more stability. The ankle can be taped to prevent an injury or as part of an injury therapy. Tapes can be roughly divided into elastic tapes, which provide functional support for movements and allow a relatively large amount of freedom of movement, and inelastic tapes, which are primarily intended to provide stability. Known tapes are kinesio tapes or the leukotape. In the following, the indications, correct use and frequent areas of application for ankle taping are discussed.
Causes and indications
There are a number of causes and indications for which the ankle can be taped. A first major area is the prophylaxis of injuries and restrictions of the ankle joint, which can result from excessive strain or unintentional movements in sports accidents. The tape provides the joint with more stability and helps to reduce the risk of injury.
Theoretically, every athlete can tape his or her ankle in this form, especially people with previous injuries to the ankle. Sports where ankle taping is often used are soccer and jogging, but also tennis, martial arts and many other activities where ankle taping is used. In addition to prevention, taping is also used in the therapy of ankle joint injuries.
In this case, the ankle should be taped to provide further stability, especially if the tapes can only do so to a limited extent. Taping the ankle joint clearly promotes healing. Typical indications here are ligament stretching and torn ligaments, sometimes also capsule tears in the ankle joint.
