EFA.
I thought they changed ends at the end of each quarter?
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more of an injury prevention update.
strap yourselves in and let’s roll the tape…
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Now ask him to provide any evidence that strapping actually reduces the risk of injury lol
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The placebo effect is real.
Especially for footballers.
You’d have to convince players they might, or might not, have been strapped up with invisible bandages in order to eliminate the variables
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You could also tape them in a way that intentionally provides no support*
What I think is crazy is that players have to tape their ankles or they’re not covered by insurance.
Collingwood spent something like $70,000 on tape in either 2017 or 2018! You’d think people in the AFL must have shares or part ownership of Elastoplast!
*presuming there is any in the first place lol
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Don’t forget probably $35,000 was spent on bandaids for the Collingwood cheer squad who keep having problems with the kiddie scissors when making the banners.
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I was thinking about the cost when he was doing it. They would have to go through a hell of a lot. And then rip it back off.
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At North Melbourne they wear the tape until it peels or falls off. I guess we could always consider doing the same if we were concerned about the cost.
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What’s your view on this?
There’s a reason ankles are more flexible than knees, reducing that movement puts additional pressure on knees in certain circumstances.
Unless they have a genuine joint instability (think those crazy people that can dislocate joints at will) then I’m yet to see any evidence that rigid sports tape provides enough structural support to physically do anything (short of applying so much and it so tightly that the joint becomes dysfunctional).
If it “works” in this scenario it’s via a strong placebo component possibly with (potentially) a small element of proprioception/increased joint awareness.
For non-ligamentous purposes (like offloading achilles tendon or altering patella alignment on the femoral condyles) there’s perhaps slightly more plausibility to it having an a biomechanical effect, but even then you can argue that the effect comes via the compression of the soft tissues (and nerve stimulation) rather than being a biomechanic change (perfect example of the guy at footy whose knee I kept taping the opposite of what you’re supposed to but it still made his knee feel better; ultimately we trialed him just wearing a thick compression sock over his knee and that was even more effective)
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That’s presuming that the taping actually decreases ankle ROM to any significant degree.
Notwithstanding what you just said about effectiveness (and thanks for that), I was wondering from a more practical perspective whether a reusable system makes more sense than all this taping. Even getting them purpose made for each player.
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Braces, or even just more reusable bandaging style supports, definitely exist; they’re just not as popular for whatever reason.
Having worn an ankle brace for a while after an injury, they definitely can be more restrictive than taping (which in acute phases of injury is the point) but I can’t see a reason why a less-restrictive version couldn’t be made.
This is old man Libba wearing a knee brace under a compression tube
ha - surely we can do better than that
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I’ve seen worse
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Yeah it’s pretty clumsy haha.
I jumped on PubMed and actually found a lot of evidence to support the use of a brace for reducing incidences of ankle injuries (particularly when compared to taping and in those with a previous ankle injury) with no apparent increased risk of knee/hip injuries.
Could be a fair amount of money to be made if someone comes up with suitable braces for soccer and AFL
this is the most recent review I could find
https://sci-hub.tw/10.1007/s40279-018-0993-2
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Is that from 1998 when he lost only 15 weeks to an ACL?