Waddington G.1,2, Knopp-Steinberg N.3, Karin J.4, Tirosh O.5, Adams R.1
1University of Canberra, UCRISE, Canberra, Australia, 2Australian Institute of Sport, Sports Medicine and Physical Therapies, Canberra, Australia, 3Wingate Institute, Netanya, Israel, 4Australian Ballet School, Melbourne, Australia, 5Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia
Background: High levels of proprioceptive ability are associated with enhanced ankle stability and reduced incidence of ankle injuries. The aim of the current study was to determine whether insertion of textured insoles into the sport shoes of young dancers made short-term and long-term improvements in their inversion and eversion ankle movement discrimination abilities.
Purpose: To examine the influence of textured insoles inserted into the ballet shoes compared to other conditions (barefoot, ballet shoes without insoles, and smooth insoles inserted into the ballet shoes) on AIMD among adolescents and mature dancers of both genders.
Methods: Forty-four adolescent male and female dancers, aged 13-19, from The Australian Ballet School were tested for AIMD while barefoot, wearing ballet shoes, smooth insoles, and textured insoles using an active movement extent discrimination assessment (AMEDA).
The AMEDA uses a set of 5 predetermined available end positions for ankle inversion movements.
A position number (1, 2, 3, 4 or 5) was assigned to each movement displacement in order from the smallest/shallowest angle (1) to the largest/deepest angle (5). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures was used to compare the four different footwear conditions, in the two levels (adolescent dancers levels 45; mature dancers levels 67), and two genders (male, female) of dancers.
Results: No interaction was found between the four different footwear conditions, the two genders, or the two levels of dancers in AIMD (p > .05). An interaction was found between the four different footwear conditions and the three tertiles when tested in ballet shoes (p = .006). Significant differences were found between the upper tertiles and the lower tertiles when tested with ballet shoes, barefoot and with smooth insoles
(p .001; p .001; p = .047, respectively). When testing with textured insoles dancers in the lower tertile obtained similar scores to those obtained by dancers in the upper tertile (p = .911).
Conclusion(s): Textured insoles improved the discrimination scores of dancers with low AIMD, suggesting that textured insoles may trigger the cutaneous receptors in the plantar surface, increasing the awareness of ankle positioning, which in turn might decrease the chance of ankle injury.
Implications: Textured insoles enhanced discrimination ability of dancers with low ability. Dancers with low ability improved up to the level of dancers with good ability. Increased plantar sensitivity might decrease the risk of ankle injury.
Funding acknowledgements: No external funding was obtained for this work
Topic: Sport & sports injuries
Ethics approval: University of Canberra Human Research Ethics Committee
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
