Preparing your Ankle
Sit down on an elevated surface where you can allow the foot and ankle to hang off comfortably. It is usually easier to have someone else tape your leg. This allows them to focus on taping and you can focus on keeping your ankle still.
Keep your foot at a 90-degree angle. Taping your foot protects it from moving too quickly and furthering any injuries.
Place a pad on the front and back of your ankle to prevent blisters. Place one pad where the laces will go and the other on the heel.
Wrap your foot and ankle with pre-wrap. Pre-wrap is stretchy, soft gauze that protects your skin and hair from tape. Starting near the ball of your foot, wrap around your foot in pre-wrap, working towards your ankle up until the mid calf. Try to cover up most of your skin to protect the tape so that it does not pull out hair when you need to remove it. The heel can remain uncovered. there is no hair to pull off and your skin is tough.
Tape anchor strips onto the pre-wrap to keep it in place. Place the first anchor strip on the top, then secure it with another piece of tape. Make sure the tape is not too tight to constrict blood flow. Then repeat on the bottom The tape should feel firm, but also lose enough so that the ankle can still move from side to side. If you feel tingling or pins, remove tape and try again.
Taping Your Ankle
Attach a tape stirrup around your ankle bone for stability. Take a long piece of tape and attach it just above your interior ankle bone.Wrap the piece of tape under your heel and then connect it to your opposite ankle bone. The tape should form a “U” shape around your foot You should feel the tape pull down on your inside ankle bone, and then up on the outside ankle bone.
Add 2-3 more stirrups of tape, overlapping each piece of tape by roughly a half inch for added stability. Add one more anchor strip to keep them stable.
Start taping the foot, moving from the inside of your foot to the outside.These pieces will begin to look like horse shoes. Continue this wrap around your arch 2-3 times, overlapping each layer of tape, for added stability, as you move towards your heel. This will create kind of a closed tape job. You will continue to wrap the tape in C strips to cover up any opening spots where you can see the pre-wrap.
Start taping the ankle in a figure eight motion.You will begin to place the tape at the medial side of the foot just above the ankle. Next you will bring the tape under the base of the foot then bring it back over the top of the foot near the inner ankle. Finally wrap around the Achilles, which is located above the heel on the back of the ankle, and back around the outer part of the ankle. This is the hardest part of the ankle taping process.
Continue taping in a figure eight motion, alternating around your foot and ankle 3 times.Repeat 2-3 times, overlapping half of the tape each time.
Flex your ankle from side to make sure you can move it. You want a limited range-of-motion in your ankle but still being able to move it around without any pain. You should be able to move up and down and to both sides, but it shouldn’t be able to move as far as you would before the tape.
Keep practicing the tape job until your ankle feels comfortable and stable. Apply gauze or protective pads on the front and back of your ankle to prevent blisters. Wrap your foot and ankle with pre-wrap to protect your skin. Wrap 2-3 long pieces of tape from the inside of your ankle to the outside as U-shaped stirrup straps. Cover your ankle bone with tape from front to bottom, back to top.
Remove the tape carefully with scissors when done. Insert one of the blades between your skin and the pre-wrap and carefully cut around your ankle bone to remove the tape.
Comments
0 comment