The Effects of Ankle Sprain on Balance Tests in Adolescent Volleyball Players with Previous History of Ankle Sprain

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the impact of having previous history of inversion ankle sprain on balance tests in adolescent volleyball players. METHODS: Fourty-five adolescent volleyball players with mean age of 15.26±1.03 participated in our study. Twenty-nine were uninjured (control group) and sixteen had previously experienced inversion injuries on right ankle. 9 players had the injury more than than one year ago and 7 players had it before six to twelf months. Balancing abilities were evaluated by Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) and Single Limb Hurdle Test (SLHT). The fact that players with history of injury had the ankle sprain at right foot led us to perform the measurements in the control group also for the right foot. We compared the results of injured and uninjured players on both tests. RESULTS: Uninjured players' reaching distance on right foot was found out to be significantly more than in players with ankle sprain at medial and posteromedial directions of SEBT(p<.05), whereas there were no differences detected for the other directions (p>.05). For comparing athletes' performances with SLHT, finishing time was found significantly better in uninjured players (p<.05). CONCLUSION: Adolescent volleyball players with history of injury show lower performance on balance tests compared to uninjured players. This demonstrates that they should be given a training including balance and stabilization programs.