Pre and Posttest Assessment of Ankle Mobility and Strength for Collegiate Women Soccer Players

Data collected during the 2019 soccer season at the University of Texas at Tyler showed women were susceptible to ankle injuries. A deficiency in ankle strength and mobility were suspected to be injury contributors. Hence, twenty-eight female soccer players were selected to undergo a pretest, a 13- week specialized ankle strengthening and mobility regimen via a warmup and cool down, and then a post-test to assess improvements. Ankle strength was tested with the manual muscle test (MMT) scale ranging from 1 to 5. Stationary range of motion was tested with a goniometer to measure the full range of motion in both ankles. For functional range of motion, the squat, inline lunge, and hurdle step were evaluated with a MMT test ranging from a 1 to 3. Data was then analyzed using the dependent t-test. Results showed that strength in the ankles did improve in inversion, eversion, plantarflexion, and dorsiflexion. However, only the right foot inversion and left foot eversion were statistically significant with a p-value of .075 and .019. For the stationary range of motion there was an increase in dorsiflexion, inversion, and eversion, but a decrease in plantarflexion. The only statistically significant value was the right ankle dorsiflexion with a p-value of .054. For functional range of motion, the squat, inline lunge, and hurdle step all showed improvements. However, the squat was the only statistically significant value with a .075 p-value. While not all values proved statistically significant, there were improvements between pre and post-test assessments after the 13-week program. More research to establish whether they have any correlation with injury occurrence is recommended.