I got the following questions from a Show and Go customer this morning and thought I’d turn it into a quick Q&A:

Do high-top basketball shoes provide any significant stability and safety advantages over low-tops that would make me NOT want to buy low-tops? When I played hoops in high school my ankles rolled over at least once every few months, so it feels obvious that there’s a lot more to the stability equation than the height of the ankle on the shoe.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I sent him to these two articles:

Nike Shox and High Heels
The Importance of Ankle Mobility

Then, I gave him the following advice: “I would never put one of my athletes in high-tops. The introduction of the high top and the addition of big heel lifts in sneakers is, in my eyes, the cause of the epidemic of anterior knee pain and the emergence of high ankle sprains. And, you’re right that there is more to the stability equation than the height of the shoe: the muscles and tendons of the lower leg (particularly the peroneals) actually have to do some work to prevent ankle sprains. Put yourself in a concrete block of a shoe and tape your ankles and you are just asking all those muscles to shut down.”

For more information on truly functional stability training for the lower leg and core, check out my e-book, The Truth About Unstable Surface Training.

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