*Article*

#### **E** ff**ect of Football Shoe Collar Type on Ankle Biomechanics and Dynamic Stability during Anterior and Lateral Single-Leg Jump Landings**

**Yunqi Tang 1,2, Zhikang Wang 2, Yifan Zhang 2, Shuqi Zhang 3, Shutao Wei 4, Jiahao Pan 4 and Yu Liu 1,\***


Received: 13 March 2020; Accepted: 5 May 2020; Published: 13 May 2020

**Abstract:** In this study, we investigated the e ffects of football shoes with di fferent collar heights on ankle biomechanics and dynamic postural stability. Fifteen healthy college football players performed anterior and lateral single-leg jump landings when wearing high collar, elastic collar, or low collar football shoes. The kinematics of lower limbs and ground reaction forces were collected by simultaneously using a stereo-photogrammetric system with markers (Vicon) and a force plate (Kistler). During the anterior single-leg jump landing, a high collar shoe resulted in a significantly smaller ankle dorsiflexion range of motion (ROM), compared to both elastic (*p* = 0.031, dz = 0.511) and low collar (*p* = 0.043, dz = 0.446) types, while also presenting lower total ankle sagittal ROM, compared to the low collar type (*p* = 0.023, dz = 0.756). Ankle joint sti ffness was significantly greater for the high collar, compared to the elastic collar (*p* = 0.003, dz = 0.629) and low collar (*p* = 0.030, dz = 1.040). Medial-lateral stability was significantly improved with the high collar, compared to the low collar (*p* = 0.001, dz = 1.232). During the lateral single-leg jump landing, ankle inversion ROM (*p* = 0.028, dz = 0.615) and total ankle frontal ROM (*p* = 0.019, dz = 0.873) were significantly smaller for the high collar, compared to the elastic collar. The high collar also resulted in a significantly smaller total ankle sagittal ROM, compared to the low collar (*p* = 0.001, dz = 0.634). Therefore, the high collar shoe should be e ffective in decreasing the amount of ROM and increasing the dynamic stability, leading to high ankle joint sti ffness due to di fferences in design and material characteristics of the collar types.

**Keywords:** collar height; kinematics; kinetics; dynamic stability; ankle injury
