How do triathletes and tennis players work on the ankle flexibility?

I have breaststroker's ankles and can get sprains walking on an uneven surface(I'm also a klutz out of the water.) However in my 20s and 30s I played a lot of raquetball and never had any problems with my ankles from that.

I played v-ball in high school and landed wrong once while blocking. Part of my rehab was to write the alphabet with each of my feet in the air. That and some rest, and I haven't had any other ankle problems. (The alphabet task was really good for the flexibility without being strenuous.)

Sorry about that confusion! I would sit in a chair and hold up one foot in the air. With my foot I would make an "A" in the air. So I would point my toe down to the left, go up to the top of the A, go down to the right, and then cross it in the middle. Then I'd do B. Point up at the top, "draw" a line down.... Make sense? Let me know. I can try again.

As for stability, in my youth, I broke my legs 7 times... mostly around the ankles/feet. I don't think ankle flexibility in itself brings on sprains. I think once you get the first sprain/strain/break, unless you restrengthen properly you're at risk for more and more sprains. Here are the exercises I did in high school (and I go through a month or so more of these each time I sprain my ankle): Toe raises: each leg, toe pointed neutral/in/out, 10-20 each direction, go really slow when coming down Ankle pulls: loop of theraband over both feet. with one leg at a time, pull/flex your ankle outwards. 10-20 each leg Leg lifts: Balanced flat on one foot, lift the other leg forward, out, and back (returning leg to the center each time). 10-20 full circuits each leg. If your nerve pathways are as thrashed as mine were, you might have to hold onto something to do the leg lifts. Then do them without holding on. Then do them with your eyes shut. The purpose of this exercise is twofold: to strengthen the little bitty stabilizer muscles and to rebuild the nerve pathways that say, "Hey brain, you're about to go over on your ankle. How about we compensate for that!" Since doing these exercises, I went from about 3-4 bad sprains/year (like bad enough to require crutches) to about 1 every 4 years or so. And during that time, my ankle flexibility has improved a lot. While I don't run or play tennis, I used to play soccer and had no problems with flexible swimming ankles and playing soccer (though I taped up before games and practice.)

I come from a running background and heard that the stiff ankles of runners would cause problems. I did achilles stretches to get the loose ankles I needed but my stiff ankles kept cramping my calves. I finally got long fins and suddenly realized that the tight area was not achilles but the top o the foot. Since then my calves don't cramp and my running has been unaffected. I know that if runners send too much time on treadmill they start to have the "loose ankle" problems you describe. Given all that, if you want run for fun/cross training/weight loss than stick to treadmills. If you want to run and compete, you must start training the small stabilizing muscles of the feet. Start with good shoes and flat surfaces and progress to golf courses for long runs and strides on your local HS football field barefoot. Good luck!

:) I played v-ball in high school and landed wrong once while blocking. Part of my rehab was to write the alphabet with each of my feet in the air. ..snip... (The alphabet task was really good for the flexibility without being strenuous.) ........ Please clarify, Karen. Were you supposed to write with your regular hand -with an alternating foot in the air- or were you supposed to write, holding the writing implement -whatever THAT was- with one foot while standing on the other? (Was it the English alphabet or Cyrillic?):)

Flexible ankles can certainly cause injuries if your ankles are also weak, but if you keep your ankles strong, you should be fine. Ankle raises on a stair are good for strength - stand facing up the stairs with your toes on the step and your heels off, and raise and lower yourself using your ankles. Try to use your hands as little as possible to balance yourself. You can also try doing one-legged ankle raises. The alphabet thing is also pretty good for both strength and flexible.

I read (on this website) that what restricts range of motion in your ankles is bone, not muscle/tendons and thus you cannot do much about ankle flexibility even if you wanted to.

I read (on this website) that what restricts range of motion in your ankles is bone, not muscle/tendons and thus you cannot do much about ankle flexibility even if you wanted to. What makes a swimmer's ankles be more flexible than his runner counterpart would therefore be deformation of bones? Tough sale, at least to me (with all due respect)

Unlike Bud (who is probably more vigilant than I), I find this to be somewhat true. I have very loose flexible ankles naturally. I ran for many years, but when I increased the distance, ended up injured. Sprained ankle and stress fracture in the ankle. I switched to masters swimming, which I appear to be more genetically suited for. Hi Fortress my dear ;-) I tend to agree with you that not everyone is made for running, and that ankle stability (moreover its impact on leg alignment) plays a big role in making your life as a runner easy or painful. Most could probably still get away safe and sound by consulting a competent specialist in adapted insole. But even a carefully picked pair of insole won't match a stable pair of ankles. Of course (as you already know) a nice and slow progression in volume increase also helps. I started a friend of mine at the office last year (47yo swimmer). 10min of running 3xweek, adding 5 minutes to every workout every week until he reached 30min. Then make 1 session (not all of them) longer by 5min a week until he reached 90min. That brought him to run one half marathon and one half Ironman. For the first time of his life, he didn't suffer shin splints.