Ankle sprains are regarded as one of the most common lower extremity injury in sports. Previous research studying ankle sprain risk factors has examined the role of anticipation on dynamic movements such as cutting and jump landing. However, no previous research has examined the role of predisposition on ankle sprain risk during jump landing. As a result, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of jump direction and predisposition on ankle sprain risk predictive factors during jump landing. Seventeen participants participated in a jump-land-jump task in which the direction of the second jump was indicated before the task, with the possibility of the direction changing at initial landing. This produced four total conditions for the study: correct predisposed dominant (CPD), correct predisposed non-dominant, incorrect predisposed dominant (IPD), and incorrect predisposed non-dominant (IPN).

Ground reaction forces were shown to be significantly different when predisposition was incorrect. Ankle dorsiflexion significantly decreased when predisposition went from correct to incorrect in the dominant direction. The results in this study further support previous research indicating change in direction applies higher demands on the body to perform. There appears to be a tradeoff between fully committing to a predisposed direction and increasing the risk of ankle sprain injury. Including decision making tasks for practice in dynamic sports is recommended.