I've been unicycling for about 6 months, and I am really into trials. I keep killing my ankles when I do big drops - 4 to 5 foot (thats Big for me). I was wondering where my feet should be placed on the pedals or whaat I should do to stop the pain. Any sugestions? --The pain is always in my right ankle, and I hop with my left foot forward.
It sounds like a hyperextension. If you are riding on the balls of your feet this happens a lot. It did for me when sliding rails. Simply get shoes with a flat bottom so you can get the middle of your foot on the pedals and prevent this from happening. If that is how you do right now, you are going to need to tighten up your calf to negate the heal being thrust towards the ground upon landing.
Yeah, what Shaun said is good advice. Does it hurt when you do rolling drops or static? Either way, try rolling out of your drops... it could help you.
sometimes the pedals you use have a big impact on your ankles. I find that using smaller pedals that came on my dx give me foot cramps after doing multiple drops but when I went over to kona jackshits, the surface area got alot bigger and the cramps went away. like benjaug said, rolling out helps but alot of times in trials you can't roll out because there's a limited amount of space but lowering your seat so you can take the blow with your legs more helped me alot.
It transfers some of the force forward instead of straight down. To help rolling out you can try hopping out more when you drop instead of straight down.
sounds like your rear ankle is taking the brunt of the impact. shaun gives good advice, but rolling out should help too. just put some weight on your left leg and plan to roll forward on impact. stiffer soled shoes helped me a lot. i use 661 duallies.
^^^^ because of my feeble ankles I always run and ride with an ankle brace and I haven't had any twisting since then, so if you're worried about ankles get an ankle brace before your ankle gets permenantly damaged.
