The effects of functional knee braces on speed in collegiate basketball players

Knee braces are worn by many athletes following injury. The purpose of this study was to determine whether two functional knee braces (noncustom design) significantly affected straight line and successive turning trial running times in noninjured collegiate basketball players. Twenty-five coed basketball players completed 2 days of running trials. Subjects ran three full lengths of a basketball court and 10 lengths between the baseline and the foul line first without wearing a brace, then wearing either a DonJoy GoldPoint brace or an Omni OS-5 brace, and finally wearing the other brace. The results indicated no significant difference (p < .05) in straight line or successive turning running times when the two braces were compared with the nonbraced condition and when the two braces were compared with each other. The results implied that speed was not significantly affected by a functional knee brace in noninjured collegiate basketball players.