Venom Ankle Brace Neoprene Lace Up Compression Sleeve - Elastic Support & Adjustable Stabilizers, Sprained Foot, Tendonitis, Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer, MMA, Running, Sports, Men, Women (Small)

Very solid ankle brace, and one of the best ones out there, but could use one significant tweak to make it an absolute killer brace. Okay, here goes. Trying to find an ankle brace when you play a lot of sports and have weak ankles (I suffered multiple partial tears to it over years) that are prone to rolling (inversion sprains where you land on the outside of your foot and sprain your ankle in the most painful way imaginable haha) is a difficult task. There are many ankle brace companies out there and I have tried so many I can't keep up, but not many of them really help the way you need it to for high impact sports where you do a lot of running (tennis), cutting (hockey, soccer, basketball), skating (hockey), dribbling (Soccer), and jumping (volleyball). The key is to find a brace that allows you to land flat footed, or if you land wrong, keep the ankle stiff so it doesn't roll outward, or at least absorb the brunt of the impact so any pain or injury is minimal or superficial.I play all of these sports regularly just to to give you all an idea of the activities I do and what kind of support I need to stabilize my ankles so You can make an informed decision about what you need. The positives. The design of this ankle brace is a cross between a laces brace (where you wrap the brace boot around your foot and ankle and tie it up) and then strap it in place with the velcro straps (like you would have if you had your ankles taped with sport tape). The brace is fairly easy to put on, and is really sturdy, and feels pretty good, not uncomfortable at all I must say. Unlike many braces out there, it has a plastic strip that runs along the side of the ankles, that give the brace a much sturdier feel than almost all other braces. The velcro straps once strapped make for a snug and secure fit that provides strong support and would limit or prevent most straight inversion sprains where you just land on the outside of your foot while moving. The CON. There is one con, which I think is an significant one and here is what it is. The way the brace is designed, when you put it on, it does not extend onto the foot as far as I think it should. It seems a little shorter footwise then let's say an ASO ankle brace  ASO Ankle Stabilizer, Black, Large  which is probably the best one on the market currently for the support I need (although this Venom brace is very very close second). The reason why this is an important issue is because the longer the brace extends on to your foot the more sturdy it is in preventing rolling sprains from any part of the outside of your foot when you roll it.For instance, if lets say you jump or run but don't land just on the outside of your foot, but rather you land on the front of the outside of your foot like your outside toes or outside front of foot, what would ordinarily happen is the you'd roll the front outside of your ankle joint (rather than just the side of your ankle joint facing outwards). A brace that extends out on to the foot a little bit longer would prevent or limit these types of rolls as well which can lead to significant injury. To give you an example, I suffer these types of ankle rolls when I am playing soccer a lot, and making a move to go past a defender. I will do a step over and some other kind of move where the front of my foot is on the ball but then I take a quick step or a mis step to cut past the defender and the front outside of my cleat comes in contact with the ground causing me to roll the front outside of my ankle joint. In my opinion, the Venom brace may not extend far out enough on to the foot to limit or prevent these types of rolls. The brace extends high up your ankle to give great support that way, but does not extend down the foot as much as I wish it did (for the reasons stated above). If they just made this one minor tweak to the brace, extending it out maybe an inch or so on the foot, it would truly be hands down the best brace on the market for full impact activity. That being said, even without this tweak, it remains an excellent choice for the all around athlete.I know this review is very long and I apologize for it, but the reason why I am being so detailed and specific is because every time I read a review, I can never really get a good enough picture as to how the brace will work in real life based on the kind of protection that I need as someone who pays sports all the time, and is always at risk for rolling my ankles, and that's why I gave specific examples so you can visualize what I am talking about for yourself.Sizing- I am 5 9 1/2, and 230 pounds (pretty built and broad), and a size 9 foot, and I ordered a medium, and it seems to be right for my ankle in terms of the fit. Thanks for reading.

I just wanted to make a review and put my rare disability in the subject line in case anyone else has the same problem I do and is googling for answers. I have a Talocalcaneal Coalition which is a type of Tarsal Coalition. If you don't know what that is, be thankful and move on to the next review.Its so hard to tell if doctors in America even care about you or if they are just trying to sell you crap. I went to a prosthetics and orthopedics specialist and they wanted $800 for some insanely ugly thing, although it would have been molded from my actual ankle and fit me perfectly. But after looking at the thing I figured I could just save a ton of money getting an ankle brace that restricts movement in the same type of way.Unfortunately I work on my feet all day, and for the first few months doing that job I was a 13 out of 10 pain on a daily basis and I just had to wince through it. Eventually I started to adapt by taking a ton of other steps. I got terrible looking work Crocs, got a cane, I got a little arch support cushion thing, and started smoking a lot of CBD heavy marijuana. All those things helped, the CBD especially, but this Venom ankle brace really made the biggest difference in my life overall. I didn't even need my cane as much on the walk home, which is huge for me.Right now I'm just kind of coming to grips with being mildly disabled, and that now I basically need to always wear one of these things if I want to walk around, so basically its part of my body now.This is the first one I bought, and I'm pleased with the results, although I think it could be a tiny bit more stiff. I also had a problem where it was hurting me the first day I wore it, but I eventually figured out how to adjust it so it worked better for me. For me I need to keep the bottom laces a little looser than the top.It has those hook things instead of solely having eyelets for the top laces, which I appreciate since I don't want to spend too much time dealing with a whole process every time I put it on or take it off.As far as shoes go, I was able to wear these with the aforementioned terrible work Crocs, but they kind of pinched at the top of the foot. Once I wore the ankle brace with my old pair of Reeboks, ones that used to cause me so much pain, everything was cool. Right now I'm looking to see if I can find a wide set of boots to create additional support since this has been working out so nicely for me.This is really cheap considering the alternatives out there, so its worth a shot to see if it helps. You wont be able to replicate the same kind of support with bandages, and you don't want to be doing that every damn day anyways.Hope I helped a fellow mutant out there.