Are you actually talking about sportstapes?
It is said they stick better too.
how one uses these?
http://www.amazon.com/BSN-Cover-Roll-Stretch-Adhesive-Bandage/dp/B0015TB9XC/ref=pd_bxgy_bt_text_y
Any link to a stack on videw on taping a sprain?
Leukotape is fairly new to me but comes highly recommended from a source I trust. I bought a roll recently and it seems thinner but more rigid than the tape I currently use
Cloth athletic tape. As for properly taping an ankle,
this youtube video is about as close as I've found the the method I learned in my college class (Care and Treatment of the Injured Athlete). The stirrups, horse shoes, and heel locks are everything. I don't use a base layer (it's basically there to prevent pulling hair off the skin and protect the skin from frequent taping, but does nothing to making a more stable tape job), just 3 stirrups, 2-3 horse shoes, 1-2 heel locks in each direction, then I figure 8 the from bottom to top, using care not to go too tight on the foot. In the end it's nearly as rigid as a plaster cast and so long as it's not broken and just a serious sprain, you'll be able to walk on it.
One note, if you're not experienced like the guy in the video, it really helps to pre-cut the lengths you need for the stirrups and horse shoes. Doing this on yourself is a lot harder than doing it on someone else, but I would have missed my flight home when I did the Portland Marathon if it weren't for taping my ankle well enough so I could walk out of the hotel, get in a cab, and be able to walk to my gate. Sometimes you've gotta do what you've gotta do.
Also, the tape you posted is elastic. Elastic wraps, marketed as "Ace Bandages" in the US are not for true support, they're for compression and faux support. You need rigid stabilization to make the limb usable again. Without it, you won't be able to walk out.
My hiking kits are minimalist, so I'm hardly one to judge anyone else's contents. I carry what I think I need and nothing more:
Contents:
Which works with the rest of my kit:
(by the way, when taking these pics I noticed that at some point I'd taken out my water purification. While I usually hike with an in-line Sawyer 121 on my camelbak, that's not always the case; I always intend to have some backup form of purification and so now there's both a filter straw and a bottle of iodine tablets. I also noticed that my roll of tape had made its way out of the kit and put that back in. I sometimes trust these kits to be complete since I transfer them from pack to pack, but stuff happens.)
Which contains:
Another kit I have I wrap tape on the outside of the plastic shell (both duct and cloth):
This is my complete trail running kit, sometimes with a first aid addendum, other times without (sometimes I'm on trails that get traffic every day of the week, sometimes I'm on trails that only get weekend travel):
In addition to the above contents, I also have my EDC 3.1" folding knife and either CR123 flashlight (either my Quark 123mini or Sunwayman V10R) or my AAA Fenix LD01. My LD01 is becoming my go to headlamp since I always run with a hat and you can reverse the clip so it will clip right onto the brim. The mid-beam is perfect for most trail running and gives you 3.5 hours of light on a single AAA battery, but 27 hours on the lowest setting (or an hour on the highest setting). Looking at this kit now I noticed that I haven't put a spare AAA battery in it yet, but certainly need to. It's also winter now, so I can certainly take out the tube of bug dope for the next four months. (clear plastic kit contents
hereIf I was hiking with kids or a large group, I'd definitely pack a bigger kit and include things like an epi-pen, but 60-80% of the time I hike alone, the remainder with my wife or one of a couple good buddies who are not allergic to anything and not accident prone. Again, my wife has been a runner for years longer than me, but can't for the life of her figure why I carry anything but a water bottle, maybe a headlamp. She's right until one day when it's clear she was wrong.
