Hey, ya’ll,
Taking really steap stairs is like rolling the dice, for me- the body of the stairs are no problem- but all too often on hitting bottom I’ll hyperextend my ankle. Like yesterday, when my heel is pressed down below pedal level by my descending body weight -ouch!
Short of slowing the descent, all I can think to do is perhaps ride with the foot further forward; this may suck for balance. Any thoughts? Have you had this problem? What have you done about it?
-Christopher
Of course the BOF answer is to walk down stairs - if they had wanted you to ride down them, they would have put a ramp there. 
More seriously, If I have understood the question correctly, you are hopping or dropping down from step to step on a flight of stairs, landing perhaps a little heavily, and your heels are being pushed lower than the balls of your feet, thus pushing your foot upwards towards your shin. Am I right?
Assuming so, I can answer this two ways: as a unicyclist, I’d say whenever there is danger of the pedal kicking your foot back (I get it on sudden steep hills) pedal with your instep. This will reduce the leverage exerted on your foot.
But as a dancer, I’d say the problem is one of how you are using your legs ankles and feet. Your legs are complex mechanisms, with flexibility at the hips, knees, ankles, and the balls of the feet. Of these flexible points, the knees, ankles AND balls of the feet are all useful for spreading the load when you land suddenly.
Forget the uni for a moment, and imagine jumping off a chair onto the floor. You will allow your knees to bend slightly to absorb the impact - otherwise, you’d jar your spine.
Now imagine your jumping onto the floor and you don’t want to make a noise. You’ll probably try to land on ‘tip toe’ and stop your heels hitting the floor. You’ll let your feet roll slightly to absorb part of the impact, and your knees bend to absorb part of the impact.
In an ideal landing (e.g. when doing the Morris dance step known as a plain caper 
) your leg will act like a three part ‘concertina’ shock absorber, with the three ‘hinges’ (ball of foot, ankle and knee) all working together to share the sudden load.
This requires practice and technique, and it requires anticipation. You need to be ready before you hit the floor. It’s important for the various muscles to be ready but RELAXED - if you are tense, you will hit the ground with ‘wooden legs’ and hurt yourself.
Think also of parachutists, who bend at the knees and roll with the fall - both things happening in one smooth motion. Think of crumple zones on a modern car. The car doesn’t stop dead on impact, but crumples, dispersing the force in a planned and controled way.
So apply this to your jumping down stairs problem: I’d suggest practising on small single steps and get the feel of your ankles, feet, and knees working together to absorb the blow in a controlled manner. Imagine you’re trying to land quietly on a wooden floor, or that the floor is only just thick enough to bear your weight. When you get the feel for it, you can build up to the bigger drops.
Of course, I could be wrong, but I guess from your description of the symptoms that you’re landing with your knees tense and most or all of your momentum is being transmitted through your ankles - and that’s a lot to ask of an ankle.
Re: Hyper-extending Ankle on Stairs: Prevention?
I do this sometimes on drops that I dont land correctly. usually when Im going for seat out. My solution is just to put my feet farther forward on the pedals as I drop.
Re: Hyper-extending Ankle on Stairs: Prevention?
For me it’s really important to move my foot forward on the pedal when doing
things like stairs. It’s basically the middle of the arch that’s over the
pedal center rather then the ball of my foot. Otherwise, ouch! I recommend
this over slowing down.
—Nathan
“rhysling” <rhysling.cs1cm@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message
news:rhysling.cs1cm@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
>
> Hey, ya’ll,
>
> Taking really steap stairs is like rolling the dice, for me- the body of
> the stairs are no problem- but all too often on hitting bottom I’ll
> hyperextend my ankle. Like yesterday, when my heel is pressed down
> below pedal level by my descending body weight -ouch!
>
> Short of slowing the descent, all I can think to do is perhaps ride with
> the foot further forward; this may suck for balance. Any thoughts?
> Have you had this problem? What have you done about it?
>
> -Christopher
Mike,
Thanx for taking the time to elucidate your well reasoned responce. On drops, I’m in lock-step with your assessment- and I have much progress to make here. Anticipating the impact is not only important for reducing stress, but for exerting controll and sticking the landing; I’v been bounced out of the sandle enough times to witness to this!
However, in this case, I’m refering to flowing/rolling down steps. For me, this requires my leg to be some what loose but continualy flexed through out the cycle. The ride down is fine- in this case 18 steps at 45 degrees- but when the last step is rolled and the transition to level ground happens, my mass is still going down, and the hypre-flex occures. It would be great if my leg could be loose and ready to accept the impact, but it is flexed and working all the way to the bottom… 
-Christopher
Nathan,
I think this may be the only ‘solution’; I’m not sure I have the ability to reduce the speed much, anyway :).
Max,
Does this more-or-less remove your ankles as shock absorbers -are your legs doing everything, then? How are your knees holding up to this?
I’v gotta heal before I can put pain to this addvice! ARGGG!
Thanx for sharing your experience.
-Christopher
Well, I guess my knees do most of the absorbing. but my ankles still get some of the burdon. My knees are holding out fine becuase I only do a couple drops a month seat out, but that may increse.
Re: Hyper-extending Ankle on Stairs: Prevention?
Jump boots?
I favor Hi-Tec Magnums, myself.
Re: Re: Hyper-extending Ankle on Stairs: Prevention?
Not a bad idea- now if we could get them to make a flat soled boot…
Hi-Tec’s have the best ankle support I’v ever encountered…
-C