My experience follows OM's. I had terrible ankle problems when I wore high top shoes. Since switching to low top shoes I've had significantly less incidents of injury. I believe there was a sports medicine paper that backed up this claim. The idea is that wearing high tops reduces your ankles necessity to develop the appropriate muscles but does not offer real protection in hard slip where you are likely to have an injury. The few times I have injured an ankle I wear a Mueller type brace which offer considerably more support than any shoe. Even those high top leather boots that extend 12" or more up your ankle do not offer much support when broken in. Obviously HYOH and use what works for you, but it is something to consider.