Introduction. Alpine skiing is one of the most dangerous winter sports that entails a high number of injuries, most commonly affecting the knee. Kinesiophobia is a condition in which an individual experiences fear of physical movement and activity as a result of feeling susceptible to injuries or recurrent injuries. The objective was to examine the level of kinesiophobia in skiers who have sustained knee injuries. Material and methods. The sample consisted of 22 female and 11 male professional skiers, with the average age of 24 ± 7.391 years. For the purpose of the assessment, the Tampa scale for kinesiophobia (TSK) was employed. Results. The number of knee injuries in skiers totals at least 1 and 11 at most, on average 2.45, most commonly involving the anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus. There were no significant differences between the left and the right knee or bilateral injuries. The average score in the TSK totals 36 points, which is close to the critical threshold of 37 points. 36% of the participants possess a high level of kinesiophobia. With respect to the general level of kinesiophobia, no significant differences were found in relation to gender, with regard to the number of surgeries or whether one or both knees were affected by injuries. Older skiers have also been found to have significantly lower fear of recurrent injuries. Conclusions. The number of knee injuries in skiing is high and aggravating, in such a way that almost one third of skiers that have sustained knee injuries experience a critical level of kinesiophobia, and that requires intervention. During rehabilitation, psychological support should also be provided to athletes in order to prevent or reduce kinesiophobia and thus prevent recurrent or new injuries.

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Functional Movement Screen is an established method of assessing dynamic posture of athletes. Validity and reliability of FMS as a screening tool is debated and one of the foremost criticism is directed at its subjectivity. To the authors’ knowledge, there is no previous research using Kinovea to precisely assess FMS scores. 10 young competitive gymnasts (4 female and 6 male) were included in this study. The participants were scored by an experienced FMS assessor on site as per standard FMS protocol. Afterwards, the same participants were scored again using Kinovea to achieve more objective measurements. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test for FMS scores versus FMS-Kinovea scores identified FMS test no. 1 (Deep Squat) as significantly different. The median score of Deep Squat assessed on site was 2 (mean value: 2.1), while that same test, scored with Kinovea, had the median score of 1 (mean value: 1.2). Paired Pitman-Morgan test for equality of variances was used to test the dispersion of scores. None were shown to be statistically significant, however, overall FMS score was near significance threshold implying that there is a difference although our power of study was too low probably due to low sample size. We detected significant difference in the scores of Deep Squat test, which is not surprising since it is the most complicated test to asses due to a large number of variables the assessor must evaluate.

Coordination of muscle activity is determined by the recruitment order of agonists and synergists that results from their onset times. Motor recruitment deficits are possible. This study examined the acute and prolonged effects of three different techniques of the kinesio taping method in optimizing the intermuscular coordination within the lumbo–pelvic–hip complex. The sample consisted of 56 healthy participants of both genders, randomly divided into equal groups by kinesio taping muscle facilitation, muscle inhibition and functional correction technique, and placebo kinesio taping condition. The onsets of the ipsilateral and contralateral erector spinae muscles, in relation to the semitendinosus muscle of the tested leg, were measured using the surface electromyography, during the active performance of the prone hip extension test. Time span was also determined. Measurements were performed at baseline, 60 min, and 48 h post-intervention. For the control group, we did not find statistically significant differences in the onset between the measurement points (p > 0.05), while in the experimental groups, there was a significant delay in the onset of the contralateral erector spinae (p < 0.001) in the second and third measurement points. These results indicate that the kinesio taping method can optimize the intermuscular coordination, with the potential for primary injury prevention.