ARTICLE IN PRESS

1466-853X/$ - s

doi:10.1016/j.pt

Physical Therapy in Sport 7 (2006) 169–170

www.elsevier.com/locate/yptsp

Editorial

Enhancing recovery and performance in sport

The first Physical Therapy in Sport Internationalconference was held on 7–8 July 2006 in Birmingham,UK. The event was sponsored and organised by Elsevierand hosted by the Association of Chartered Phy-siotherapists in Sports Medicine (ACPSM) and theInternational Federation of Sports Physiotherapy(IFSP), and incorporated their Annual General Meet-ings.

Three of the competencies of a sports physiotherapistformed the theme for the conference:

�

Acute injury management � Rehabilitation of the injured athlete � Enhancing performance

(http://www.sportsphysiotherapyforall.org/publica-tions/competencies.html).

Keynotes, guest lecturers and workshops were deliv-ered on each of the themes from internationallyrenowned clinicians and researchers and provided anextremely stimulating programme. Additionally, a freepaper session saw the best eight submissions presented,and these as well as the posters prompted some livelydiscussion. For readers who were not able to attend theconference the oral and poster abstracts are included inthis issue of PTiS.

The feedback from those attending was extremelypositive for the content of the 2 days, the quality of thespeakers, and the structure of the programme enabledmany networking opportunities and a chance for moreinformal debates with speakers. The evening receptionat the National Sea Life Centre provided the perfectopportunity to catch up with old friends and make somenew ones whilst watching the Sting Rays swim by—atruly surreal experience.

We are about to embark on a new season of wintersports and there have been previous reports in theliterature of an increased incidence of LBP in youngcross-country skiers. The first article in this issue, byAlriccson and Werner, reports on a 5-year follow up oflow back pain in a group of 15 young, elite, cross-

ee front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

sp.2006.08.001

country skiers. Seven of this cohort reported LBPduring the period of the study, and these skiersdemonstrated a significantly higher relationship betweenthoracic kyphosis and lumbar lordosis than those whodid not. Additionally, the majority of those skiers whowere asymptomatic also participated in other physicalactivities. These findings suggest that cross-training insports that do not include repetitive flexion, as cross-country skiing does, may help prevent the incidence ofLBP in this group of young athletes.

Clinicians continue to search for outcome measuresthat are easy to use in the field, require little equipmentand are valid and reliable. An additional, potentiallyconfounding issue lies in the fact that there may be alearning effect having conducted a particular test. Thereality of this situation is that any improvementrecorded could be as a result of using the test ratherthan any other intervention employed. Controversyexists in the assessment of proprioception in the clinicalsetting. Whilst many clinicians employ some form of thesingle leg stance test (SLST) to evaluate proprioceptioncomparing both legs, what is this judged against? Thelength of time? the amount the subject wobbles? Warrenand Colleagues report on a variation of a themewhereby the SLST is conducted for 20 s and the posturalstability is measured via a balance error scoring system(BESS). The authors subjected healthy subjects torepeated measures of this test over a 2-week periodand found a decrease in the scores over this time. Thisrepresents an ‘improvement’ in the test in the absence ofany intervention. These results remind us to question thepotential effects of using functional type tests forevaluation in a rehabilitation setting to monitorimprovement.

Continuing with the theme of evaluation and outcomemeasures, software analysis packages are becomingincreasingly popular to analyse video footage ofdynamic movement. In a technical note, Cronin andcolleagues report on the reliability of siliconCOACH, asports analysis software package, to determine bothstatic and dynamic range of measures of knee flexion.Results from this study show a high degree of stability ofboth these measures on different days of testing and

ARTICLE IN PRESSEditorial / Physical Therapy in Sport 7 (2006) 169–170170

acknowledge that further research is required toevaluate the reliability in situations where less controlledand more dynamic movement is to be evaluated.

The type and role of stretching in clinical practice,rehabilitation and prevention of injury continues to be acontroversial topic. Clinicians are interested in otherparameters, as well as range of movement, that may beinfluenced by whatever type of stretching is undertaken.Whatman and colleagues reported a small and shortlived increase in ROM and decrease in stiffnessfollowing static stretching of the hamstrings. Thereduced stiffness may increase the compliance of themusculo-tendinous unit in preparation for activity, andthe authors’ discus potential implications of theseresults.

Various modalities have been suggested in themanagement of muscle haematomas. In the final article,

Smith and colleagues present a literature review on themanagement of this common sporting injury. Theevidence base is placed strongly in the field of animalstudies and, unsurprisingly, there are very few clinicaltrials on which to base your practice. The modalities andstrategies used reflect the clinical reasoning of howtherapists try to influence the physiological process thatoccur having sustained this type of injury.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity tothank all the reviewers (listed in this issue) who havebeen involved with PTiS over the last year. Reviewingreally is a labour of love, and we really appreciate yourinput.

Editor

Zoe Hudson