ABSTRACT
An experiment was designed to determine if KinesioTM taping the anterior and lateral portion of the ankle
would enhance ankle proprioception compared to the untaped ankle. 30 subjects, 15 men, 15 women,
ages 18-30 participated in this study. Exclusion criteria: Ankle injury < 6 months prior to testing,
significant ligament laxity as determined through clinical evaluation by an ATC, or any severe foot
abnormality. Experiment utilized a single group, pretest and posttest. Plantar flexion and inversion with
20° of plantar flexion reproduction of joint position sense (RJPS) was determined using an ankle RJPS
apparatus. Subjects were barefooted, blindfolded, and equipped with headphones playing white noise to
eliminate auditory cues. Subjects had five trials in both plantar flexion and inversion with 20° plantar
flexion before and after application of the KinesioTM tape to the anterior/lateral portion of the ankle.
Constant error and absolute error were determined from the difference between the target angle and the
trial angle produced by the subject. The treatment group (KinesioTM taped subjects) showed no change in
constant and absolute error for ankle RJPS in plantar flexion and 20º of plantar flexion with inversion
when compared to the untaped results using the same motions. The application of KinesioTM tape does
not appear to enhance proprioception (in terms of RJPS) in healthy individuals as determined by our
measures of RJPS at the ankle in the motions of plantar flexion and 20º of plantar flexion with inversion.