Physical Therapy in Sport
Volume 11, Issue 1 , Pages 1-2, February 2010

Ten year celebration – A decade of progress for physical therapy in sport

published online 30 December 2009.

Article Outline

 

Welcome to the start of a new decade with the first issue of the eleventh volume of Physical Therapy in Sport, and it is timely to reflect on the 10 years since its inception in the current format. Physical Therapy in Sport has come a very long way in a relatively short space of time and has developed from a UK publication into a truly international one that is represented at every level from the Associate Editors. Editorial Committee, International Advisory Board, reviewers, authors and readers. In 2008 the journal was read online in 71 different countries, remarkable given that many developing countries still have limited online access. This obviously includes many countries where English is not the first language. Not only does it have an international audience Physical Therapy in Sport publishes international research, last year alone submissions came from 25 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Portugal, Qatar, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America. A personal aim as editor has been, and continues to be, to encourage clinicians as well academics to publish by fostering collaborative links, and also to encourage publication by authors for whom English is not their first language.

One of our key objectives was to provide a quick turn around on reviews and decisions. We are proud to say that our average review time is 21 days and the time from submission to online publication is 8 weeks. This is a very attractive proposition for authors who are keen to get their work out into the public domain quickly. We have achieved this with no compromise to the double blind peer review system employed by the Journal. Other performance indicators are also extremely encouraging, we have seen a 17% rise on submissions last year, article downloads have increased by 37% since 2007 and the Impact Factor for the journal increased by 43% at the last review.1 This all bodes well for the future of Physical Therapy in Sport, but we will not rest on our laurels and the editorial strategy is to continue to develop the journal to provide high quality, current research that is relevant to healthcare professionals working in sport.

We were very pleased to be successful with our recent MEDLINE application and we are now indexed in all the major databases including Thomson Scientific SciSearch©, CINAHL, CSA Physical Education Index, EMBASE, PEDro, Scopus and SPORTDiscus™.

A reminder to all readers that the Journal web page (www.elsevier.com/ptsp) provides not only a useful resource for potential authors but also allows you to see what other readers are reading, what are the most cited and hottest downloads. It is reassuring to note that 8 out of the top 10 hottest downloads are articles that have been published in the last 2 years, showing that the readers are keeping abreast with the latest publications and that they deem the articles published in Physical Therapy in Sport relevant in order to do that. Looking at the top ten list there is a definite bias towards the lower limb with only 1 article on subacromial impingement, muscle imbalance and taping represented (Smith, Sparkes, Busse, & Enright, 2009). Two literature reviews and one meta-analysis make the list. The former being on the effects of taping in functional ankle instability (Hughes & Rochester, 2008) and the timing of muscle onset in subjects with patellofemoral pain (Wong, 2009). The meta-analysis is on the use of orthoses in the management of plantar fasciitis (Lee, Mckeon, & Hertel, 2009). Qualitative research is also represented in a study on the prevention and management of Osteitis Pubis in the Australian Football League (Pizzari, Coburn, & Crow, 2008). Surprisingly, but very encouragingly, an editorial on an important aspect of research methodology appears at number 2 on the list (Hudson, 2009). The remaining hottest downloads include a case study on the use of eccentric exercises in a player with recurrent hamstring injury (Brughelli, Nosaka, & Cronin, 2009) and the effect of plyometric training on jumping performance (Vescovi, Canavan, & Hasson, 2008).

These top downloads highlight the relevance of articles published in Physical Therapy in Sport to all clinicians working with recreational and professional athletes.

The last 10 years have been very exciting to see the journal grow and develop and I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved in its success. Here is to the next 10 years, and maybe by 2020 the printed journal will be a thing of the past?

Chronic Ankle Instability (CAI) in athletes is commonly managed with bracing or taping. However, the majority of the literature investigating the effects of supports on ankle stability have either been performed on normal, healthy subjects or looked at the effect on static, passive measures. In the first article in this issue, Gribble et al. from the University of Toledo in the States investigate the effects of lace-up ankle brace on dynamic postural stability in subjects with CAI. Whilst they found no differences in dynamic stability with or without the brace, the discussion includes many theories as to why this might be, including the interesting concept that the sensitivity of the outcome measure used was not sufficient to detect any differences. Another point of note is the sample size used in this study was restricted to 15 subjects. This small sample size could account for the fact that no differences were found and that more subjects needed to be tested to find any differences that might exist. However, in this case the sample size was sufficient, and I draw the readers attention to the justification of the sample size used in the methods section and I would encourage all authors to adopt this practice (Hudson, 2009).

The next 2 studies presented investigate muscle imbalance in the upper and lower limb using Isokinetics. We know that in throwing sports over-dominant concentric internal rotators and weak eccentric external rotators can lead to pathology in the shoulder. Saccol et al. from Brazil investigate the functional ratio between the internal and external rotators in elite junior tennis players. Imbalances were found in this group, and although the players were currently asymptomatic the authors suggest early detection and intervention to remedy the imbalance with a view to injury prevention. Whilst there is little comparative literature for this study, the next presented by Kong and Burns, from Singapore and the States, respectively, does not suffer the same problem. The Hamstring to Quadriceps ratio has been around for a long time and ratios based on the uninjured side have been presented as a guideline to progress lower limb rehabilitation programmes. Isometric as well as Isokinetic ratios are measured in a group of physically active adults to see if either gender or leg dominance has any affect in asymptomatic subjects. Higher ratios were reported in the dominant leg and the authors suggest that the H:Q ratio based on the uninjured limb should be adjusted to account for leg dominance when considering goals for rehabilitation programmes.

Shoulder injuries contribute to a significant loss of both training and competition time in rugby union. Proprioception is known to be affected following joint injury but what is not known is whether a decrease in proprioception may make a player more susceptible to injury. Herrington et al. from the UK investigated shoulder joint position sense (JPS) in a group of uninjured players, a matched control group and a group of previously injured and rehabilitated players. They found that the uninjured group had better JPS than the matched controls and that previously injured players had better JPS on the uninjured side. Whilst this study cannot determine if the injured players had poor JPS prior to the injury or is a result of the injury itself, these players were back to full competition but still demonstrated JPS deficits. An interesting follow on study would be to take these players and put them on a training programme to see if these deficits can be reversed.

All clinicians involved with the rehabilitation of athletes will be familiar with return to play protocols, whether these are pathology or sport specific, or both. The majority of these are primarily focused on the recovery of physical parameters such as ROM, strength, proprioception and specific performance factors. What is lacking in these outcome measures is the psychological recovery of the athlete. It has been shown that whist athletes have often recovered with respect to healing time frames, psychologically they are often not ready to go back to competition, and this parameter can be more difficult to quantify. Specifically, athletes can be anxious about re-injury following a significant injury. In the penultimate piece of original research, Walker and colleagues from the University of Northampton and the University of Wales present the development of an instrument to measure re-injury anxiety. For those readers less familiar with this type of research, it should make for interesting reading.

Many biomechanical parameters have been described as being associated with patellofemoral pain. Intuitively it would make sense that in any kinetic chain dysfunction of any section will have a knock on effect somewhere in the chain. So follows the chicken and egg debate as to which came first. Aliberti et al. from Brazil present a case-control study evaluating the plantar pressures during a stair descent test, an activity that normally aggravates symptoms in subjects with this syndrome. Different patterns were reported with the two groups, this difference may be a response to the pain or in the absence of symptoms, an adaptive change caused by a previous pain response. Alternatively, the biomechanical differences may account for the cause of the symptoms. It would be interesting, as the authors suggest, to follow these subjects up after a rehabilitation programme to see if normal pressures are restored.

That is it for this issue, I hope you enjoy reading this new research. I am always happy to receive any ideas, comments or feedback. You can contact me via the journal home page www.elsevier.com/ptspand click on ‘ask the editor’.

Back to Article Outline

References 

  1. Brughelli M, Nosaka K, Cronin J. Application of eccentric exercise on an Australian rules football player with recurrent hamstring injuries. Physical Therapy in Sport. 2009;10:75–80
  2. Hudson Z. Sample size, power and effect size – what all researchers need to know. Physical Therapy in Sport. 2009;10:43–44
  3. Hughes T, Rochester P. The effects of proprioceptive exercise and taping on proprioception in subjects with functional ankle instability: a review of the literature. Physical Therapy in Sport. 2008;9:136–147
  4. Lee SY, Mckeon P, Hertel J. Does the use of orthoses improve self-reported pain and function measures in patients with plantar fasciitis? A meta-analysis. Physical Therapy in Sport. 2009;10:12–18
  5. Pizzari T, Coburn PT, Crow JF. Prevention and management of osteitis pubis in the Australian football league: a qualitative analysis. Physical Therapy in Sport. 2008;9:117–125
  6. Smith M, Sparkes V, Busse M, Enright S. Upper and lower trapezius muscle activity in subjects with subacromial impingement symptoms: is there imbalance and can taping change it?. Physical Therapy in Sport. 2009;10:45–50
  7. Vescovi JD, Canavan PK, Hasson S. Effects of a plyometric program on vertical landing force and jumping performance in college women. November 2008 Physical Therapy in Sport. 2008;9(4):185–192
  8. Wong Y. Recording the vastii muscle onset timing as a diagnostic parameter for patellofemoral pain syndrome: fact or fad?. May 2009 Physical Therapy in Sport. 2009;10(2):71–74
  • 1 Thomson Reuters 2008 Journal Citation Reports.

PII: S1466-853X(09)00125-4

doi:10.1016/j.ptsp.2009.12.001

Physical Therapy in Sport
Volume 11, Issue 1 , Pages 1-2, February 2010

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