Are you ‘Enhanced’ if you use RockTape?
Last month’s controversial Enhanced Games in Las Vegas gave renewed attention to “performance enhancement”. In this blog we revisit the question: Can RockTape enhance performance?
The Enhanced Games sits at the extreme end of the debate. The event allowed athletes to use substances banned under mainstream anti-doping rules, and – as you might expect - anti-doping organisations have strongly criticised the concept on athlete welfare and sporting integrity grounds.
By contrast, RockTape is not a pharmacological enhancer. It is an external support tool used by therapists, trainers and athletes to reduce pain and improve movement awareness, often increasing confidence and load tolerance, but is it a performance enhancer?
If we define “enhance performance” narrowly as making a healthy athlete faster, stronger or more accurate, the evidence is not broadly supportive of this claim.
In a systematic review, Reneker et al. (2017) included 15 randomised studies investigating kinesiology tape and sports performance. The studies varied in quality, with PEDro scores ranging from 3 to 8 out of 10. Performance outcomes included ball skills, power squats, cycling, dynamic balance, jumping, agility, sprint speed and distance running.
Across 193 comparisons between kinesiology tape, other taping methods and no tape, only 11 showed statistically significant effects. Importantly, only two of these favoured kinesiology tape. Eight favoured Mulligan taping, and one favoured no tape.
The overall conclusion was that there is a lack of compelling evidence to support kinesiology tape as a direct enhancer of sports performance.
A more defensible position is that RockTape may support performance indirectly. For example, if an athlete is limited by discomfort, apprehension, perceived instability or poor movement confidence, taping may help them feel more supported and willing to move.
Do you think there is a distinct line between injury recovery and performance enhancement?
…and is there a point where this line may become blurred?
So, can RockTape enhance performance?
In healthy athletes, the research does not support strong claims of direct performance improvement. In clinical and applied settings, however, RockTape is often useful as part of a wider performance-support strategy: helping with confidence, cueing, symptom modulation and return-to-training progression.
As the Enhanced Games push the enhancement debate to its ethical limits, RockTape gives therapists an opportunity to offer a more grounded and evidence-informed message: no magic, no doping, no exaggerated claims — just a proven tool for the right person at the right time.
Reference: Reneker, J.C., Latham, L., McGlawn, R. and Reneker, M.R., 2018. Effectiveness of kinesiology tape on sports performance abilities in athletes: A systematic review. Physical Therapy in Sport, 31, pp.83-98.