Mastering the movement, not the mind: The relationship between quality of movement and kinesiophobia after ACL reconstruction in young athletes.
Article
Butler, Lauren, Martinez, Alexa, Fernandez, Jeffrey et al. (2025). Mastering the movement, not the mind: The relationship between quality of movement and kinesiophobia after ACL reconstruction in young athletes.
. PHYSICAL THERAPY IN SPORT, 77 79-86. 10.1016/j.ptsp.2025.12.002
Butler, Lauren, Martinez, Alexa, Fernandez, Jeffrey et al. (2025). Mastering the movement, not the mind: The relationship between quality of movement and kinesiophobia after ACL reconstruction in young athletes.
. PHYSICAL THERAPY IN SPORT, 77 79-86. 10.1016/j.ptsp.2025.12.002
To assess the relationship between kinesiophobia and quality of movement at return-to-sport (RTS) testing after primary anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) in youth athletes.
Design
Retrospective case-control.
Setting
Pediatric Hospital.
Participants
114 participants (77.2 % male; 16.1 ± 2.3 years, 10.3 ± 4.4 months post ACLR).
Main outcome measures
Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK-11), quantitative and qualitative results of RTS test including triple hop for distance (THD), triple crossover hop for distance (TCHD), and a sidestep cut (SSC).
Results
During the THD, the high kinesiophobia group demonstrated fewer significant valgus faults on the involved limb (p = 0.027) and lower propensities of stiff landing on the uninvolved limb (p = 0.030) compared to the low kinesiophobia group. The high kinesiophobia group showed fewer stiff landing errors on the involved limb during the TCHD (p = 0.031) and fewer total sagittal plane errors on the involved limb during the SSC (p = 0.012). No significant differences in limb symmetry indices were observed.
Conclusion
Participants with high kinesiophobia showed fewer quality of movement errors in both the frontal and sagittal plane at RTS testing after ACLR. Despite better movement quality, high fear may be an unresolved problem that still needs to be addressed during rehabilitation after ACLR.
