Precut kinesiology tape has been described as the athletic tape that will take kinesiology taping to the next level – and it has. Ever since its introduction in mid-2009, the state-of-the-art taping application generally known as precut kinesiology tape – of which SpiderTech Tape is the best-known brand – has offered athletes and other individuals who require therapeutic or preventative bio-mechanical taping more freedom and greater flexibility (both literally and figuratively).
When precut kinesiology tape was a relatively new player in the athletics world, SportsMedInfo.net published a piece written by taping expert Joanne Stapensea, called Kinesiology Tape – Pre-Cut vs. Rolls. The post compared precut kinesiology tape with roll-based kinesiology tape using six different areas of comparison: Cost, Time to Apply, User Friendliness, Flexibility, Durability, and Convenience.
The result of this little test was that precut kinesiology tape beat out regular roll-tape in four of the six categories: Time to Apply, User Friendliness, Durability, and Convenience – with roll-tape taking only the Cost and Flexibility categories.
As for Cost, it’s no great surprise that the more-specialized precut kinesiology tape – the one that’s quicker, easier, longer-lasting, and more convenient to use – should cost a bit more than the “bulk” variety, which requires more time and greater skill to apply and is a good deal more bulky to carry. Most people would expect such an outcome, and few who value the conveniences built into precut kinesiology tape would balk at paying a little more for them.* Thus, due to the very nature of precut kinesiology tape, this category was a reasonable one for roll-tape to win.
The second category in which roll-tape won out was Flexibility. This was true for the following reasons, which were clearly explained in the post:
“In some cases, accommodations may be necessary for individuals with very small or very large body sizes. In addition, certain injuries or movements may require an application to be modified for optimal results.
“Hand-cutting kinesiology tape from rolls allows any type of modification to be made, while only minimal modifications can be made to pre-cut applications.”
Admittedly, Flexibility (at least in the sense used in the above assessment) is one area where precut kinesiology tape does not provide a distinct advantage. However, that said, for people of average size who have uncomplicated injuries or movements requiring only simple applications, precut kinesiology tape is as good as – and in many ways better than – roll-tape.
As for the four categories in which the precut kinesiology tape won out, the above blog post brought out the following points:
- Time to Apply: Whereas roll-tape takes an expert an average of eight minutes to apply, pre-cut applications require less than two minutes.
- User-Friendliness: While effectively applying conventional kinesiology tape is “virtually impossible” for an untrained individual, pre-cut tape varieties offer step-by-step written instructions that practically guarantee success.
- Durability: Precut varieties wear longer because, unlike hand-cut tapes, their “machine-finished edges resist fraying.”
- Convenience: Precut applications are easy to carry and apply on the run, often allowing a mildly to moderately injured athlete to finish a competition.
For most applications, precut varieties of kinesiology tape appear to offer greater advantages than their roll-based counterparts.
Loading ...
