2_0_DiscoverGermany_Issue34_January2016:Scan Magazine 1
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Discover Germany | Special Theme | Successful medical & technical enterprises
K-Taping® by Birgit Kumbrink Developed in Dortmund, used around the world You have probably seen professional athletes with colourful tape on their muscles before, but not many people know what it is actually for. It actually comes from Dortmund’s K-Taping Academy who now train people on this topic around the world. TEXT: NANE STEINHOFF I PHOTOS: K-TAPING ACADEMY GMBH
The ‘K’ in K-Tape® stands for Birgit Kumbrink. The physiotherapist developed the first K-Taping® applications in 1998 after reading an article which asked what could be achieved in therapy if one would exert proprioceptive stimulations with the help of an elastic tape. Thus, she started to exchange ideas internationally with other therapists while sharing the existing knowledge about this topic with them. Ingo Kumbrink, engineer and husband of Birgit Kumbrink explains:“Until 1998, only a few muscle tapes were developed and overall interest in further research was quite low. My wife was a bit more curious. Her idea was to give patients the possibility to extend the therapy from the doctor’s practice into one’s home with the tape. We collected patient data until 2000, did years of research and testing, found the perfect material, created a suitable glue and then devel-
oped the K-Tape® which could be established in daily therapy.” Passing on knowledge
Special Theme
Successful medical & technical enterprises
With the development of the K-Tape® came the idea to teach others about the advantages of this therapy.“A well-founded education in using K-Tape® effectively is important. Thus, we started with small courses in Dortmund, but participant numbers grew rapidly. And then it boomed. We started to train instructors, began partnerships with associations and had courses in Olympic bases.Team Telekom sent their physiotherapist to us during the Tour de Swiss to educate him on K-Taping®,”Ingo Kumbrink smiles. This is how the K-Taping Academy
was born.Today, the institute is a partner of the Canadian Physiotherapist Association, France’s SFMKS or corporate member of the National Athletic Trainer Association (NATA) in the USA. Active in almost 40 countries, all courses impress with the highest quality and innovation and are developed and organised over the K-Taping Academy in Dortmund or in cooperation with their international partners and branches.“Through this, we guarantee that the standards remain the same in all courses around the world,” Ingo Kumbrink says. He adds:“For example, we recently trained the medical team of Uganda’s Olympic Committee to prepare them for the Olympic Games 2016. At the same time, paediatric courses were held in Lithuania, a speech-language pathology course in Vienna and the Procourse in Buenos Aires.”Having their own K-Taping Academies in France or Canada,
54 | Issue 34 | January 2016