Optimising foot-ankle biomechanics for return to play: Why and how?

Presentation description

The foot-ankle complex is central to absorption, propulsion, and the spring of the lower limb, yet it is often underloaded and treated with generic rehab. In this applied session, Romain Tourillion shows why targeted foot-ankle work matters for performance and re-injury risk, and how to build it into day-to-day practice.

Romain breaks the problem into three pillars: mobility, neuromuscular capacity, and technical competency. You will see how to assess what truly limits dorsiflexion, when to treat talar or midfoot glides, and how to progress from analytic strength of key muscle groups to coupling drills such as midfoot landings and foot-ankle push ups. He connects lab-grade reasoning with field realities across deceleration, drop jumping, cutting, and sprinting.

Expect clear decision rules, strength standards you can track, and practical cues that change flight posture, shin discipline, and first-ray use. The outcome is a robust foot-ankle system that tolerates load, transmits force, and returns athletes to play with better mechanics than they had pre-injury.

Learning objectives

• Identify the key “why” for foot-ankle rehab, linking common injury patterns and performance determinants to targeted interventions.
• Differentiate dorsiflexion limiters using simple tests, then match manual therapy and exercise to talar, midfoot, or soft tissue drivers.
• Build neuromuscular capacity for absorption and propulsion through analytic work for tibialis posterior, tibialis anterior, invertors evertors, calf, and MTP flexors.
• Progress from isolated strength to coupling and functional drills that integrate foot-ankle with whole-limb tasks like deceleration and cutting.
• Coach technical competencies that matter in sport, including active dorsiflexed flight posture, shin discipline, and first-ray driven push.

About the presenter

Romain Tourillon combines his roles as a sports physiotherapist, researcher and educator through his work with individual athletes at the Swiss Olympic Medical of La Tour Hospital in Geneva (Switzerland). Currently leading the foot-ankle service, he is also involving in a PhD thesis on the role of foot muscles strength in sports performance kinetics under the supervision of JB Morin at the University of Saint-Etienne (France). Romain actively participates in the representation of the profession on the international level as he’s an active member of the scientific organization : International Ankle Consortium. On a clinical level, Romain completed his MSc in physiotherapy and then undetook his MSc in Training and Sport Performance Optimization in France. He is also a certified Mulligan practitioner (CMP) since 2021. On a scientific level, Romain participated as a speaker in several national and international congress : International Ankle Symposium, French Ankle Symposium, European Congress of Sports Science, etc and has peer-reviewed publications around the thematic of human foot muscles strength.

CEU information

Contact hours

• Reading time = 10 minutes
• Video length = 50 minutes
• Quiz = 10 minutes
• Total contact hours (rounded down to nearest 0.25 hr) = 1.00

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