15 reflections from the Sports Map 2026 Knee Conference

Regular personal development and targeted clinical learning is something I value, and a principle I preach to all students and early career health professionals (all physios really!). Starting 2026 with a high quality personal development course like the Sports Map Acute to Capacity knee conference was a good call! High quality speakers, great networking and some thought provoking discussions. Many of the principles discussed already form part of the Athlete's Edge Physiotherapy models of care, but there were some good clinical gems to add in! See below for a few knee conference 2026 reflections and interesting points.

Reflections from the 2026 Sports Map Knee Conference - Melbourne:

• How good is high quality personal development! The Sports Map do a great job on their courses and conferences.. and this conference reflected that (not sponsored). I'm keen to visit and attend more of there events in 2026 and beyond. Look to see a big Athlete's Edge Physio attendence/representation at these events!!

• Cartilage injury should be considered like a Continuum.. similar to BSI continuum. The injury doesn't often occur in "isolation", and may factors can influence the progression (or potentially regression in early stages). How and why you load is important for these injuries.

• The soleus is so important: You all know I think calf is king!! For knee loading/offloading, especially during landing and cutting/COD movements, the soleus helps to offload the knee and to conteract the force vectors of the quad/hamstring. Should be a key priority in all knee rehab (and athletic rehab/performance in general).

• Consider the knee range when loading: knee ranges change knee loading for PFJ and tibiofemoral.. don't ignore this with PFPS and OA / chondral loading. Certain ranges might be "better tolerated" than others.

• Knee injury = joint injury and damage/stress: Unfortunately, there is a high chance of arthritis post ACL (stats don't lie). However, restoring function key to mitigate this.

• Surgeon protocol rationale: Surgeons have good reasons behind their postop protocols.. However, we should discuss this with them, and they value the decision making questions from health professionals.

• Post ACL return to run: Typically, 3 months is too early for return to run, and sometimes delaying the return to run and prioritizing achievement of other physical characteristics is preferred.

• Isometric A doesn't equal Isometric B: Note - not all isometrics are the same, and different ones have different outcomes. Consider dosage, consider yeilding vs overcoming, rest periods, load etc.

• Tendinopathy need systematic progression: e.g. progression through systematic phases for ISOM > ISOT > PLYO for tendinopathy.

• Isometrics are powerful: Isometrics, and how you use them, are powerful for knees (ACL, tendinopathy, performance).

• Earn the right to start plyometrics: criteria and assessment prior to beginning plyos is important.

• Decision Making post ACL injury: ACL treatment decision making should be evidence informed.. surgery not always required - individual patient consideration important.

• ACL is a brain injury: Yes there's the physical impact, however ACL has a huge impact on the brain, especially sensory and motor cortexes.

• Testing is king.. interpret the data and program from this. If you aren't testing, you're guessing.

• ACL rates in Womens Sport: Consider women's sport - lack of exposure to same level of strength dosage over teenage development years. This leads to a significant "deficit" in the amount of hours of strength work completed.

Overall, I was very impressed by all of the speakers, clinicians, researchers. Here's to the next one! See some video highlights on Instagram (@kywynnephysio) by clicking here!