Type of Tape Used by Athletic Trainers

No matter whether you are a midfielder on your high school soccer team or play point guard for the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA, your team's athletic trainer is often your best friend. If your wrist, ankle or other joint is just about ready to go but needs some extra support, the trainer will tape you up. There are several different types of tape that go in a trainer's bag of supplies.

Pre-Wrap

• Also called underwrap, pre-wrap is the first layer that goes on the skin over an injury, adding a tiny bit of padding and protecting the skin and hair beneath from the sticky part of the next layer of tape.

Zinc Oxide Tape

• Normally, zinc oxide tape is white, and it goes over the prewrap to protect your joint from going beyond a limited range of motion. Zinc oxide is found in the tape's glue. One benefit of zinc oxide tape is the ease with which you can tear it when you're done wrapping an ankle. Once you've wrapped a layer of pre-wrap around the joint you want to protect, you'll cover it up with zinc oxide tape.

Self-Adhesive Bandage

• These bandages are also known as "Ace" bandages because of the popularity of the "Ace" brand. They are usually tan in color, and you can wrap them around joints or sore muscles to provide compression. While they do not provide as much support as zinc oxide tape, they can be a happy medium for joints that are just about completely healed but just need a bit of support.

Kinesio Tape

• If you've seen distance runners out training, you may have seen some with strips of black tape running up and down their calves or thighs, sometimes in an "I" shape and sometimes in an "X" or different shape. The theory behind kinesio tape is that it lifts the skin as you use the muscle to help lymphatic draining, leading to a reduction in swelling. In other words, it continues the treatment of massage therapy during exercise. As of 2011, the medicine behind kinesio tape is still largely unproven, but many runners and other athletes do claim a benefit.