Healthy Wealthy & Smart 293: Dr. Alli Gokeler: ACL Rehab, Motor Learning Approach
On this episode of the Healthy Wealthy and Smart Podcast, Dr. Alli Gokeler joins me to discuss motor learning following ACL injury. Alli has a special interest in motor control. He’s currently working on the development of prevention programs designed to reduce primary and secondary ACL injury rate and optimization of return to sports and performance.
In this episode, we discuss:
-The 4 principles of motor learning
-How to facilitate neuroplasticity with principles of motor learning
-Self-controlled feedback and how it enhances learning and motivation
-Dr. Gokeler’s take on the timetable for returning to sport following ACL injury
-And so much more!
The way clinicians guide and cue their patients can impact their patients’ success in learning motor skills. Dr. Gokeler outlines important considerations for clinicians and suggests, “A very simple change in wording can have a significant effect on learning.”
Incorporating motor learning principles into your treatment is not a one-sized fit all approach and can be dependent on the learning style of the patient, the task and the environment. Dr. Gokeler reiterates, “There is no motor learning principle that is the gold standard.”
Despite widely accepted ACL injury rehabilitation practices, patients continue to display high incidence of re-injury and altered movement patterns. Dr. Gokeler believes, “We need to step up and come up with better rehab approaches.” To improve long term outcomes, Dr. Gokeler advises all clinicians to, “Make rehab challenging, fun but attainable.”
For more information on Dr. Gokeler:
Alli Gokeler was born on 18 September 1967 in Groningen, the Netherlands. He obtained his degree in Physical Therapy in 1990 from the Rijkshogeschool Groningen. From 1991-2001 he worked as a physical therapist in the United States and Germany. Upon return to the Netherlands, he obtained a degree in Sports Physical Therapy from the Utrecht University of Applied Science in 2003. In 2005 he started on his PhD project at the University Medical Center Groningen, Center for Rehabilitation. Alli has a special interest in motor control. He’s currently working on the development of prevention programs designed to reduce primary and secondary ACL injury rate and optimization of return to sports and performance.
Resources discussed on this show:
Motor Control and Motor Learning---5th-Edition
Human Performance by Fitts and Posner
Richard Masters: The theory of reinvestment
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Xo Karen
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