**1. Introduction**

Sports participation, both at the amateur and professional levels, is widespread among all age groups. However, the rising number of athletes and increasingly intense competition have yielded both positive results, such as better quality of life and performance, and adverse effects, such as a higher risk of sports injuries. The etiology of sports injuries includes a set of intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors, such as the specific characteristics of each athlete and environmental influences. Intrinsic risk factors include biological characteristics, such as gender, age, weight, height, strength and flexibility asymmetries, anatomical asymmetries, incomplete recovery from previous injuries, joint instability, and the athlete's psychological state. Extrinsic risk factors include the type of sport, environmental conditions, the level of sport (amateur/professional), the athlete's skill level, training errors, the playing surface, the lack of protective equipment, and the specific kinetic protype of each sport.

Sports injuries are endemic to high-energy sports due to tissues being overloaded during specific sports activities. More specifically, repeated exposure to the high mechanical loads associated with sports activities induces pathological postural adaptations and causes injuries to myofascial structures. Such adaptations and microtraumas alter the physical properties of the connective tissue, leading to myofascial scarring and fibrosis. Furthermore, inflammatory responses to this tissue damage can alter the structure of myofascial tissues, leading to pain and hypersensitivity and thus limiting an athlete's joint range of motion, strength, and performance. The structural adaptations discussed above can adversely affect an athlete's functionality, decreasing their performance and increasing the risk for sports injuries.

Various therapeutic strategies have been used to prevent and treat the sports pathologies and dysfunctions associated with biomechanical deficits and overuse. The most popular therapeutic interventions in sports include soft tissue techniques applied directly by the therapists by using their hands (sports massage) or by using specific equipment, as in the case of instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilisation (IASTM) techniques, as well as muscle flossing techniques and cupping therapy. Sports massage, IASTM, flossing, and cupping techniques are applied to an athlete's soft tissues to treat myofascial dysfunctions, alleviate hypersensitivity in myofascial tissues, release scar tissues and adhesions, decrease pain, improve functional performance and joint range of motion (ROM), reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and accelerate recovery. This chapter reviews the studies regarding the effectiveness of the aforementioned soft tissue techniques for sports-injury prevention and rehabilitation and for improving athletes' functional capacities and physical properties.
