This Article Courtesy of Advance Healing Magazine

It was on a trip to Japan in 1994 that Jim Wallis first encountered the Kinesio Taping® Method. Wallis, an athletic trainer at Portland State University, had been invited to give a presentation on athletic training techniques to a medical group in Osaka. “I thought: great,” he says.  “What an opportunity, to go to Japan. That is a lifetime experience.”
 
In his official presentation he explained and demonstrated traditional prophylactic taping techniques that were current in the United States. Later, his hosts offered to share some methods and techniques that they were using in Japan. “They showed me two methods. The first was a technique of spiral taping, using non-elastic tape. The second was Kinesio Taping®.” Wallis says he was intrigued, but had no inkling at the time that Kinesio would become such an important part of his life.
 
When he got home he got a call from Dr. Kenzo Kase, developer of Kinesio Taping. “He heard about the demo [in Osaka],” Wallis explains. “Kenzo wanted to come to Portland and demonstrate the technique to me personally.” Although he realized it would be an honor, Wallis concedes, “I wasn't that excited.” At the time he felt like he had a lot on his plate.
 
“We invited him to present that spring – 1995 – to the Northwest Regional Athletic Trainers Association. I was meeting coordinator. Our theme that year was complementary and alternative medicine. We planned to delve into the fringe.” Wallis felt, with his limited knowledge of Kinesio at the time, that a presentation by Dr. Kase would be “kinda cool if nothing else.”
 
Dr. Kase accepted the invitation, and presented at the meeting. Then Wallis made a move that turned out to be key to his own future and to the spread of Kinesio Taping in the United States. “Probably the smartest thing I've ever done,” Wallis says now, although at the time it seemed like no big deal,  “I invited Kenzo to my house for dinner.”  What seemed like a casual gesture for a host to his expert guest from abroad would grow into a lasting friendship.
 
“During the evening,” Wallis continues, “Kenzo conveyed that he wanted to introduce the Kinesio Taping Method to the United States. I was his contact in United States, would I help?” The famously self-effacing Wallis explains that because he had spoken in Japan as an expert, Dr. Kase saw him as an important contact.
 
Wallis might have preferred to think it over for a while, but Dr. Kase was ready to make a move. “One of Kenzo's gifts,” he notes, “is this continuous moving forward.”
 
Together they made arrangements to reach out to the professional athletic training community. “We arranged for Kenzo to meet with the head athletic trainers from the Seattle Seahawks, someone I knew, and from the Seattle Mariners. Baseball has a lot of interaction between the United States and Japan; I think Kenzo had met [head athletic trainer Rick] Griffin in Japan. I went with him” to meet with them. From that time “He had connections, I had connections;” the two went “wherever someone would listen to us.” 
 
“In the meantime, Wallis says, “I had the tape, I was playing around with it, trying stuff out, hits or misses.”
 
The first United States Kinesio Taping course for instructors was in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the late 1990s. “We got six to eight people together,” Wallis recalls.
“Kenzo began trying to teach us the technique. When he got stuck (because of his English) I would explain in English and he would listen to what I said and clarify or make corrections.”
 
Out of that early group, Wallis admits, “I was the first to step into the crevasse, I stepped off the ladder so to speak.” Wallis would go on to become a co-author, in 2003, of Clinical and Therapeutic Applications of the Kinesio Taping® Method, the definitive Kinesio Taping guide, and to become a worldwide educator and ambassador for the Kinesio Training Method.
 
The year 2010 was award-filled for Jim Wallis. He received the service award from the National Association of Athletic Trainers, as well as an outstanding service award from his regional Northwest Athletic Trainers Association. Not only that, Wallis has recently been inducted into Oregon Athletic Training Society Hall of Fame.
 
Of the service awards, Wallis sees them as a “big thank you.” The national and regional awards look out over the recipient's career, dedication to the profession, and demonstrated achievement of a certain level of service. “Someone nominates you, the committee looks at your level of commitment…they focus a great deal on volunteerism, giving back, presentations and regional involvement.”
 
The Hall of Fame honor also takes into account the totality of the inductees' service to the profession.
 
Wallis doesn't see himself as anyone special. He has just been someone who is willing to “pick up the load and carry it.”
 
For years, he has had that role in the spread of Kinesio Taping as well. “The method intrigued me, it seemed interesting. I was willing to take a chance on it,” Wallis explains. “My role was as a missionary, out there in the unknown trying to get people to change their minds, to get them to try new things.”
 
Wallis admits, “It is a big commitment. You have your full time job” – he is currently Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine at Portland State University – “Then these other demands. It was manageable while it was small; we were just trying to open doors.” As he remembers, they moved at a “baby crawl, then a walk, now it is in sprint mode.”
 
He notes that from the very beginning he and Dr. Kase agreed, “We'll see how it goes…but I could just walk away.” The two have joked about it, the prospect of Wallis suddenly saying, “Okay, Kenzo, I'm done.”
 
At this point, that seems unlikely.