Proprioception is the sense of body position and movement in space — the information from joints, muscles, and tendons that tells you where your limbs are without looking.

It degrades with injury (especially ankle and knee injuries), with age, and with disuse. It can be trained: balance exercises, unstable surface training, reactive drills.

Why it matters: most injuries occur when a joint is in an unexpected position under load. Athletes with good proprioception catch these situations before they become injuries. It's a trainable injury-prevention system.