The Role of the Physiotherapist in Team Sports

This newsletter begins by asking the question, “What is the role of the Physiotherapist in Team Sports?” Before answering question I have to say that my personal answer to this question is rooted in my academic experience, exposure and work experience in professional sports. During my undergraduate studies completed a Health Science degrees majoring in Public Health with a minor in community public health. This essentially means that I focused a great deal of my studies early on at looking at health from a preventative lens. This exposed me to the field of epidemiology, one that interest me immensely. Epidemiology is the branch of medicine which deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health. Needless to say, I truly enjoy looking at the epidemiology of injuries in sports. Because of my previous experience as an athlete myself and working in the sports of baseball, I spend the majority of my time learning about injury trends, distribution and possible mitigation of injuries in professional baseball players.

In my opinion, physiotherapists have the appropriate knowledge to not only create comprehensive rehabilitative programs for athletes but also engage in serious conversations on how to mitigate injury risk in elite athletes. A comprehensive global view of the athlete is not possible if you work in isolation. A physiotherapist can make a significant impact by developing systems and processes that help organizations mitigate and overcome injuries in collaboration with athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, medical doctors, nutritionists, sports psychologists, and front-office staff.

There is shift on how physiotherapist are being utilized, specifically in sports organizations. The purpose of this newsletter is to highlight these things and hopefully help in the development of future Doctors of Physical Therapy in the fields of sports. It is imperative for us as health professionals to move beyond the narrow standards of manual therapy and recognize our potential to bridge the gap in player development. To achieve this, we must constantly strive to expand our knowledge and embrace uncertainty by exposing ourselves to unfamiliar domains such as data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. The inevitability of these advancements makes it paramount to start preparing ourselves sooner rather than later.

As always the HPSM course in now open for enrollment! Check it out if you feel like it.

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