What is Sports Physical Therapy?
For many people, their first introduction to physical therapy is through their own sport-related injury, or through observation of others receiving care from a sports physical therapist at a sporting event. While a sports physical therapist is often involved in on-field injury assessment, the scope of their expertise goes well beyond that.
Sports physical therapists have a strong background in orthopedics. In North
Training for sports physical therapy certification can begin during the physical therapy degree program itself. However, it is usually based on additional training that is started and completed post-degree.
Training generally includes:
- CPR and emergency on-field care
- taping
- bracing
- wrapping
- acute injury care
- injury prevention
- exercise prescription and progression
- functional return to sport
Recently there has been an increased focus on concussion assessment and management due to the many studies that show how catastrophic the effects of repeated head trauma can be. As a result, there is a great deal of continuing education opportunities around this topic.
A sports physical therapist often works directly with sports teams. They work with people of all levels of activity from professional athletes to amateur athletes, including anyone who participates in sporting and exercise activities. A
A career as a physical therapist/physiotherapist who specializes in training and treating athletes can be very rewarding. You are generally working with people who are motivated to get better. Often, one of the challenges is preventing athletes form returning to their sport too quickly. Athletes are generally very eager to get back to training and competition.