What Is Sports Physical Therapy?

Physical therapists work in a vast variety of capacities. Some specialize in helping the elderly, while others work with helping the young. Some focus only on working with the permanently disabled, while others are hired by companies to help employees regain their health and return to their jobs. Sports physical therapists are some of the most well-known physical therapists, and have the most pressure to increase performance and use methods proven in effectiveness.

Definition

• Sports physical therapy is therapy designed specifically for players who are active in a particular sport. All of sports medicine is concerned with maintaining the health of these players and helping them increase their performance, but physical therapy is especially focused on rehabilitation and long-term player functionality. Physical therapists also tend to spend more time with players and be more immediately available.

Injuries

• In the sporting world, injuries are commonplace and are often unavoidable. This is why sports physical therapy is an entire field unto itself--players need a source of medical knowledge and treatment to recover from these injuries. Sports physical therapy is concerned with the skills used to help manage pain and treat injuries to nearly any physical system, especially those that impede performance in the sport.

Goals

• There are two main goals for physical therapists. The first goal is to return the individual to their level of functioning and skill they had before the injury as quickly as possible. This is one reason why sports therapists are under so much pressure to produce results. The other goal is to prevent injury from occurring in the future by suggesting new treatments or exercises.

Positions

• There are many different positions in sports physical therapy, mostly because there are so many areas for physical therapists to specialize in. Some may be trainers, while others may work as massage therapists, nutritionists, chiropractors, osteopaths and many more types of therapists. What type of therapist certain sports use depends on the sport and what physical systems are most likely to be affected.

Primary Contact

• In previous decades, sports physical therapists could not be considered primary contact physicians, and could only treat under the guidance of a primary contact. Most countries have reversed this rule, and now a large number of sports physical therapists are primary contact physicians. In the United States the laws have changed by state, and over 42 states have chosen to allow sports therapists to fill this role.