About Sports Therapy

According to Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Augustus Thorndike is considered the father of sports medicine in the United States. He treated a lot of sports injuries at Massachusetts General and Harvard University in the 1920's. Dr. Thorndike believed athletes needed better care than they were receiving. He said physicians should be the only ones deciding if athletes were able to play. His rule was that a doctor should be at all athletic events which involved physical contact. He also required routine physicals each year for all athletes and cut any athlete who suffered three concussions from contact sports. Dr. Thorndike also invented a number of items used to treat injuries, including plaster casts and some braces.

Sports therapy generally starts with an evaluation. Sports therapists are trained to look for both current and chronic injuries. They may spot an injury the athlete doesn't know she has. According to the Sports Physical Therapy Section, evaluations include a full assessment of all injuries, including those which required surgery. Sports therapists also assess athletes after an injury to make sure it's safe for them to get back into the game.

Everyone has a chance to be injured at any time, and athletic injuries are unique because they happen during a time of rigorous activity. Sports therapy for injury management aims to help athletes manage their pain and make the most of their recovery time. The amount of time an athlete spends in sports therapy after an injury depends on the severity of the injury.

Sports therapists provide a number of services geared toward athletes of all sports, including golf. In his article titled "Get Ready for Golf," physical therapist Johan van Schalkwyk says tight muscles are a common problem for golfers. He recommends flexibility and strength training three or four times per week. Sports therapists like van Schalkwyk work with individual golfers to help them realize their full potential.

Sports therapists at Cadence Chiropractic and Sports Therapy in Calgary, Canada, examine the golfer's swing and work with the golfer to improve posture and muscular balance. They also work on flexibility, strength and endurance. The golf performance therapist uses all of these areas to loosen the golfer's muscles and help him maximize his joints for the best possible swing.