What Is a Sports Physical Therapist and Why Should Every Team Have One

Athletes have to maintain their physical health so they can excel in their sport. Professional sports teams, college teams, high school teams and high-level recreational youth teams use a variety of resources and tools to ensure they get the best from their players. Besides great coaching, teams can use health professionals, primarily sports physical therapists to get better results.

Optimal Health and Improved Performance

Sports teams have to prioritize their athletes’ health so that they can get the best performance out of them. Having a staff sports physical therapist gives sports organizations a way to ensure players engage in safe activities and improve their performance.

What Is Sports Physical Therapy?

Most people who do a search for physical therapy near me look for therapists that can rehab an injury from work, a car accident or something else. Physical therapists work with patients to help them recover from an injury. They use exercises, massage and other treatments to help. A sports physical therapist focuses on athletes instead of the general population.

Avoiding Injury

Sports physical therapists also have different goals in their practice than general therapists. One goal of a sports physical therapist is to help players on the team avoid injury. They may work with the coaches and players to develop safer ways of play that prevent injuries from happening.

Treating Injuries

The next goal of providers at physical therapy New Braunfels who specialize in working with athletes is to treat injuries. Sports physical therapists work with teams to treat acute injuries that occur on the field or in other settings. They may use ice, heat therapy and other techniques to help an injured player.

Rehabilitating Players

Another key part of the job is to rehab players. If an athlete has an old injury or a new injury that needs recovery time, they can work with their team’s physical therapist to strengthen their body. A sports physical therapist has more effective ways of rehabbing athletes so they can get back to playing on the team faster.

Enhancing Workouts

It’s also important for sports physical therapists to assist healthy players in their workout regime. The top sports teams have exercise facilities, complete with weight rooms and gyms, to assist players with strength training and conditioning. Sports physical therapists work with trainers to design an effective conditioning program.

Where To Find Your Sport Physical Therapist

If your sports team doesn’t have its own dedicated sports physical therapist, you can search for a provider who specializes in this field. You can look for physical therapy Olmos Park and check out therapists who focus on working with athletes. Sports physical therapists have spent more time learning about the ways athletes need to build muscles and recover from specific sports injuries.

When you build a sports team and want to succeed at the highest level, you need to develop an effective way to condition your athletes. You also want to ensure you stress athlete safety and have appropriate measures for recovering from injuries. Sports physical therapists can give you the tools to achieve this.