You Don’t Necessarily Need A Clinician Who Does “Your Sport” - You Need A Good Clinician

I’m afraid that patients are pigeonholing themselves when they look for clinicians who compete(d) in their sport or who specialize in seeing patients who play their sport. I argue that a clinician who specializes in the field of orthopedics can understand the demands of ANY endeavor on the human neuromusculoskeletal system. That means understanding what a sport such as baseball demands of a shoulder as well as what piano playing requires of the neck, what typing demands of the fingers, and how kneeling affects the lower body. If a patient has to do a certain movement or repetitive activity in a sport and I don’t know what it is, I simply ask. Just like I’d have to ask if someone told me they worked in a car factory for a living; I’d have to understand what their body is required to do day in and day out.
I played basketball, tennis, and soccer quite competitively in the past and still regularly weight train and run. I also competed in rowing, swimming, and softball when I was younger. But … I’ve never played golf. I’ve never competed in volleyball. I’ve never done deadlifted hundreds of pounds. And … I don’t think that makes me unqualified to help people who have difficulties with those functions of the body.
Yes, there may be exceptions to my rule, but I fear that people are missing a swath of good clinicians while they’re looking for someone (who may or may not be a good clinician) who focuses on their particular activity.
In my mind, I differentiate clinicians from coaches in that clinicians take bodies from pathological states to normal states and coaches take bodies from normal states to extraordinary states. Coaches take normal bodies that are simply slow and make them faster. They help people gain more power with swinging, more rhythm with skating, more efficiency with kicking, etc.
While I can definitely provide opinions in these areas, those are not the people I’ve been working with for 14 years. My job has been diagnosing and reversing pathology. Healthy people don’t walk through my door. I see more of a role for activity specialization in coaching versus clinical care, which is exactly what you find. Coaches (not fitness trainers) tend to focus on one sport.
Dr. Laura Mannering DPT, OCS, Dip MDT
Doctor of Physical Therapy
Board-certified in Orthopedic Physical Therapy
Diploma in MDT (Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy)
For more information about my practice:
www.drlauramannering.com
Clinic located in Dupont Circle in downtown Washington, DC.
#orthopedics #physicaltherapy #dpt #movement #exercise

[@rezaulkarim6567]

Great video

[@drlauramannering]

Thanks!

[@rezaulkarim6567]

@@drlauramannering You are welcome.