What It Looks Like When Your Team Works With an Athletic Therapist

3 days ago

3 min read

When it comes to keeping athletes healthy, preventing injuries, and supporting a team throughout the season, having access to an athletic therapist can be a valuable part of your team’s support system.

Our clinic offers athletic therapy services designed to support individual athletes, entire teams, coaches, and organizations. Whether you’re preparing for a new season or looking for support on game day, our athletic therapist can work alongside your team to help athletes perform at their best.

Here’s what working with our athletic therapist could look like.

Individual Athlete Assessments

Every athlete is different—and understanding an athlete’s individual needs can help identify areas that may require attention before they become a bigger problem.

Our athletic therapist can complete individual assessments to look at factors such as:

Strength and mobility
Movement patterns
Balance and stability
Sport-specific demands
Areas of weakness or limitation

These assessments can help identify potential areas of concern and provide athletes with individualized recommendations, exercises, or strategies to support their performance and reduce injury risk.

Team Assessments & Program Planning

In addition to working one-on-one with athletes, our athletic therapist can work with the team as a whole.

A team assessment can help identify common areas of weakness, mobility limitations, movement patterns, or injury concerns that may be relevant to your specific sport.

From there, our athletic therapist can help develop team-based programming that fits into your existing practices and training schedule.

This might include:

Mobility and activation exercises
Strength and conditioning components
Injury-prevention programming
Sport-specific movement preparation
Recovery strategies

The goal is to make injury prevention and physical preparation a practical part of the team’s routine—not something athletes only think about after an injury occurs.

Concussion Screening

Concussions can be complex, and having someone on your team who is trained to recognize and assess potential concussion symptoms can provide an important layer of support.

Our athletic therapist can provide concussion screening when an athlete experiences a suspected concussion or displays concerning symptoms.

This may include assessing symptoms and relevant physical and functional factors to help determine the appropriate next steps.

When a concussion is suspected, the priority is always athlete safety. Our athletic therapist can help guide the athlete, coach, and family through the appropriate process and recommend further medical assessment when necessary.

But management can even happen before a concussion! Baseline concussion screening can be a useful tool for teams looking to establish an athlete’s individual starting point before the season begins.

Our athletic therapist can provide preseason baseline screening that may assess areas such as:

Concussion-related symptoms
Balance and stability
Memory and concentration
Reaction time
Visual and physical function

Having baseline information available can provide a helpful point of comparison if an athlete later experiences a suspected concussion. Baseline results are not used on their own to diagnose a concussion or determine whether an athlete is ready to return to play, but they can be one piece of information considered as part of the overall assessment process.

Baseline screening can be particularly valuable for teams and organizations that want to establish a consistent concussion-management process before competition begins.

In-Game Coverage

Injuries don’t always happen during convenient clinic hours.

For teams looking for more hands-on support, our athletic therapist may also provide in-game coverage, offering an experienced point of contact on the sidelines or bench.

Game-day coverage can include:

On-field or on-court assessment of injuries
Immediate injury management
Taping and first aid management
Assistance with determining whether an athlete can safely return to play
Concussion screening when appropriate
Post-game recommendations and follow-up planning

Having an athletic therapist present means coaches can focus on coaching while athletes have access to someone whose role is specifically focused on their health and safety.

Interested in Athletic Therapy Support for Your Team?

If you’re a coach, team manager, school, or sports organization looking for athletic therapy support, contact our clinic to discuss your team’s needs and how our athletic therapist can become part of your team’s support system.