Sports Chiropractic has been a passion of mine for years, and since graduating from my chiropractic university in 2007, I’ve dedicated myself to furthering my education in this specialty area. In the Netherlands, the medical field has different designations for a huisarts (Medical Doctor) and a sportarts (Sports Medicine Doctor), the latter being an advanced specialty area that one can study after their medical education is finished. However, while working in Holland, I’ve spoken with various health care providers and members of the public who were unaware that chiropractic has similar designations and differences between a Chiropractor and Sports Chiropractor.
First, a quick note on the various chiropractic specialty areas. Sports Chiropractic is one of many specialized fields of study in our profession, and much like medicine has orthopedics, radiology, neurology, pediatrics, etc., there are also chiropractic orthopedics, chiropractic radiology, chiropractic neurology, chiropractic pediatrics (Ceci’s area of specialty), etc. We study in these similar fields but through our own educational programs, from a chiropractic perspective, using our own treatment styles and techniques. We use many of the same physical, neurologic, and orthopedic tests, as well as diagnostic imaging, as other health care providers in other fields. Many of the diagnoses are similar, but how we interpret the test results and use them to design a treatment plan based on chiropractic techniques is different.
I’ve been pursuing advanced study in Sports Chiropractic and other related fields (strength and conditioning, emergency medicine/first aid techniques, scar tissue therapy, etc.) for years now, totaling roughly 500 hours of study to date and with many more hours and years of study to come. Sports Chiropractic incorporates sports chiropractic and sports medicine examinations and diagnosis, followed by specific chiropractic techniques with various sports injury therapies/physiotheraputics, in order to help heal injuries and return an athlete to the field of play. I further combine this with additional soft tissue/myofascial and scar tissue treatment, sports taping, and other sports therapies. Over the last couple of years, I have also been developing my own Sports Injury Prevention Program, as well as creating new ways to treat various injuries, based on different injuries I’ve successfully treated and patterns of injury that I’ve seen in my patients/athletes. I’m happy to say that the treatment techniques and Sports Injury Prevention Program have been very well received by the athletes that I treat and teams/physiotherapists with whom I work.
If you would like more information on Sports Chiropractic or my Sports Injury Prevention Program, please don’t hesitate to contact our office.