Duffy & Bracken Physical Therapy, New York City

What We Treat > Sports Physical Therapy

Athletes can have many and varied signs and symptoms. Many or most are due to some form of overuse or misuse activities.

Some conditions are due to lack of proper preparation, technique, wrong equipment or wrong body type for a specific sport.

We see a wide range of athletes, including:

Runners
Swimmers
Cyclists
Football players
Basketball players
Golfers
Dancers
Tennis players
Baseball players
Hockey players
Skiers
Snowboarders
Skaters
Squash players
Racketball players
Walkers

The area of your signs and symptoms and the type and level of your athletic activity will help us identify and treat your problem by a formal ealuation and assessment. We will then give you a personalized treatment regimen to help you reach your required skill in your sport.

Treatment will be directed towards identifying and correcting the initial cause. Musculo-skeletal and orthopedic treatment techniques are aimed at promoting tissue healing and gaining range of motion and strength.

Athletes require more skills than the normal population. Elite athletes require supra-normal skills. Re-teaching movement and gaining required skills and techniques is essential. Further aerobic and anaerobic function is incorporated into your specific treatment regimen. Consultation and referral to extended specialists is commonly performed to optimize your recovery and skill requirements.

A referral from your doctor is needed for our physical therapy expertise.

Tips for Athletes

Golfers, keep an inward curve in the low back when you swing to prevent back injuries from golf.

Skiers, keep your hands forward and over your skies to prevent the mechanism by which ACL tears occur. The motion that starts the motion that creates the tear of the knee ligament is losing your balance and letting the uphill arm to drop backward, unweighting the uphill ski, placing all the weight on the downhill ski. If the hips drop below the knees and the upper body twists you have all the forces that can tear the ligament.

Snow boarders, wear wrist braces. Due to the fact that the bindings do not release, upper extremity injuries are very common.

Tennis players, make sure your grip is the right size and stretch and strengthen your shoulder, elbow, wrist and grip to prevent tennis elbow. Grip size: when you grip the racket, your fingers shouldn't touch your palm, there should be space to place your forefinger.