Anything that prevents you from playing a sport you love is a pain. But it’s time to seek professional treatment when you’re also experiencing intense physical pain. Physiotherapy is always a wise idea for sports injuries because it can minimize the potential for long-term effects and get you playing again much faster.
While the decision to seek out physiotherapy is a no-brainer when it comes to sports injuries, you might need help deciding what kind of treatment you need and where you can go to find out. If you’re currently considering physiotherapy treatment for a sports injury and are looking for information about how to get started, you’ve found the right place.
Different Types of Physiotherapy
Sports physiotherapy is one of the best ways to deal with pain caused out on the field or the court. As an athlete, you’ve probably already heard from your teammates about how successful physiotherapy can be for challenging sports injuries.
What you may not realize is that physiotherapy is used to treat many different types of ailments that cause pain. If you want to understand what type of sports physiotherapy you’ll need for your injury, it will be helpful to consider the various treatment options clinics offer.
Here are a few of the different types of services that you might find in a clinic that aims to offer complete services:
- Acupuncture
- Manual Physiotherapy
- Vestibular Rehab
- Custom Bracing
- Concussion Rehab
- Chiropractic Care
- Custom Orthotics
- Treatment of Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) disorders
- Dry Needling
- Massage Therapy
The more similar services you find offered in the clinic you visit, the more professional and established that clinic is likely to be. While the fact that a clinic can offer an abundance of services isn’t a sure sign that you’ll get the best treatment possible, it is a good sign.
Finding a clinic that offers a variety of services beyond sports physiotherapy will also carry the extra benefit of providing you with easy access to those services should you need to seek them out in the future. In such cases, once you know you can trust your care to that clinic, you won’t have to worry about searching out and evaluating more clinics in the future.
Types of Sports Physiotherapy
When you’re experiencing pain from a sports injury, there are clear underlying causes that should be diagnosed. The goal of a successful sports injury treatment plan will be to increase joint mobility, endurance, muscle strength, and balance for the purposes of restoring the things that are essential to sports performance, including improved function and movement.
The best way to understand the various kinds of physiotherapy best suited to sports injuries is to take a closer look at the types of problems that particular sports tend to induce. Some of the most common types of sports physiotherapy include the following:
- Football Physiotherapy
- Golf Physiotherapy
- Baseball Physiotherapy
- Climbing Physiotherapy
- Basketball Physiotherapy
- Cricket Physiotherapy
- Soccer Physiotherapy
- Hockey Physiotherapy
- Jogging Physiotherapy
Get a Consultation from a Professional
It never hurts to learn more about any medical treatment you’re receiving or expect. That said, all the reading in the world won’t provide you with the knowledge of an experienced medical professional.
As such, the best thing you can do when seeking treatment for a sports injury is to find a sports clinic providing physiotherapy that you can trust to provide you with the best recovery plan available. If you want to be sure you can find a clinic that’s right for you, there are a few clues you can look for when you visit each one.
Getting a Proper Assessment
The most significant difference you’ll find when you look for a sports physiotherapy clinic is their strategy regarding treatment. On the one hand, you’ll find clinics more interested in making as much money as possible to the detriment of the patients. Of course, the other option will be a clinic where the main focus is on providing the patient with the best care possible.
Physiotherapy Clinics to Avoid
If you visit a physiotherapy clinic for treatment and get the sense that your treatment is hastily determined or that your therapy will be rushed, you should immediately move on to other options. Any sign that you’re not getting a thorough and complete assessment is a red flag to tell you that this clinic is more interested in generating numbers – and dollars – than it is in results.
You may have heard of the well-known medical joke wherein the son of a famous doctor has recently graduated from medical school and returns to his father’s practice to work. When the son is able to cure the rash of an old lady that the father has been treating unsuccessfully for years, the son quickly brags to his father about his success in curing the rash. To this, the father replies, “You foolish boy, that rash paid your bills through medical school!”
How to Choose a Good Clinic
The point of the joke, of course, is that there are some healthcare providers out there who are only interested in making money, and this situation is no different when it comes to sports physiotherapy. The best type of sports injury physiotherapy you can find is results-driven. So how can you tell if you’ve found a clinic focused on money or results?
The best way to choose a good sports physiotherapy clinic is to visit one, so you can judge their attitudes and methods for yourself. If the healthcare providers at your clinic appear to be more interested in rushing you out the door than in carefully assessing your case, the chances are that they probably are.
You should also review the methods used at your clinic to see whether they appear to provide thorough treatment. For example, do the assessment techniques at that clinic strive to consider your individual condition, or do they appear to be offering the same cookie-cutter treatment plan to every patient? If the answer is the latter, you’ll want to look elsewhere.
If you want to find out what kind of treatment you need for the best recovery from your sports injury, you’ll need to choose a clinic that provides great care. Start looking today by visiting a sports physiotherapy clinic near you.
