joemktg posted:Just want to keep adding to the topic...regarding strength and speed...
A physical therapist is a valuable addition to the "team." But I'm not referring to the PT deployed post-injury. Rather, a PT used proactively to correct deficiencies.
A PT with knowledge of the game should be able to perform a full diagnosis and point out the weaknesses that need to be addressed to (1) improve performance and (2) prevent injury. Let me give you an example of both:
- joemktgson always had trouble with his first two steps out of a sprint. No matter what we tried, e.g., different weight training, various speed drills, technique, etc., nothing worked to improve those first two steps. It was as if everything was in slow motion out of the gate. So we hypothesized that perhaps its a physical issue, and we brought him to his PT for the examination. Sure enough, it was an issue of hip tightness, so he was given a protocol to follow to loosen the hips and strengthen supporting muscles. End result: his 60 dropped by more than .3 of a second.
- A friend of ours took our advice regarding proactive diagnosis for his 2016 position player, and the exam exposed an imbalance between right and left shoulders, where the throwing shoulder was considerably weaker. A few sessions later, the lack of balance was rectified, and his throws across the diamond improved by 2-3MPH.
End result from proactive PT? Improved performance, greater ability to push/pull more weights, and a higher level of injury prevention.
Required? No. Understated importance? Yes.
This is one of those "investments" that may or may not pay off, and is certainly not provable without a control group. Having said that, the aforementioned examples seem to show a posteriori results.
Your call.
You're from GA, correct? If so, do you have a recommendation for a PT?