Meet with local high school or minor league athletes or minor league athletic coaches and learn about the sport

Athletes of all ages and skill levels can benefit from chiropractic care. As more collegiate, Olympic, and professional athletes use chiropractic services, the general public has become more aware of what chiropractic can do for athletes.¹ Chiropractic care can help athletes achieve peak performance, reduce the risk of injury, and recover from injuries faster. For athletes, chiropractors can offer unique expertise in musculoskeletal concerns and injuries.

Spinal injuries in sports are only about 3% of total athletic injuries. A chiropractor working with athletes should be prepared to manage musculoskeletal injuries that occur outside the spine.² A chiropractor who works with athletes will encounter cranial, spinal, and extremity contusions, strains, sprains, fractures, subluxations, dislocations, and soft-tissue trauma.³

Chiropractors treat athletes ranging from world-class professionals to ordinary weekend warriors. Athletes in sports such as football, boxing, golf, swimming, wrestling, and gymnastics have used chiropractic care. Your care can help athletes perform better, and treating athletes can help you build a successful practice. Athletes may be more willing to seek chiropractic care than the general public because their bodies undergo more stress and they have more concerns about preventing injuries. If you care for athletes and help them, they could refer other athletes in their sport to you.

Working with Professional and High School Athletic Teams
It is unlikely that you will begin your career working with professional boxers or an NFL team. But as you gain experience and expertise in athletics, working with professional athletes is not an impossible goal.

If you’re just starting out, or if you are looking to add new patients to an existing practice, local athletic teams can be a good beginning. Many larger cities have minor league sports teams, but high school athletics can also be a good starting point. It is estimated that more than 30 million children participate in soccer, football, swimming, gymnastics, hockey, figure skating, and baseball.⁴ As more youths participate in sports, more get injured.

If you want to work with high school athletic teams, you can begin by asking your current patients if their children participate in athletics. It will be helpful to you if the parent of a child on the team can personally testify to the benefits of chiropractic care. You should ask to meet with the principal of the school or the coach of the specific team. Be sure to demonstrate that you can benefit the school and the health of the players. You can offer to perform the physicals for the team at a discount. Athletes in sports that put a lot of stress on the musculoskeletal system (such as football or gymnastics) may have a greater need for your expertise than athletes in less-strenuous sports like golf or volleyball. Since you would be working with patients who are under age 18, you will need to be aware of the liability issues.

If you want to work with a minor league sports team, start by contacting the coach. You should inform the coach on how chiropractic care can help athletes perform at their peak while reducing the rate of injuries. Tell the coach how you can help athletes recover from injuries faster.

Before you begin working with a sports team, become well informed about that sport. Read magazines about the sport, watch the sport on television, and research the most common types of injuries in the sport. You won’t know how to properly care for an athlete if you do not understand the demands of their sport. For example, low back pain is common in all sports, but particularly in gymnastics, figure skating, and dance. Repetitive flexion, extension, and/or rotational movements correlate with an increased incidence of low back pain.⁵ Being knowledgeable about the sport will also help athletes.

When you work with athletes, your primary responsibility is their health. If an athlete is injured, you may feel pressure from the coach or the athlete to allow the athlete to return to competition before he is ready. Allowing the athlete to play with an injury could lead to worse injuries, including ones that could end the athlete’s career. To be effective, you need to place the athlete’s health and future first.

These symptoms of overtraining indicate an athlete is at risk for injuries:

1. localizing pain, usually in a joint;
2. stiffness in a joint with a slight loss in motion;
3. swelling;
4. no athletic improvement, even with rest;
5. change of the contour of a bone, muscle, or joint;
6. a burning sensation, tingling, and numbness in a limb;
7. unexplained redness of the skin; and
8. unexplained black-and-blue marks.

Working with Amateur Athletes
Many people compete in athletics at a recreational level or for their own enjoyment. Runners, weight lifters, and golfers, and those who play in amateur sports leagues, can all fall into this category. You don’t have to be a pro athlete to put yourself at risk for injuries.

Your current patients can be your greatest resource for finding athletes. If while caring for a patient with knee pain you find out that he runs 20 miles per week, you can ask him to recommend you to other runners. If you have helped athletes overcome injuries or improve their performances, it will be easier to get them to make referrals.

If your goal is to attract new patients who are athletes, you can start by offering lectures for athletes at your clinic. Subjects such as “How Chiropractic Can Help Runners,” “Shin Splints,” and “Chiropractic and the High School Athlete” would all be attractive to your athletic patients. Encourage your patients to bring their friends and family to these talks.

Once you have found which topics are the biggest hits, you can take your lectures to the places where athletes will be. Health fairs, gyms, and running club meetings would all be good places for you to meet potential patients. Other professionals who work with athletes can be another resource. If you know a personal trainer or a nutritionist, and you know that they do quality work, you can help each other out by referring patients. Use your connections in your community. If you are a runner, talk to the other runners you know about how chiropractic care helps you.

Athletes and Adjuncts
Athletes have special needs, but they can benefit from the same adjunct products that you offer your other patients. Almost all competitive and recreational sports impose high levels of force and repetitive stress on the lower extremities. The most common sports-related injuries occur at the foot and ankle. Therefore, many of your athletic patients could benefit from flexible, custom-made orthotics. Athletes may also benefit from nutritional supplements and cervical-support pillows. If your athletic patients have injuries, then they will benefit from rehabilitative products.

Working with athletes can be beneficial for the athletes and your practice. If you’re looking for a population that is interested in health and wellness, is concerned about injury, and wants to maximize their bodies’ performance, try marketing to athletes.

Mark N. Charrette, DC, is a 1980 summa cum laude graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. He has lectured on spinal and extremity adjusting throughout the United States, Europe, the Far East, and Australia. Charrette can be reached at mncdc@aol.com

References
1. Corwin JM. Coming of age in the 1980s: Sports chiropractic’s rapid rise. Today’s Chiropractic. 1987; 16:31-32, 112.
2. White AA, Panjabi MM. Clinical Biomechanics of the Spine. Philadelphia: JB Lippincott Company, 1978.
3. Schafer RC. Chiropractic Management of Sports and Recreational Injuries. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1982.
4. Conference on Sports Injuries in Youth: Surveillance Strategies. Proceedings: April 8-9, 1991; Bethesda, MD. National Institutes of Health; 1992. National Institutes of Health publication 93-3444.
5. Harvey J, Tanner S. Low back pain in young athletes: a practical approach. Sports Med. 1991;12:394-406.