Athletes are an ideal audience for a wellness seminar because they typically want to take good care of their bodies

“Wellness” is the latest buzzword in chiropractic, and with good reason. We all want to avoid illnesses and feel younger and healthier. One of the best ways to build the wellness part of your practice is with seminars promoting the benefits of chiropractic care.

If you want your wellness seminar to result in new patients, the first step is to find an audience that is receptive to your message. Though every American is a potential chiropractic patient, athletes are an ideal audience because they typically want to take good care of their bodies. They are already living healthy lifestyles that incorporate exercise and good nutrition, so they will be more interested in the health benefits that chiropractic offers and more open to making an appointment. Best of all, athletic audiences are easy to find.

The Right Audience
Chiropractic care can help athletes function at their peak, reduce their risk of injury, and recover from injuries faster. You can offer athletes neurological improvement, range-of-motion improvement, and the advantage of optimal biomechanical performance. Athletes in every sport will be interested in this message, so you can choose from various athletic audiences.

However, your best bet is to give seminars to athletes in a sport that personally interests you. If you run marathons and you get the opportunity to address a group of runners the night before a marathon, then that’s the perfect audience for you. A runner talking to a team of swimmers will not be able to communicate the same passion and heart for the sport. The more specific you can be about the aspects of the sport, the better your seminar will be.

Athletes know their own sports inside and out, and they will give you credence if you know what you’re talking about. For example, if you want to care for baseball players, you will need to understand how the dynamics of the game affect the different players’ bodies. A catcher will be at risk for knee problems from being in a bent, crouched position all the time, and a pitcher will more likely have shoulder problems from throwing the ball repetitively. The other seven players on the field will encounter their own unique problems. If you are familiar with the ins and outs of a particular sport, you will know which performance and injury issues are the biggest concerns for those athletes, so you’ll understand exactly what you need to tell them about chiropractic care.

Some of your best audiences may be young athletes. Today’s teens and preteens take their sports very seriously, and more children and teenagers are playing sports now than ever before. It is estimated that more than 30 million children participate in soccer, football, swimming, gymnastics, hockey, figure skating, and baseball.¹ Some studies have reported that sports injuries to young people now outnumber infectious diseases.² Parents are naturally concerned about their children getting hurt, so a seminar about preventing injuries in young athletes is almost a guaranteed success.

Finding Your Focus
When giving a wellness seminar to athletes, you can focus on two main wellness topics—improving performance, or injury care and prevention. All athletes want a competitive edge to boost their performance. Mere hundredths of a second separate the winners from the losers at a track meet. If a runner has neurological impedance that could slow her down by hundredths of a second, it could mean the difference between winning and losing. Studies have shown that a runner with a 25° foot flare would be outdistanced 31 yards per mile by a runner of equal size and abilities who had no foot flare.³ If you can restore the body’s optimal biomechanical position, the athlete will move better, react faster, and be less prone to injury. If this information seems unfamiliar to you, there’s no need to worry. When you give wellness seminars, you’re basically just talking chiropractic. You know what you need to say about the benefits of seeing a chiropractor.

Chiropractic care can enhance performance in any sport, but different sports will require you to focus on different areas of the body. For example, golfers need to have maximum torso rotation for an optimal golf swing. If you’re caring for athletes in a sport that requires jumping, such as volleyball or basketball, you will spend more time adjusting the lower extremities.

Adjunctive care like rehab and wearing custom-made, flexible orthotics can also improve sport performance. A research study found that golfers who wore custom-made, flexible orthotics daily for six weeks experienced a 3- to 5-miles-per-hour increase (7%) in club-head velocity (CHV).⁴ A 5-mph increase in CHV is equivalent to an amazing 15 yards of increased drive distance.⁴ It’s great to include this kind of information in your seminar, because it excites athletes and motivates them to seek your care.

The second area that your seminar can focus on is injury prevention and/or care for injuries. Chiropractors are the ideal health care professionals for injured athletes, because we can address the root causes of their problems. If an athlete comes to you with a sprained ankle, you want to address the biomechanical issues that may have affected or resulted from the injury. Your treatment plan will comprehensively address the acute injury and the preexisting chronic problem. If an injured athlete takes the medical route, he or she is more likely to receive drugs that only mask pain and reduce inflammation, instead of addressing the problem. Chiropractors delve a step deeper to make sure that there were no underlying biomechanical, neurological, or subluxation components to the injury.

If you are doing a series of lectures, you may be able to address both improved performance and injury prevention. If you are giving only one seminar, it is better to concentrate on one or the other. Most athletes are equally interested in enhancing their performance and avoiding injuries. Think about what you want to treat in your office. If you want to be a wellness doctor, you should focus on improving performance. If you would prefer to care for injuries, your seminar should be about injury prevention and the care that helps injured athletes return to competition.

Getting Ready for the Seminar
Choosing the right location for your seminar is crucial to your success. If you already have numerous patients who are athletes, you could hold a wellness seminar in your office and try to network through your existing patients. A seminar at your office will most likely have a small turnout of six to 12 people. Holding a wellness seminar at an outside location gives you a better chance of attracting larger numbers of potential patients. For instance, a golf tournament is taking place in your area and the organizers want you to be the featured speaker at the lunch following the event—that’s a great opportunity. You get to meet potential patients. Plus, you will add value to their event.

The goal of your seminar is to motivate people to make an appointment. First, keep your audience’s attention by incorporating interesting visual materials into your presentation. If you have the necessary equipment, play short video clips or present a slide show of photographs and diagrams that relate to your topic. It’s a good idea to invest in an overhead projector and a computer so you can upload digital images and videos. Second, practice your presentation over and over, so you will be comfortable when you’re standing in front of an audience. Consider videotaping your presentation beforehand so you can critique yourself. Finally, bring a staff member with an appointment book to schedule appointments for new patients.

One of the best ways to grab athletes’ attention is to discuss products that can benefit their performance. Pedal imbalances such as pronation can be extremely detrimental to athletes. Imagine that your car’s tires were out of balance, but you drove it only 10 mph. You probably wouldn’t even notice the imbalances. But if you drove that same car at 60 mph, it would shake and wobble all over the place. Custom-made, flexible orthotics can help athletes because they absorb shock and restore proper balance to the body.

There’s a concept similar to the car with unbalanced tires at work with people. If someone is a couch potato, it might take a long time for him or her to experience the problems associated with pedal imbalances. However, if someone with a pronated foot is a marathon runner, power lifter, or competitive tennis player, he or she is more likely to experience foot, ankle, knee, hip, or spinal problems because he is pushing his body to the limit. Custom-made orthotics can help restore normal balance and alignment to an athlete’s body by keeping his or her feet properly supported. Athletes will be more likely to schedule an appointment if they know that you can provide them with products that boost their performance, especially if those products aren’t available in retail stores.

If you’ve made the effort to plan a wellness seminar, you want to be sure that it will bring you new patients. Act like your seminar is a big deal, because it is. If you’re holding your seminar in conjunction with another event like a golf tournament or a marathon, make sure you will be included in their advertising and marketing efforts. Write a column in your local newspaper about your topic. CP

Mark N. Charrette, DC, is a 1980 summa cum laude graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic. He has lectured extensively on spinal and extremity adjusting throughout the United States, Europe, the Far East, and Australia. Charrette received a bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University (summa cum laude) in 1976, where he was an NCAA All-American in 1974.

References
1. National Institutes of Health. Conference on Sports Injuries in Youth: Surveillance Strategies: Proceedings: April 8–9, 1991. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health; Publication 93-3444.
2. Pipe A. Consternation midst perspiration: sports medicine and children. Paper presented at: Annual Meeting of the Canadian Orthopedic Association; June 14, 1993; Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
3. Jesse J. Hidden Causes of Injury, Prevention, and Correction for Running Athletes and Jogging. Pasadena, Calif: The Athletic Press; 1977.
4. Stude DE, Gullickson J. Effects of orthotic intervention and nine holes of simulated golf on club-head velocity in experienced golfers. J Manip Physiol Ther. 2000;23(3);168–174.