As mentioned above, there are many ways in which a physical therapist can support a basketball player. Here are some of the services that we offer to players to support them in their careers as a player:

Injury rehabilitation

Physical therapists are trained extensively in injury rehabilitation. Like all athletes, basketball players are at risk for experiencing injuries that can impact their ability to continue playing. These injuries can occur during practice, during games and even in the training room. Some examples of injuries that physical therapists treat in basketball players are as follows:

• Ankle sprains.
• Achilles tendon tears.
• Achilles tendinopathy.
• Jammed or sprained fingers.
• Knee injuries.
• Muscle contusions.
• Concussions.
• Calf injuries.
• Back Pain.

While it may be tempting to self-treat or ignore injuries and to jump back into practices and competitive play as soon as possible, failure to fully rehabilitate an injury can predispose you to recurrent or more severe injuries. There are several benefits related to injury and post-surgical rehabilitation that working with a physical therapist can provide you including assurance that you are fully recovered from the injury and that the injured tissues are prepared to take on the unique forces and stresses associated with basketball.

Identify and address the underlying cause of an injury

While full recovery and return to play is the ultimate goal when it comes to injury rehabilitation, a physical therapist has much more to offer. We are interested in identifying the factors that may have predisposed you to the injury in the first place so that we can make a plan to address them. This helps decrease your risk for future injury and often has the additional benefit of improving overall competitive performance. Here are some factors that we look for when assessing a player:

• Muscle strength, power and endurance
• Flexibility and mobility in muscles and joints
• Sleep, nutrition and recovery time
• Training schedule
• History of prior injury
• Form while training and playing
• The physical demands of a player’s position on the team

While some injuries are unavoidable, there may be times when internal and external factors play a role. Identifying these factors allows us to address them with a good physical therapy program or give advice on helpful modifications or adjustments to your training.

If you have taken time off or decreased your training in response to signs of pain or injury, your symptoms may have improved due to a lower training load but it does not guarantee that symptoms won’t recur once you increase your training load again. With proper rehabilitation we can help minimize this risk. This leads us to another way that working with a physical therapist can benefit a basketball player…

If you decide to work with a physical therapist to help correct your basketball related issues, your entire treatment plan could consist of around 8-20+ different physical therapy sessions that will each last 60-90 minutes. Once you complete your customized basketball physical therapy treatment plan, you will be able to continue to do the prescribed stretches and exercises utilized during your basketball PT sessions yet in the comfort of your own home.

Movement and Performance Analyses

The amount of time you’ve probably spent performing drills and practicing give you a clue as to how important form and technique are to the sport of basketball. Being able to perform at your best requires that your body has enough strength, power, coordination, endurance, flexibility, etc. to not only perform your role on the court but also to manage the high training volumes on the court and in the training room.

As movement experts, your physical therapist can assess your form with common training exercises like lunges, deadlifts, squats, bench press, plyometrics, upper body exercises, running and sprinting and give you insight on how to optimize the movements to enhance effectiveness and decrease injury risk. Similarly, they can analyze common movement patterns utilized during basketball play and determine if there are areas of weakness or impairments that should be addressed through a comprehensive training program.

Whether you are playing basketball for fun or have your eye on an NBA career, success is not achieved alone. Having a team of skilled professionals from coaches to physical therapists can not only make playing basketball more fun but help you unlock your greatest potential. Our staff at Evolve is ready to help you play at your best. Give us a call today to learn more about how we can help you take your athletic endeavors to the next level.