Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group, LLC Blog

Speaker at this past summer's, "Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants" Seminar, Clare Frank continues to educate the nations top sports medicine and rehabilitation clinicians in her upcoming 2012 speaking engagements.

See Clare's 2012 Speaking dates below.

Asuza - 2012 DNS Course

Janda Approach - Arcadia 2012

As your student-athletes return this fall I think it’s worth considering a concept that was introduced to me by my mother when I was a young boy.

When caring for plants or vegetables in your garden there is inherently an ongoing process from the time you plant the seed until the time of harvest.

Many outside people will only ever see the final fruits of your labor and not the countless man hours put forth prior to that final stage.  With any successful harvest, much effort has to be placed on the frontend including watering and fertilizing the plants, providing the plant with proper sunlight, protecting it from that first frost and other harsh weather and maybe most important - picking the weeds from around its base and providing it the opportunity to grow and develop.

In a similar scenario, in order to achieve elite athletic success, countless man hours must be put forth prior to actual competition to ensure that your athletes are able to grow and express their athletic ability when the lights come on. 

This of course means weeding the garden on a daily basis.

Many professionals who provide sports medicine care and strength training to collegiate athletes understand that water and fertilizer are of course necessary, but tending to the weeds is so often neglected, at least until it’s too late. 

When your athletes arrive this fall will you look at how they move – squat, toe touch, backwards bend – or will you wait until they have pain or injury to address their ankle dorsi-flexion, lumbar stability and psoas length and quality?

The challenge then is to find the time to take a look at your garden on a daily basis and provide the care and services that it so very much deserves.  In this case, and in the case of your garden at home, it is clear that you will only reap what you sew - and take care of.

Art Horne is the Director of Sports Performance at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

We asked what the Giants in Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation, Basketball and Hockey performance training have read or are currently reading and we brought their list to you.  

Click HERE to view our recommended library with an ongoing list from these speakers who presented at the BSMPG "Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants" 2011 summer seminar.

Brijesh Patel

If you're going to work...

work hard.

That way, you'll have something to show for it.

The biggest waste is to do that thing you call work, but to interrupt it, compromise it, cheat it and still call it work.

In the same amount of time you can expend twice the effort and get far more in exchange.

Happy Canada Day to our readers north of the border!

So often individuals with knee pain miss out on the opportunity to resolve their troublesome and agonizing cases because the answer comes dressed in overalls, a hard hat and carries a lunch box.  Addressing knee pain means so much more than sitting back and relaxing in your local physical therapy or athletic training center with an ice bag and electrical stimulation on your knee.  Addressing knee pain takes hard work and requires that patients become an active participant in their care plan.

In a recent article published in Sports Health, Lake and Wofford reviewed current literature examining therapeutic modalities and their effectiveness for the treatment of patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) or good old fashion knee pain.  Their findings come as no surprise to those that understand that knee pain is a real pain in the butt – meaning, quite literally it's cause is coming from your butt (or a lack thereof).  Conclusions drawn from their examination was that, “none of the therapeutic modalities reviewed has sound scientific justification for the treatment of PFPS when used alone.”

So what’s the answer?

Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water quite yet.  A comprehensive treatment approach offering therapeutic modalities as needed with a focus on eccentric strength training along with an overall strengthening program for the hips and gluteus musculature in addition to providing mobility above and below the knee (hips and ankle) continues to be the best approach to getting athletes back to competition faster and putting smiles on knee pain sufferers  time and time again.

See additional knee pain articles below: 

Treating Anterior Knee Pain - Part I and Part II

Lake D., and Wofford N. Effect of Therapeutic Modalities on Patients With Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome: A Systematic Review. 2011. Sports Health, Vol. 3(2)p.182-189.

The hard part (one of them)

A guy asked his friend, the writer David Foster Wallace,

"Say, Dave, how'd y'get t'be so dang smart?"

His answer:

"I did the reading."

No one said the preparation part was fun, but yes, it's important. I wonder why we believe we can skip it and still be so dang smart.

Agency

A door is not responsible if it swings and hits you in the nose. Neither is the hand of the guy who punched you.

Philosphers and lawyers talk about agency. Responsibility comes with the capacity to act in the world. If you can decide, if you can act, you have agency.

Life without agency would be a nightmare. Trapped in a box, unable to do anything by choice, nothing but a puppet...

Why then, do organizations and individuals struggle so intently to avoid the responsibility that comes with agency? "It's not my job, my boss won't let me, there's a federal regulation, we're prohibited, it's our supplier, that's our policy..."

It's not something you can turn on or off. Either you have the capacity to act in the world. Or you don't.

We asked what the Giants in Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation, Basketball and Hockey performance training have read or are currently reading and we brought their list to you.  

Click HERE to view our recommended library with an ongoing list from these speakers who presented at the BSMPG "Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants" 2011 summer seminar.

Click HERE to view George Mumford's most updated presentation from this year's seminar.

Click HERE to view George Mumford's reference list from the above presentation.

2011 BSMPG speakers, Ray Eady and George Mumford

Congrats to Northeastern University alum, JJ Barea and the Dallas Mavericks for winning the 2011 NBA Championship!