PTs help athletes stay in the game

I’m going to confess up front; I’m not an athlete. I’ve done my share of walking, swimming and yoga, but my sport of choice is reading a good book.

Still, I like to watch college sports, so I’m glad we focused on sports medicine this month. I learned a lot.

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BARRY WILLIAMS / AJC Special

Physical therapist Ron Courson helps University of Georgia football player Josh Bagby with passive range-of-motion exercises for his shoulder.

Charlie Ridgeway, PT, a sports medicine physical therapist who works with Georgia Tech athletes and with the public, said something that struck a chord with me: “When a player gets hurt, it makes you forget whose side you are on.”

As the mother of girls who played softball, volleyball, soccer and competed in horse shows, I knew exactly what he meant. There’s risk in any sport, and when a player goes down — your own or someone else’s — your heart is in your throat. Your focus shifts from the field to the sidelines, where a therapist or trainer tries to assess the damage and administer appropriate treatment.

Ridgeway is on the sidelines when the Georgia Tech football team takes the field. Sometimes friends tell him that they see him on TV.

“That’s not a good thing, because it means that something didn’t go right,” he said. “But I’m glad to be there. I always wanted a job that would involve sports and health care.”

He watches games from a different perspective than the rest of us.

“When someone gets hurt, I’ll watch the film five or six times,” he said. “It doesn’t change the fact that it happened, but I want to dissect every detail to see if we can prevent that from happening in the future. It’s a learning experience.

“It would be ideal to work in a training room where every table was empty, because that would mean no one was hurt.”

Ron Courson, PT, ATC, EMT, director of sports medicine at the University of Georgia, talked about sports medicine being a philosophy as well as a science.

“We’re in the business of prevention and aggressive rehabilitation,” Courson said. “There’s a fine line between wanting to get a player back on the field as soon as possible and making sure he’s as safe as possible, too.”

There’s no such thing as a general treatment plan. Every injury and every player is unique, in terms of overall health and fitness, pain, range of motion and the demands of the sport. Each athlete gets customized therapy from someone who wants and understands his or her desire to keep playing.

Most sports medicine PTs are former athletes, which gives them added empathy for their patients.

“I love my job. We get to spend time personally with these young people and have a chance to make a profound influence on their lives,” Courson said. “We want them to be good athletes, but we also want them to be good people, good citizens and role models. We’re interested in the whole package.”

And when he watches pro sports, he looks for former Bulldogs.

One of the best things about sports medicine is that you don’t have to be young or a professional athlete to benefit from it. Surgeons and therapists use the same techniques and exercises on patients who have had accidents or whose joints have worn out from age. Their aim is the same — to keep their patients in the game.

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