The word sports may conjure up images of extreme sports that are the domain of athletes such as luging iron rackets, or football players' knees, however, sports in everyday life encompasses a wide variety of physical activities. For example, sports in everyday life include sports that involve sprinting, jumping, climbing, swimming, tennis, weightlifting, rowing, bicycling, hiking, mountain biking, fencing, skating, and much more. Sports enthusiasts spend hours of time researching, testing, and developing new equipment and methods to make their sports more exciting. In addition, sports professionals are constantly trying to improve their sports performances.
Sports professionals are engaged in a variety of practices to help them enhance their sports performance. One of these includes sports psychology. Sports psychology is the study of human sports competition and performance. Sports psychology is not a field that a professional athlete starts out with. Rather, sports psychology graduate students study a sport from a personal and sports perspective. As you may imagine, sports psychology doctoral students also conduct research on sports, exercise, and psychology.
Sports medicine and sports orthopedic sports medicine have come under the scope of sports psychology. Sports medicine deals specifically with injuries and preventing sports-related injuries in everyday practice. Sports orthopedic sports medicine is a specialization that involves treatment of sports injuries and preventing sports-related injuries in everyday practice. Both sports medicine and sports orthopedic sports medicine are part of the larger field of sports medicine.
A large portion of professional sports medicine deals with acute injuries to the skeletal and soft tissue structure of the athlete. Sports chiropractors, physical therapists, and sports physicians work with athletes with specific sports injuries. Sports chiropractors, sports physical therapists, and sports medicine doctors may work together to prevent injuries in everyday practice. A sports physical therapist is someone who works closely with athletes with sports-specific injuries.
Orthopedic sports medicine is the field of sports medicine that deals with treating athletic in athletes with conditions such as tendinitis, shin splints, bursitis, ankle sprains, rotator cuff tears, and other injuries. An orthopedic sports medicine doctor is a doctor who practices in sports medicine. An athletic trainer is a person who works with sports in mind development, rehabilitation, and physical therapy. Physical therapy is used for treating sports related injuries in everyday practice.
Physical rehabilitation is a field that is related to sports medicine but deals more with post-injury treatment than an athlete's practice. Physical rehabilitation is also part of sports medicine. Physical therapy is not typically a part of a sports practice for a sportsman. Sports physiotherapists is someone who works with injured athletes in mind development, rehabilitation, and physical exercise. Both fields are important aspects of sports medicine and each needs the services of a different sports physical therapist and orthopedist.
