A sports physiotherapist in Sydney

What makes our sports physiotherapy service different?

The Switch group provides a range of sport injury physiotherapy services at our clinics in Penshurst, Concord and Maroubra. We have a very experienced team of physicians with over 65 years combined experience & great written reviews. We focus on providing an evidence based, personal treatment service for symptoms like a twisted ankle, ACL tear, sore shoulders or other joint pain.

WE LISTEN

With our evidence based approach to health care means we don’t make any assumptions or take things for granted. We spend the time needed to listen and fully understand your health concerns so that we have a deep understanding of what you would like to achieve or get back to doing.

PERSONAL TREATMENT

We create an individualised treatment plan that goes through our 3 key steps to success: Explore,Preparation and Return.

THERAPY & MOVEMENT

We can ensure great results for our clients when we apply our hands on manual therapy techniques and unique movement patterns which gives you a step by step treatment to prevent the pain from returning

WE AVOID QUICK FIXES

We will avoid situations where we are asked for a quick fix, we ensure we go through the cause of the problem, correct it and provide you the right education to prevent it from coming back. This takes time and we have a process that we have developed over many years.

WE FOCUS ON LONG TERM SOLUTIONS

We don’t shy away from the fact that effective physiotherapy treatment takes time and requires a plan of sessions to do it. Other clinics may shy away from the multiple sessions and provide short term pain relief, only for it to return. We provide transparency from day one, there are no shortcuts and to effectively treat most pain issues will require long term solutions.

Our simple 3 step approach

Explore

We start our journey together by listening to you. It is important that we find out as much as we can about you, your body and what it is that is significant to you. We observe your movement and how the pain you are experiencing is impacting your whole body.

Prepare

Failing to plan is planning to fail. We take this literally and from the start, our aim is to detail our process of treatment to help prepare your body to move freely and get the results you want. With our focus on manual therapy and movement patterns we will prepare your body with a solid foundation.

Return

What is important to you is important to us! So depending on whether your focus is to eliminate pain forever, get back to a particular exercise or sport, our treatment plan will be fixated around helping you achieve what is important to you.

The most common areas we treat

SPRAINS & STRAINS

Sprains occur when you injure a ligament. A ligament is the supportive tissue which connects bones.

Commonly sprained ligaments include the knee ligaments (ACL, MCL, LCL) and the ankle ligaments (ATFL, CL). Ligaments can also be sprained around the shoulder, primarily around the acromio-clavicular joint.

SPORTS INJURIES

Typical sports injuries include muscle strains and joint sprains and can occur for both experienced or new athletes.

Physiotherapy can help the treatment of these injuries in their early stages so they don’t become chronic and take much longer to heal

RUNNING ASSESSMENTS

A running assessment identifies areas which may need improvement or finds weak links in the kinetic chain before injury can occur.

It can also identify the areas where you may be placing excessive load on your body and we can show you how you can modify this during your training.

What are the most common sports injuries?

ACL Tear or Strain

The ACL, anterior cruciate ligament, is one of the major stabilizing ligaments of the knee. The most common cause of sports injuries for an ACL strain is slowing down and trying to cut, pivot or change directions. Ligaments on the inside of the knee are often torn with the ACL injury, making it a devastating event.

Hip Flexor Straing

The hip flexors are muscles found on the upper-front side of your thigh. The main functions of the hip flexor muscles are to lift the knee toward your trunk, as well as assist moving your leg toward and away from the other leg. Hip flexors can be weak in individuals who sit a great deal at work or can become weak and stiff in individuals who have poor sitting posture. Sports injuries to this muscle group can be caused by sprinting, running inclines and activities with quick turns and sudden starts.

Patellofemoral Syndrome

Most of the sports injuries that we see tend to involve the lower body, particularly knee injuries. One of the most common knee injuries is called patellofemoral syndrome. This diagnosis can be caused by a slip or a fall onto the knees, swelling of the knee joint or a muscle imbalance. Sometimes you can have swelling, leading to a muscle imbalance of the two major muscles that aid in proper tracking of the kneecap in the groove. If knee injury pain or dysfunction continues for more than two weeks, a referral to a physio may help with more aggressive stretching and strengthening. A physio may use knee taping or bracing techniques to aid with proper tracking.

Shoulder injury

Shoulder injuries cover a large number of sports injuries from dislocations, misalignment, strains on muscles and sprains of ligaments. The shoulder is considered one of the weakest joints of the body and is subject to a great deal of force during athletic activities.

Tennis Elbow

Tennis elbow is usually seen with people are performing a great deal of gripping activities. It can be labeled as an overuse sports injury, also known as medial or lateral epicondylitis. Due to the repetitive action, the tendons of the forearm can become inflamed and make any wrist or hand motions extremely painful. Doctors may prescribe anti-inflammatory medication, or even a brace, to try to take pressure off the area and prevent further elbow injuries. Stretching techniques and other strengthening exercises applied by a sports physio can help to break down the stiffness and gradually build strength, returning athletes to their sporting activities.

Hamstring Strain

The hamstring muscle is located on the back of the thigh. Unfortunately, the hamstring muscles can be tight and are susceptible to a strain, which is also called a pulled muscle. Often, an athlete with a hamstring tear will experience bruising in the back of the thigh or the knee.

Sciatica

Sciatica is back pain that also travels down the back of the leg or even to the feet. This radiating pain can additionally be associated with numbness, burning and tingling down the leg. Sciatica can be seen in athletes who are in a flexed forward posture, such as cyclists, or athletes who perform a great deal of trunk rotation in the swing sports, like golf and tennis. The back pain and radiating pain can be caused by a bulging disc or a pinched nerve. .

Shin Splints

Athletes with shin splints complain of pain in the lower leg bone, or the tibia. Shin splints are most often found in athletes who are runners or participate in activities with a great deal of running, such as soccer. Athletes typically get shin splints diagnosed early in their season, as they increase activities or mileage too quickly.

Groin Pull

A groin pull is also called a groin strain. The groin muscles run from the upper-inner thigh to the inner thigh right above the knee. Groin muscles pull the legs together and are often injured with quick side-to-side movements and/or a lack of flexibility. The injured athlete might notice difficulty with lateral movements, getting in and out of cars, as well as tenderness or bruising in the groin or inner thigh.