How to become a sports physiotherapist

[Joef1134]

I am realy interested in becoming a sports physio. I am still at high school so I would like to know what courses I have to take in as much detail and all other thing which help in becoming a high quality sports physio.

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[amanda12]

Hi,

I'm currently in my final year at uni studying physiotherapy. To become a sports physio you 1st need to do a degree in physiotherapy. Here you will learn all areas of physio and do a few placements within the NHS setting, one of which should be an outpatients placement (a lot of people come into the outpatient setting with sports injuries and other soft tissue injuries) In order to become a specific sports physio it is recommended that you try and get some work experience within local sports clubs/teams and shadowing other physios, all this will also help with your application into uni. Once at uni you will learn some techniques to allow you to be able to treat people with sports injuries and will help to prepare you for the working world. We had a lecture recently at uni about going into sports instead of the NHS setting and the lecturer was saying that yes it is a tough area to get into and work maybe unpaid for a little while post qualification but this will open your world to other teams/clubs. At uni you will also come to grips with any courses you may want to do eg: sports massage or taping courses.

Hope this helps you a bit!!!

[Joef1134]

what courses do you suggest i do a university and outside of uni to help me?

Thank you Amanda and who ever else can help me.

[amanda12]

As I say you will need to do a BSc in Physiotherapy (there are a number of unis that do it including Liverpool, Coventry, Manchester Met, Birmingham, Keele etc) you can find all the others on the UCAS website. To get into uni you will either need to do A-levels or a BTEC national diploma or equiv. external courses you might want to consider doing are a 1st aid course, sports taping and sports massage (but there isnt much point doing these until you are at uni.) the CSP (chartered Society of Physiotherapists) will be able to assist you further with courses and how to get into sports specifically.

As i say you will learn the basics of a Musculoskeletal assessment and treatment at university and then other things you will either learn on placements or once in employment or shaddowing a qualified physio.

Definately try and get some work experience both in an outpatients department (whether it be in NHS or a private clinic) and at a sports club shaddowing a physio. It will not only give you the experience and will help confirm your passion for sports physio and it will also get you known. I think a lot of the time with sports physio it is a lot of who you know as well as what you know.

I'm sorry i cant really help out much more than that as i'm still at uni myself and sports isnt an area that i wish to persue however a lot of my friends want to enter this area.

Hope I have been of some help. You will be able to get more help from qualified physios if you get some work experience with a sports physio.

Good luck!!

[persy1]

I have been a physio for over 40 years now and I currently work in private practice having spent most of my working life in the NHS. I probably get more sports injuries to treat in private practice than I did in the NHS Physio out-patients. However most private practices ask for at least 3 years post-graduate experience. It has been a wonderful career for me and I can thoroughly recommend it. For starters why don't you look at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy's website and check out a career in physiotherapy. The URL is:-

A career in physiotherapy | The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy

You can see a list of unis that do a physio degree course at this url:-

Physiotherapy Programmes | The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy