On this episode of the #AskMikeReinold show we talk about working with high-level athletes and ways to get them to buy into your proposed treatment plan. To view more episodes, subscribe, and ask your questions, go to mikereinold.com/askmikereinold.

#AskMikeReinold Episode 208: How to Get Athletes to Buy Into Your Treatment Plan

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Show Notes

* How to Help Athletes with the Psychological Aspect of Injury* How Physical Therapists can Specialize in Sports Rehabilitation

Transcript

Mike Reinold: On this episode of the Ask Mike Reinold show, we talk about some of the strategies we use to get athletes to buy into our treatment plan.

Mike Reinold: Oh, well here’s our question today. Let me see. I’m my own question answerer. Let’s see. All right. Corey, from California, from Chapman University actually, which I got together with recently, Corey had a question I thought was pretty cool. He said, “When working with athletes who are very high level, and potentially have a lot riding on the therapy you’re giving them, and have expectation that they’ll get back on the field ASAP, how do you get them to buy into your treatment and plan of care that you’ve outlined for them? Especially if maybe it doesn’t fit with their own timeline? What are some strategies you’d like to implement?” This is a good one. I like the way I liked the way you phrased it too.

Mike Reinold: We’ve got high level athletes, they want to get back as fast as they can. A, how do you get them to buy into your plan? But B, how do you do that if it doesn’t fit their plan? I think that was, I think it’s a good way of rephrasing it right here. Who wants to start this lovely question?

Dan Pope: There’s so many ways to go with this.

Mike Scaduto: Yeah, I think that’s a pretty loaded question. I think first off you should have an honest conversation about the timeline that the athlete wants, and why are the two timelines not really lining up? Is it a postop patient who has unrealistic expectations coming back from surgery, and they think they had Tommy John three weeks ago and they want to start throwing it month two, and be back on the field at month six?

Mike Scaduto: I think that comes down to setting expectations for the patient, and I think that conversation you have to have early on, hopefully even before surgery, before they undergo surgery, if it’s something like that. If it’s another circumstance, I think you have to remind the athlete that you’re working for them, and maybe you have to make compromises in the plan to try and work towards their best benefit with...