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Sports therapist: Job description and activities

Job description

A sports therapist/graduate sport rehabilitator (GSR) helps injured athletes return to full functionality, regardless of their age, sport or ability. Injuries treated vary according to the sport or activity involved. Clients include professional and amateur sportspeople, people who keep fit for fun, and accident victims. A qualified sports therapist/GSR advises on prevention of injuries and can examine, assess and treat those that do occur, as well as helping with the rehabilitation process.

Many therapists/GSRs combine working in this discipline with other sports-related roles. They may have a range of clients and workplaces, rather than being employed by one organisation.

Typical work activities

Sports therapists’/graduate sport rehabilitators’ (GSRs’) roles depend upon their qualifications, their work setting and the specialist areas they may develop.

Although some physiotherapists focus on sports-related cases, sports therapy and rehabilitation is a separate profession from physiotherapy and is concerned with musculo-skeletal conditions arising from sporting activity, not with general healthcare. Disorders are treated within a dedicated sports environment. Sports therapy centres on:

• understanding and preventing sports injuries;
• dealing with the effects of physical and emotional trauma surrounding sports injuries;
• the clinical process of returning athletes to peak fitness in the relevant sport. 

A sports therapist/GSR may be involved in any or all of the following activities:

Prior to a fixture/event:

• conducting an assessment of the players' or athletes' readiness;
• testing joints for ease and range of movement;
• strapping, taping, offering massage and preparing players or athletes physically and mentally;
• advising on stretching, warming up and cooling down exercises.

During a fixture/event:

• providing first aid;
• examining and assessing injuries and determining whether the athlete can continue.

After a fixture/event:

• examining and assessing injuries and dealing with traumas, e.g., cuts, bruises and blisters;
• deciding whether athletes or players need extra treatments and coordinating referrals to other practitioners;
• advising players or athletes on diet and nutrition (when therapists are appropriately trained);
• working alone or with coaches, trainers and/or fitness advisers to implement exercise, conditioning, core stability and injury prevention programmes, so that athletes reach and maintain peak performance;
• liaising with other health professionals in the sports sector and in mainstream medicine.

In addition, a sports therapist/GSR offering rehabilitation programmes would typically be involved in:

• examining and assessing injuries;
• treating injuries, alleviating pain, mobilising injuries, giving various types of massage;
• rehabilitating injuries by using manipulative techniques, apparatus and electrotherapy;
• designing and monitoring rehabilitation programmes appropriate to the injury and the sport.

The line between sports therapy and sports rehabilitation is often blurred and many practitioners offer a full range of therapy and rehabilitation services.

AGCAS

Written by Darren Johnson, Durham University

Last updated:

March 2009

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