Agility training is a critical component of a comprehensive sports training program. Agility training involves a set of progressive exercises to improve an athlete’s agility, which is the ability to accelerate, decelerate, change direction, and react swiftly in multiple directions in response to unpredictable situations on the competitive sports field. Agility training is extremely beneficial for athletes of all sports, requiring strength, flexibility, and stamina to improve the body’s adaptability and reaction time to a stimulus or movement.

An ankle sprain is a common injury that occurs when the foot twists or turns beyond its normal range of movement, causing the ankle’s ligaments to overstretch or tear. Ankle sprains account for up to 40% of lower extremity sports injuries and 15% of all sports injuries in the United States. Physical therapy is the first line of treatment for ankle sprains, effectively restoring mobility, strength, and function in the injured ankle, preventing re-injury, and ensuring a safe return to sport through a targeted exercise and manual therapy rehabilitation program.

Mangiarelli Rehabilitation physical therapist Bobby demonstrates the variety of ways we utilize the Golf Forever Swing Training Tool in our clinic to improve your golf swing. The golf swing is one of the most dynamic motions in sports, requiring coordinated loading and the generation of power and force throughout the kinetic chain. Physical therapy can help golfers improve their golf swing by enhancing agility and power for longer drives, improving mobility and flexibility in the hips and shoulders and dynamic balance, and enhancing core strength and neuromuscular control for a powerful, controlled, and accurate golf swing.

Return to work and return to sport programs share the same goal: that the worker and athlete can safely return to work or athletic competition and can meet the demands of the job or sport with sufficient strength, power, and endurance. Physical therapists play a key role in helping injured workers and athletes recover from injury and prepare for a successful return to the job or sports field through a gradual, progressive RTW or RTS training program and objective testing. Rehabilitation for return to work (RTW) and return to sport (RTS) is customized to the patient’s specific needs, duties, and necessary skills to ensure the patient can succeed upon their return to work or sport.

Before returning to sprinting after a sports injury, it is essential to progressively regain strength, agility, and speed under the guidance of a qualified sports physical therapist. To prepare for a return to sprinting, a physical therapist begins with isometric and eccentric strength training followed by plyometric and agility training before progressing to a sprint training program. Returning to sprinting is an objective in the later stages of rehabilitation for lower extremity injuries. It is critical that athletes achieve interval sprinting at top speed in the controlled, predictable environment of the physical therapy clinic before engaging in competition and returning to sport.