Return to Sport DPT

Return to Sport DPT Helping clinicians simplify return-to-sport rehab. Evidence-informed frameworks and tools for confident, performance-based recovery.

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08/30/2026

It’s not always the joint angle that’s the problem, sometimes it’s the context of how you’re getting there.

If you want to get someone desensitized to deep ranges, one lever to pull is just to start them there in the first place. From there you can play around with pushing, yielding, and oscillations.

Obviously you want to keep building towards the target/difficult task - but you can sometimes sneak the pattern in in other ways ahead of time.

08/27/2026

Skater/heiden/lateral bound progressions

Single bound to stick. Nice beginner exercise to feel the push off needed for lateral movement

Hop to bound

Same principles as the last, just trying to organize it faster off of a landing. Hopping foot has to reposition outside to find more efficient angle to propel

Reactive bound - increases the demand from the previous as there’s more horizontal momentum to overcome to brake then redirect.

45 deg entry lateral bound - probably close to difficulty of last exercise, maybe even slight easier depending on entry and exit angle. The linear momentum makes life a little easier than pure lateral overcoming

Continuous lateral bound - tougher for sure, good challenge

Jump to bound - not super hard, maybe don’t even need to do it compared to the hop to bound. Just playing and exploring

90 deg turn - tricky, just some multidirectional elements and rich to reorganize in space. Probably wouldn’t ever do a high volume of these but decent for novelty

Lateral bound to 90 deg turn - simulates a bit of a COD to run start, but again probably wouldn’t never really use this. I’d just do lateral bounds or lateral run starts. Just some novelty

0 deg bound - combines the last 2 - 2 repositionings. Wouldn’t really use it much

08/26/2026

Decel requires a limb striking in front of the body and rapid management/overcoming of momentum.

You can start to build the pieces in small spaces with a few tools (band acceleration being one of the best).

Then you need to express it over space, from a sprint. Sometimes, thousands of times per match.

Start building it long before then

08/22/2026

I’ve worn both hats in sports rehab.

I’ve been the sports PT doing 90 minute field sessions for athletes paying cash.

I’ve been the outpatient PT with 25 minutes and a resistance band, trying to help an athlete get back.

I’ll never argue that the second one is best-case care.

But that’s the situation 90% of clinicians in the real world deal with. And just as importantly, it’s where 90% of athletes actually show up for rehab.

So if we want to make a real difference in population-level outcomes, we have to start building education for all clinicians.

Most sports rehab content, implicitly or explicitly, tells clinicians in standard spaces that they don’t have a seat at the table when it comes to athletes.

I want to build something different.

But inclusion cuts both ways. If you have a seat at the table, you don’t get to throw your hands up and say “I can’t do this in my setting.”

You need to accept constraints, get creative, and do what’s best for your patients.

If you’re ready to do that - welcome to the party. Let’s get our patients better.

08/21/2026

Some multidirectional movement prep that may or may not have value…

Varied angled skips, hops, jumps to get the limb impacting at various positions.

Use at your own discretion.

08/15/2026

Feel like you don’t know enough exercises? Here’s a more simple reframe - learn the core movement patterns or “shapes”, then manipulate and iterate based on those to match the intended outcome.

Here’s a small part of our treatment plan looking at prescribing the step in lunge from Matt McInnes Watson | The Plyo Guy on each side.

On the left leg, she’s having a harder time yielding and controlling deep positions because of quad tendinopathy. So on that side, the intention is managing force and controlling the yield.

On the right leg, her complaint and limitation is generating stiffness, something that showed up during her acceleration training. So on that side, we’re working on quickly generating stiffness with an “overcoming” intent. How fast can she get on and off that leg without a lot of joint excursion.

Same base pattern, with slightly different prescriptions to meet her at this part of her rehab.

Eventually, we will work to be less part task and more balanced side to side.

(And no, socks on turf wasn’t the best move)

08/12/2026

Loved learning more about build ups to penultimate steps and high degree COD in Michael Drach ‘s agility protocol. Go check it out

08/11/2026

Ranking small space change of direction drills

*these are not suggestions, just things I played around with today during my lift for space-constrained exposures in rehab

Bound to 90 deg cut - 8/10

Really liked how this felt. Intuitive, in the flow of movement, really easy to do in a small space. On the low / medium intensity side, but still felt pretty good. I think most patients could get it

Hop to 90 deg cut - 7/10

Harder, more technical, less coordinative carryover to actual locomotion. Bonus points for difficulty, but there’s probably better things to do with time? Not sure I’d do it with a patient, also not sure I should even be doing it myself

Single leg square hop drill - 6/10

I think there’s some cool potential here. Maybe more constrained than it needs to be, also less technical carryover to something on a court/field. Fun and hard though.

Broad to 90 - 5/10

I really wanted this to feel more effective as a bilateral starting exposure. Maybe it will grow on me

Penultimate entries - 7/10

Felt pretty good, could definitely see myself using them to just get a patient to feel the rotation and COM drop on a 0 deg cut

Single leg replacement hop - 5/10

Fine. Awkward. Probably better off just going a little more whole task or a different plyo variation

Supported continuous leg plant - 9/10

Personal bias I love these. Trunk generates stiffness while the limb has to figure out how to manage forces. Fight for leg stiffness, foot position, etc. Idk why my hand is always on some Scary Movie stuff.

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