theNYCphysio

For the first few years of my career, I passed up on many opportunities to travel to events with any teams. Not because I didn’t want to, but because it was unrealistic to take the time off as an employed physical therapist. Although it may have been possible, I would have had to use my vacation days which were much more valuable to me at the time. 

After much deliberation, in 2012 my wife and I decided to move forward and open our own private practice in NYC. This decision allowed me the flexibility to dedicate more time to working with individual athletes or their teams. Every year, the USSA would contact me to see if I was interested in covering some of their events. Finally I was able to commit!

My first international trip was with the US Freestyle Aerials Ski Team at a World Cup in Kreichberg, Austria. With me were two coaches, an MD, and only TWO US athletes! So needless to say it was probably fate that this was my first assignment with USSA. There was no way I could screw this up! 

Outside of seeing it in the Olympics, I had no idea what the sport of aerials entailed. With such a small crew, I was able to learn quickly without stressing too much about the physio side of my job. 

Basically it’s one hill, a few man-made ramps, and a steep “soft” landing area. Any injuries that might occur would likely happen upon landing. So that was where the MD and I kept a keen eye. As opposed to the longer free flowing slopestyle and pipe disciplines at the Dew Tour that I worked a few weeks prior, aerials seemed much shorter and technical. Basically each jump and landing were judged (much like diving) on how perfectly and difficult they were executed. Any little bend in the knees, or split of the legs, or degree “off-axis” would cost them valuable points. Even though it was freestyle skiing, it seemed much more rigid than I had expected.

Like my time with most other sports, when the athletes don’t need tending to and I don’t have much else to do, I often help the coaches out. With aerials, I usually videotape the jumps at various angles. Or I help with prep for the landing area. Being that this event is done on one short hill, I don’t think I ever had to take my snowboard out. Usually it is just a short hike up to the jumps. All I needed was my physio kit and my boots. 

Fortunately I never needed my physio kit on the mountain. Of the two US athletes, one placed first and the other placed 3rd! A double podium! It was an unexpected surprise. If I recall correctly, this had been the first time this had happened in quite some time for the US aerials team. So needless to say, we were stoked! They won, I had passed my first international test as a team physio, and now I could relax.

Afterwards, we made our way up to the Red Bull Museum in Salzburg (https://www.hangar-7.com/en/museum-in-salzburg/) and then finished the first leg of our trip off in Prague to celebrate. My next event with the aerials team was in Minsk, Belarus a few days later. I’ll save that for another post.

Did I mention that at the time, the US Ski Team was sponsored by Audi? Fortunately, no other teams were in Europe at the time, so they let us borrow the team Audi’s for this trip. Let’s just say it was smooth sailing on the Autobahn!