What is a Board Certified Sports Clinical Specialist?
A Board Certified Sports Clinical Specialist, sometimes abbreviated as SCS, is one of ten recognized specialties from the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). It indicates that a PT has completed a significant amount of extra training/proving competency in sports physical therapy.
A Board Certified Clinical Specialist must first complete 2000 hours of direct patient care in a specialty field either through an accredited residency program or independently (About Specialist Certification). For a sports clinical specialist specifically, a portion of these hours must be spent providing venue coverage of athletic events (for example, providing sideline coverage at a football game). Then, after completion of these hours or completion of a residency, the therapist must pass a second Board Examination.
There are currently 3,210 Board Certified Sports Clinical Specialists practicing in the United States (Become a Board-Certified Sports Specialist in Physical Therapy). This equates to roughly 1% of all physical therapists.
Why Does it Matter?
Often, when scrolling through websites for physical therapy companies you will see listed that they treat “sports injuries” or “athletic injuries.” Treatment of athletes can be difficult. It is not as simple as restoring normal range of motion or strength after an injury. Instead, a physical therapist must consider what it takes to play their sport and make sure athletes are safe to do so. They can also be proactive in injury prevention and look to correct movement before it becomes problematic.
There are a number of ways to become an expert in a subject matter just as there are a variety of ways to get continuing education in physical therapy. Continuing education is a general requirement to maintain a physical therapy license. One could be certified in something after an online or weekend course. Some of these certifications are excellent and anytime a therapist is pursuing continuing education, that is a positive thing!
More intensely though, specialization may come from a residency or fellowship. This is significantly more time intensive and rigorous than a weekend course. For example, the residency program that I completed took 15-months. We treated a near full-time caseload of patients each week in addition to time with an athletic team, learned through hands-on additional educational instruction and spent time case conferencing with our mentors.
If you are seeing a physical therapist who is Board Certified, you know that they are not claiming to be an expert after one online course or even after treating a handful of patients who are athletes. They have proven competency in a variety of ways - both in the number of hours treating athletes and also by passing a specialty examination.
There are currently 3,210 Board Certified Sports Clinical Specialists practicing in the United States (Become a Board-Certified Sports Specialist in Physical Therapy). This equates to roughly 1% of all physical therapists. If you are looking for someone who has dedicated time to become an expert, check out the APTA’s page to find a certified provider here. Or, reach out to Move Well Physical Therapy for an appointment with our Board Certified Sports Clinical Specialist.
References
About Specialist Certification. (n.d.). APTA Specialist Certification - Governed by ABPTS. Retrieved March 5, 2024, from https://specialization.apta.org/about-specialist-certification
Become a Board-Certified Sports Specialist in Physical Therapy. (n.d.). APTA Specialist Certification - Governed by ABPTS. Retrieved March 5, 2024, from https://specialization.apta.org/become-a-specialist/sports
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