University of Southern California Sports Residency Reflection

With the completion of the USC residency graduation and reception this past Thursday night, my time in USC's Sports Residency has come to a close.  Now that residency has ended I can confidently say that it was the best decision I could have made.  Residency has not only had an impact on me professionally, but personally as well.  The person and clinician you become when you complete such a demanding year is truly life changing.  My skills as a clinician both from a clinical reasoning and manual therapy viewpoint are very much improved.  I think the biggest thing that I have taken away is my way of reasoning.  Even now, as I have started my new job, my mentors comments are still running through my mind with each of my patients.  I critically assess my patients and my fellow co-workers patients and their treatments.  I ask myself why they did this and run off 10-15 reasons why a patient might move this way or that.  When my athletes come to me for an evaluation I am thinking weeks and months down the road to where I think they should be and what ideally should happen. I can recognize certain patterns much better and more importantly have a huge toolbox worth of treatments to correct impairments.  

Published below in a slideshow are some of the highlights of my sports residency.  I post them for you all to see to understand some of the things USC's sports residency has to offer.  USC's approach is very biomechanical in nature while also teaching the other schools of thought with no allegiance to one approach. This is what was so attractive about the residency experience.  Furthermore, the incredible network of physical therapists and educators has been absolutely astonishing.  I feel very fortunate to be part of this network and to have spoken with so many great clinicians.  For those of you who are leaning towards pursuing a residency in sports physical therapy, I encourage you to make the sacrifice and further your career.  I hope you consider USC's residency but more importantly, keep an open mind to all of them so that you can find the best fit for you.  For me, I will now begin my next job at a private practice specializing in 1on1 treatment for collegiate/professional athletes and clientele from Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Santa Monica, and Brentwood.  

-Brian

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