Savannah Sunshine

Ms. Gardner

Honors English/Period 4

27 March 2018

I-Search Reflection: Sports Physical Therapy

I chose to further my understanding of the occupation, physical therapy, because I have

taken great interest in this profession and want major in it in college as well as pursue it as my

career. There are different types of physical therapy that one could choose to work as, but my

interests are leading me towards sports physical therapy. Something that I enjoy is caring for

others, so physical therapy would allow me to continue to do so. I have been very involved with

sports throughout my whole life, therefore, I feel excited to have the opportunity to combine

helping others and athletics.

Though I had prior knowledge about the job of physical therapy, there were also some

aspects that surprised me. The term physical therapist is very general and there are a large variety

of specific physical therapists within this field, for example, neurological, paediatric, all the way

to orthopedic. This is one of the reasons I am fascinated by physical therapy because once a

person is aware of all the different choices that are available, they could truly go wherever they

desire. A factor about this occupation that was disappointing was the annual salary. An average

salary of a general physical therapist is eighty-four thousand dollars per year which is much less

than I expected since it is required to have at least three years of additional school after the four

years of college. However, the amount of money an employee can be paid depends on how

skilled the worker is and what level of difficulty they work at. For example, someone who is a
physical therapist for a professional sports team earns a much larger sum than someone who

works in a small clinic.

The people I contacted were all directors of physical therapy programs at their college.

Some of the colleges they work at are San Diego State University, University of Southern

California, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and University of South Carolina. In fact,

during the process of this project, I toured SDSU and USC, and learned more about their

physical therapy programs. A benefit of San Diego State University, it that it is required to travel

abroad and practice physical therapy in a different country. In the administrators’ responses, they

mentioned the multiple degrees they have, the benefits of their job as well as the difficulties,

details about their program, how they acquired the job of a physical therapist, and the specific

type of therapist they are. A piece of information that stood out to me was that most of them did

not just have one degree, but spent extra years attending a specialty school for sports

physiotherapy, kinesiology, sports medicine, and even strength training so that they could

become more advanced in their profession.

The input I received from physical therapist professionals made me more intrigued in this

occupation and helped me realize how much opportunity and variety there is. Although being a

sports physical therapist is what I would like to pursue, I also took interest in sports

physiotherapy where I could be working with teams on a field or court rather than in an office.

Completing this project not only revealed the possibilities of this job, but has made me feel eager

and excited when thinking about my future. I am thankful that I have the chance to take the class

sports medicine during the next school year because it will give me insight and hands-on

experience of what being a sports physical therapist would be like.