Tag: Performance

Download Episode File

Biography (In Nicole’s Words)

I grew up in a small town on the Jersey Shore, and have been around football (soccer) for as long as I can remember. Everything I did in my childhood and adolescence was aimed at becoming a Division-1 college soccer player. In my junior year of high school, I achieved my lifelong dream and verbally committed to play soccer at St. John’s University in Queens, NY. In November of my senior year of high school I fractured my tibia and fibula. I underwent Open Reduction Internal Fixation with an intramedullary nail in my tibia and three screws going from my tibia to my fibula, two distally at the medial malleolus and one proximally near the pes anserine, and then started physical therapy. 

If you haven’t already figured out how this story ends, my physical therapist not only helped me recover from my injury, she also gave me my dream back. She helped me reclaim my self-identity and led me on my eventual career path of becoming a physical therapist myself. I knew I would never be able to adequately repay her for all she had done for me, and I also knew that I wanted to dedicate my life to helping other soccer players achieve their dreams, especially when they might be feeling as hopeless as I had. 

I ended up having an amazing experience at St. John’s, and then went on to Emory University in Atlanta, GA for physical therapy school where I met my husband, Marc. I currently see patients and clients for both physical therapy and performance training in person and remotely online in my cash based concierge style practice. When not working with clients or creating content, Marc and I try to spend as much time as possible outdoors in nature with our two dogs, Rosie and Kai.

Topics Covered:

1. Nicole’s physical therapy practice that blends sports rehabilitation with on field preparation and technical/tactical coaching
2. The open chain/closed chain debate in ACL rehabilitation
3. Why open chain exercises aren’t “dangerous”
4. How open chain exercises stack up against “acceptable” closed chain activities and activities of daily living in the research
5. Unique benefits of open chain exercises and what rehabilitation providers who avoid them are missing
6. What does “functional” and “specific” mean in the context of ACL rehabilitation
7. How Nicole progresses open chain exercises to maximize safety and effectiveness
8. Nicole’s “Ethical Return To Sport Decision Making” course
9. The ethics of risk aversion and harm in return to sport rehabilitation
10. Key stakeholders in the return to sport process
11. Ethics Case Studies: concussion in a high school athlete, is physical therapy “essential” during a pandemic, how many visits “should” insurance companies cover, what to do when physical and psychological readiness are at odds

Links of Interest:

• Nicole’s Website
• Nicole’s Courses
• Nicole’s Case For Open Chain Work in ACL Rehab
• Nicole’s Twitter
• Nicole’s Instagram
• Nicole’s Linkedin

Like this episode? You’ll love our free training program (sign up below) & our Movement Foundations Online Course.

Continue reading E51 | Nicole Surdyka: ACL Rehab & Ethical Return to Sport Decision Making