Transcription of Stanley Skolfield for the show Sports Medicine, #92
Dr. Lisa: I really love the fact that here in Maine we have high quality or high caliber people trying to make sure that we keep our athletes in shape and also keep the people of Maine in shape, so that we are able to go out and enjoy healthy active lives. Two such individuals who are participating in this are Jared Buzzell who is the physical therapy manager at the OA Performance Center, and Stan Skolfield who is the manager of the Parisi Speed School also in the OA Performance Center.
I know you’re going to tell me a little bit about what the OA Performance Center and the OA Sports Center really are all about. Thanks for coming in and talking to me today. Let’s start with you, Stan. Tell me what is it that you do and what is the OA Performance Center?
Stan: The OA Performance Center was actually created as a way for OA Centers for Orthopedics to really round out their sports medicine continuum. OA Centers for Orthopedics, as you may or may not know, we are a one-stop shop when it comes to orthopedics and sports medicine. We have the ability to … If you need orthopedic care we have physicians for that, if you need surgery we have that, we have casting, bracing and MRI. We have sports physical therapy, but one of the things that we were lacking was a way to prevent those injuries from happening as well as a way to really help athletes reach the next level. A few years back we decided, “Hey, let’s open up this sports center to really address some of the injury prevention needs, some of the youth obesity problem going on in a way that really bring athletes to a higher level.” I actually run the performance part of that center.
Dr. Lisa: Jared, what do you do over at the OA Sports Center?
Jared: I am the manager of physical therapy center within the sports complex. We see a wide gamut of patients, from the very young, five, six, seven-year-old athletes just getting into sports, all the way through adults. It’s not just your typical what you think of an athlete as. Yes we’re seeing high caliber college professional athletes, but we’re also seeing the everyday walker that just wants to get out there, wants to pick their grandchild up and may have a sore shoulder and can’t do that. We have a broad gamut of clientele that we see, and so I manage the staff there. We have six therapists within that building. I also have a pretty … stay pretty involved in treating as well, within the building.
Dr. Lisa: You both come at athletic performance from a slightly different angle. Stan, you have a background as an athletic trainer. Jared, you have a background in physical therapy. What are the differences between those two fields and what are the similarities?
Jared: Physical therapy and athlete trainers work very closely together in the profession. In the state of Maine, physical therapists typically are the ones that will in a clinic-type setting do the evaluation and set the treatment plan. Whereas athletic trainers, they can be very well versed in evaluative techniques, they can carry out those treatment plans, and a lot of times the athletic trainers are more kind of the first responders with injury. They may be on the field during initial injury and whatnot.
Stan: The best way I describe it is usually an athletic trainer like myself, I deal with everything from emergency on-field management of an injury, to the prevention of injury, to assessments where I’m going to help them, weave them through the medical system, who do you need to see for a physician if you need to see one, help coordinate their rehabilitation, all the way to preventing the injury, maybe some nutrition, all the way up to the performance aspect.
The physical therapists, they’re more specialized. When somebody needs some specialized rehabilitation, that’s where they’re the experts. I’m a little bit more of a broad spectrum, but these guys really dive down into, “Hey, here’s what they need to do to get back from their injury.”
Dr. Lisa: Stan, you’ve worked not only with the University of Southern Maine but also with the Boston Red Sox organization. Now you’ve come back to something which I think is more of the common person. What sort of prompted that decision to go back to really be more, I don’t know, in the weeds with this?
Stan: Like you said, I’ve worked at a number of different levels. I’ve worked from the professional athlete, all the way to collegiate, all the way to the high school setting. One of the things I’ve realized over the years being the athletic trainer is obviously getting into what I really enjoy helping people. While the professional athlete, everybody sees that, hey that’s the really sexy thing to do, but the most rewarding thing is actually just working with your everyday common athlete.
Some conversations I’ve had with different athletes, I think one of the biggest gifts that you can give somebody is to help their child either overcome an injury or actually take them from somebody who’s not really not that great of an athlete to all of a sudden that kid is going from riding the bench to now they’re making varsity. Just the feeling and the reward you get from seeing them accomplish that, that’s what makes me happy. That’s why I think I’ve really gone into the field and in this performance center.
Dr. Lisa: What would you offer to parents as far as perspective when it comes to this, “Let’s start the kids early, let’s get them in on there…” This Malcolm Gladwell’s idea of having to have 10,000 hours to be amazing by the time you’re 20. What can you offer as perspective?
Stan: That book is kind of a double-edged sword I like to say, because while that book says one thing, a lot of the evidence if you really read into the research actually contradicts that. One of the things that I say to parents is that for every Tiger Wood you see out there there’s 100 kids that didn’t make that, that are really upset with their parents that they actually pushed them and drove them and made them do all those golf lessons or really pushed them to stay with one sport. They’re totally burned out by the time they’re 16, 17 years old and they want nothing to do with it.
Be very careful with that. Make sure you allow these kids, expose them to different sports. We know just from the research that some of the best athletes… and if you remember when you were growing up, some of the best athletes in your school, they weren’t just great at one sport. They were great at two or three sports.
Let’s not forget Tom Brady. Tom Brady is a great football player, but he was at Michigan State for a baseball scholarship too. Michael Jordan, not just a great basketball player, good golfer and played a little baseball. Remember when it comes to being a great athlete, just don’t specialize in a singular sport too early because you’ll burn those kids out.
Dr. Lisa: It’s interesting to me that we have the OA Performance Center and the Sports Center here in Saco, Maine. We’re really interested in helping people perform at the highest level possible, whether that’s as an athlete or whether just as an individual. Why is it so important to have this here in Maine?
Jared: I think location, where we … when we looked around and saw where there was a need for this, the location really worked in regards to OA’s mission. Our home office is here in Portland on Sewall Street. We have physical therapy, we have physician services, we have a surgery center, MRI, X-ray, all that. Then we tried to really reach out. Saco was our first satellite clinic basically. As Stan mentioned earlier, this is where we really wanted to encompass that performance aspect that we were missing.
Having it there lets us reach out to the athletes in the Southern Maine area, still get athletes from the greater Portland area. We have athletes that come up from New Hampshire to train at the center. We’ve seen some folks travel from New Hampshire, Massachusetts to have physical therapy with us. It lets us reach out to those athletes or that population.
We’ve also since opened sites in Windham and in Brunswick. We don’t have that performance model at those sites, but same thing. Our goal was reach to the south, reach to the west, reach to the north so that it would make it easier access for folks that get injured and need help.
Dr. Lisa: I appreciate all that you’re doing, as the mother of three children who do three seasons worth of sports and one who is in college now and has made it through in a healthy way. Also as a runner myself I know how important it is that this prevention aspect and the high performance aspect is being brought to the state of Maine.
We’ve been speaking with Jared Buzzell who is the Physical Therapy Manager at the OA Performance Center and Stan Skolfield who is the manager of the Parisi Speed School at the OA Performance Center. Thank you so much for all the work you’re doing and for coming in and talking to us today.
Stan: Thanks for having us.
Jared: Thank you.