TEAM spirit

Your moves may not be as smooth as those of the guy on the cover of this issue, and you may get nowhere near a P9 million/three-year contract when you debut in the league–any league. But whether you’re a pro ball player or a week-end warrior dribbling on an open-air neighborhood court, the risks of injury and their consequences are the same.

And you can get treated the same way too–by the same trainers and therapists who keep the muscles and tendons of those million-peso ball handlers in good playing form. Summit T.E.A.M. (for Therapy, Exercise and Athletic Medicine) Specialists is the baby of three of the PBA’s (Philippine Basketball Association) top trainers–Roy Lazaro of Purefoods, Dondi Narciso of San Miguel and Eski Feria of Talk N Text. (Dondi and Eski are currently on loan to the Philippine national teams.) At every game and practice, the three are at courtside, ready to rush in when one of their superstars takes a tumble.

College barkadas at the Institute of Physical Therapy of the University of Sto. Tomas (Class ’93), they opened Summit TEAM at the Green Valley Country Club in Pasig in July of last year, pooling their collective training and experience into a bright and cheery six-days-a-week sports and orthopedic rehabilitation center. Roy and Eski trained and worked as physical therapists in hospitals in the Chicago area, while Dondi has done extensive observation work at the Kerlan-Jobe Healthsouth clinic in California with Clive Brewster, trainer of the Los Angeles Lakers. It was after a trip to L.A. that Dondi literally dreamed of a rehab center in the Philippines, equipped and staffed like the one in the US. Their individual dreams came together at an auspicious get-together at Whistlestop in 2000 and, a year and many beers later, Summit TEAM Specialists opened its doors.

The atmosphere at the center is casual, even playful; you hear "Hoy, pare" called out every so often, and there’s a lot of bantering as therapists guide patients through the paces of their rehab routines.

If you’re a PBA groupie, this is a good place to rub elbows–as well as shoulders, shins and kneecaps–with your favorite players. On the clinic’s "wall of fame"–actually a wooden cabinet constructed to conceal the electrical panels–is a collection of autographs of famous, almost famous and wanna-be-famous clients (if you can decipher the scribbles), a veritable who’s who of the Philippine hardcourt. Most common injuries for basketball players–of whatever caliber–are those involving the knees, ankles and, surprisingly, feet. "Players today are more aggressive," says Eski Feria, who topped the Philippine licensure exams for physical therapists in 1993. "They experiment more with different moves." He cautions too that not all of the new "advanced technology" in athletic shoes are necessarily good for the feet. "We’re seeing a lot more foot injuries too," he adds.

There are athletes from other sports too–golfers (a lot of wrist, elbow, shoulder and back problems), tennis players, motocross riders and some other names famous not necessarily in sports (there’s Robinsons and Cebu Pacific’s Lance Gokongwei and PLDT’s Manny Pangilinan, for example).

"More than half of our clients are non-basketball players," reveals Roy Lazaro, head therapist at the Philippine Center for Sports Medicine from 1993 to 1995 who also holds a U.S. license for physical therapy. "We treat a lot of people with lower back pain, like office workers who sit in front of the computer all day."

"Or a housewife who picks up her baby or a heavy load the wrong way," adds Dondi Narciso, who used to be chief therapist of the Philippine Orthopedic Institute. "We don’t realize it but sometimes the most common actions can result in injury."

Sometimes even inaction can cause problems. During our visit, one patient was completing treatment for severe back pain, the result of poor posture, weak trunk muscles and aggravated by sitting at the wheel of a car for a long time. After just four sessions of treatment that included ultrasound, traction and mobilization or manual therapy (when the therapist presses down on the affected joints to loosen them and normalize movement) plus strengthening and flexibility exercises, the patient was walking and functioning without pain or stiffness, practically good as new.

"We gave him some simple exercises to do at home, for strengthening and flexibility so that the problem doesn’t come back," explains Roy. "Patient education is very important. We don’t want patients to keep coming back with the same problems. We want them to be aware of certain things about their condition and things they can do to prevent or at least minimize the recurrence of the problem."

Among the therapies used at the TEAM center are ultrasound, electrical stimulation, traction, hydrotherapy (like jacuzzi) and balls of different sizes and weights to promote balance, agility and flexibility. The center emphasizes functional training, getting patients back to normal activities as quickly as possible, so there are a lot of exercises like simple walking, climbing stairs, balance routines and coordination drills (the latter involves throwing and catching balls, which under certain conditions is not as easy as it sounds). "We don’t want to simply prescribe passive rehab like ultrasound or traction," says Roy. "A combination of active and passive routines produces the best results."

While they do not do medical diagnosis, years of training and experience equip them to perform basic PT evaluation. The therapists work closely with a team of the country’s leading orthopedic surgeons and sports medicine practitioners like Dr. Antonio Rivera (founding member of both the Philippine Society for Sports Medicine and the Asian Federation for Sports Medicine), Dr. Jose Raul Canlas (who headed the medical teams of our national delegations to the SEA, Asian and Olympic Games), Dr. Orson Odulio (team physician of various pro basketball teams) and Dr. Anna Liza Virtucio (a specialist in treating neurologic and musculoskeletal dysfunctions).

"We also do a lot of post-operative rehab," explains Dondi. The most common is ACL (anterior cruciate ligament, located inside the knee) replacement surgery. With immediate and intensive therapy, ACL patients can be walking around as quickly as two weeks after surgery.

Coordination among patient, doctor and therapist is crucial for the patient’s full recovery. Eski shares the case of one patient who did not bother starting therapy until about four months after shoulder surgery. "By that time a lot of adhesions had already formed in the shoulder and there was only so much we could do to help him," Eski explains.

The type and duration of treatment is different for each patient, depending, of course, on the type and extent of injury and the patient’s particular disposition and characteristics. "One patient may have a very low tolerance for pain, so we have to go slow with the therapy, while another may be able to stand more aggressive mobilization," says Eski. All three of them agree that the patient’s cooperation–whether he follows instructions for home exercises, for example–is a big factor.

For now, Summit TEAM does not do therapy for neurological cases like stroke victims or cardiac patients. "Our training and specialization is really sports medicine and injuries that result from an active lifestyle," says Dondi. "In the future we intend to work with such patients, but it will be a separate facility."

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Summit TEAM Specialists is located at the basement of the Green Valley Country Club in Pasig City, tel. 671-8937.