Episode 03: Why Doctors Need to Work as a Team with Dr. Ken Clark
Mike sits down with Dr. Ken Clark, Associate Professor of kinesiology at West Chester University with a focus on biomechanics, motor learning and doing research on running mechanics. He has been a consultant for USA Track and Field, Altus, and Parisi Speed School.
Dr. Ken Clark’s Background
2:30 - Ken was raised in Connecticut and played football, baseball and hockey growing up and played small college football. His dad was a biomedical researcher and high school football coach which allowed Ken to develop a passion for biomechanics.
3:30 - Ken is passionate about applying research and scientific principles to enhance sports performance.
4:00 - In 2008, Ken went back for his Masters after he got an undergraduate degree in psychology. He got his masters in Kinesiology at West Chester University. Went down to Dallas to get his PhD in Sprint Biomechanics with Dr. Peter Weyand and Dr. Larry Ryan at the Locomotive Lab at Southern Methodist University (SMU).
4:41 - Ken came back to the Philadelphia area to become an associate professor at West Chester University and got involved in multiple teams for their strength and conditioning and sprinting.
Ken’s Passion for Biomechanics
5:10 - The most enjoyable part of Ken’s job is teaching motor learning and biomechanics in the classroom then transferring that science to the track.
6:30 - It’s important for an athlete to understand the mechanics of what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and why you’re doing it.
Ken’s Tips for Coaches
7:00 - Coaches have to engage their athlete and understand how they learn best. Sometimes they love the technical cues and sometimes they just want to be told what to do. You have to give them enough information to make the correction.
9:00 - Ken has found a lot of success in coaching about the context of drills - why we’re doing them - instead of going in depth with the technical side. So when you’re cueing them in the act, athletes understand your reference.
9:30 - A background in psychology is very important for coaching.
USA Track and Field Experience
10:30 - Dr. Peter Weyand had a connection with USA Track and Field and they were looking for a new biomechanist and apprentice for Dr. Ralph Mann. Since 2016, Ken was able to travel with the Elite Performance Program (Olympic level sprinters and hurdlers) to do on-track analysis.
11:30 - Ken travels to the most elite sprint and hurdle groups around the country, utilizes video cameras and computer systems to develop an athlete’s biomechanical model to help them translate coaching cues.
12:20 - There’s a saying that if you want to be an olympian, you better choose your parents wisely.
14:46 - In addition to technical cues, Ken also implements a dynamic systems approach and a constraints-based approach where you work on mini hurdles for stride length or top speed mechanics. It could also be as simple as holding your hand over the athlete’s foot to make sure it recovers appropriately.
Variation in Athletes’ Cue Correction
15:30 - For some, even elite, athletes, making a small change is very challenging. But for others, they can make huge strides in a short amount of time just from technical or physical cues. Mike had an athlete from the Canadian Football League do lateral lunges into a march position. Originally, he was losing his balance a lot. Mike gave him the cue to utilize his glutes to stabilize at the top march. He did it again and nailed it - that quickly - just from a couple verbal cues.
A Case Study: Doctor Collaboration
16:30 - Patient B is a collegiate football player with history of some injuries. Dr. Clark had been working with him and reached out to Mike to take a look at his injuries.
17:30 - Through work with Mike and Dr. Clark, Patient B was able to heal his overuse injury without actually stopping training. It’s best to train around an injury, not stop training.
18:30 - Dr. Clark is passionate about the collaboration between a patients’ doctors and coaches. Physical therapist, occupational therapists, strength and conditioning coaches should all be in consistent communication.
18:45 - There are a lot of silos being taught in higher education programs - there are re-physical therapy programs, pre-occupational therapy programs, pre-exercise specialist programs. It sometimes gives the students little information about how the fields overlap and if they overlap.
19:20 - The best strength and conditioning coaches know what they don’t know and are happy to refer. Same with physical therapists.
20:40 - The number 1 complaint for PTs coming out of school is that they weren’t taught enough programming and therapeutic exercise. PTs need strength and conditioning coaches for programming and equipment. That’s why Mike hired a strength and conditioning coach for his PT clinic - PTW Newtown Square.
25:00 - Trust is huge. An athlete needs trust in a PT or coach that they’ll do what is necessary for their recovery or performance.
25:40 - There’s a trend in football of toughness - athletes don’t typically let you know when they’re hurt. This is a great trait on the field but when you’re in a performance training environment, if you start to feel a tweak, Dr. Clark wants the athlete to trust him and tell him about it without the athlete thinking he’ll be judged as weak.
Barriers into the Field of Physical Therapy and Coaching
27:30 - Exercise therapy is very competitive. The best thing to do is to try to get experience although it’s tough to find opportunities because the physical therapy and exercise science field is so competitive. Dr. Clark recommends students getting involved in the West Chester Adapted Physical Education Program run by Monica Lepore. This way, they’ll get experience working with people, even if it’s not hands on.
30:00 - You have to search for opportunities and be aggressive to seek out the experiences you need.
31:00 - Dr. Clark reveals how the different exercise and biomechanic programs are structured at West Chester University.
32:00 - Dr. Mike Quintans at PTW Newtown Square has a great example of how PTs and CSCSs can work under the same roof, working on the same clients.
Case Study’s Success
32:40 - The evaluation that Dr. Mike Quintans did at the time of the overuse injury was eye opening for Dr. Ken Clark because there was this whole other side of things that the medical and performance teams needed to look at to treat Client B properly.
34:00 - The initial Functional Movement Screening (FMS) allowed the team to see what issues were underlying and gave them direction for recovery. Dr. Ken Clark adapted his stretching and exercise depending on what Client B was doing in physical therapy.
34:30 - Technical models are important but there’s got to be individual variability. If an athlete has an individual restraint, they won’t be able to fit the technical model. They can either change the coaching or go to a PT to fix the issue.
36:20 - Ignoring logistics and in an ideal world, every athlete should get a movement screen. Cory Walts, Director of Strength and Conditioning at University of Pennsylvania, would screen every sports athlete at the beginning of the year when he worked at Haverford College. He’d work with the Strength and Conditioning staff. You want your sports medicine and strength and conditioning teams doing the screenings at the same times.
40:00 - Professionals need to shift their mindset and be confident in referring a patient to other doctors that are more experienced in the methods needed for the patient to recover.
What We Can Be Doing Better in the Fitness and Medical Field
42:20 - Offer more experience opportunities and resources for young minds.
42:40 - The veterans should get out of your comfort zone. Look at something from a different perspective and dive into subjects that’s not necessarily in your wheelhouse. Even if it’s not comfortable, dive into the literature and learn (and refer!). Get comfortable feeling uncomfortable.
CONTACT
@kenclarkspeed on Twitter and Instagram
www.kenclarkspeed.com