Healthy Wealthy & Smart 268: Alister Cran, PT: Treating the Extreme Sport Athlete
On this episode of the Healthy Wealthy and Smart Podcast, physiotherapist Alister Cran joins me to share his insights on treating the extreme sport competitor. Alister is a private practice physiotherapy owner in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia. He assists with the Nitro Circus Live Tour of New Zealand and pursues his passion for sports physiotherapy treating a variety of high level athletes.
In this episode, we discuss:
-How to leverage opportunities early in your career to gain access to high level athletes
-Tailoring your social media presence to your ideal patient population
-Do you need to be a high level athlete to treat one?
-Managing expectations for return to sport following injury for high level performers
-And so much more!
To break into treating high level athletes and performers, oftentimes you have to sacrifice financial benefits for once in a lifetime opportunities. To break into niche industries, Alister recommends taking advantage of any exposure to your patient population and, “doing it for the experience,” after which good things will likely follow.
To reach the high level athlete, pursuing doctor referrals is wasted time as Alister finds younger athletes are likely to spend more of their time on social media. To make the most of your online presence and build brand awareness, Alister believes, “You’ve got to post consistently.”
Outlining the costs and benefits of an early return to sport and managing expectations can be challenging for extreme sport competitors. Alister advices, “Unless they are in the hospital, they are probably going to go back up that ramp.” Convincing show coordinators who view athletes as commodities can be even more challenging because, “There’s politics in physio and action sports.”
For more information on Alister:
Graduated Griffith University on the Gold Coast in 2012. Got a job with a Sydney based Physiotherapy practice ‘Bodyworks Physiotherapy’. Through bodyworks physiotherapy I began to treat extreme sports clients. I provided the physiotherapy for the Nitro Circus Live tours of both Australia and New Zealand. In addition to this, while still based in Sydney, provided the physiotherapy for the red bull ‘cape fear’ event. After a few years, came back to the Gold Coast and started working in a nursing home during the day and opened a room inside Funk Fitness gym at the beginning of 2016 outside of the 9-5 working hours of the nursing home. After about 4 months, I had saved up enough money and built up enough of a client base to not have to rely on the income of the nursing home anymore and have now worked full time out of a few rooms in the Isle of Capri shopping centre, Capri on Via Roma.
After coming back to the gold coast and opening Physio on Capri practice, I have maintained a relationship with bodywork physiotherapy and have been fortunate enough to be offered the Nitro Circus Live Brisbane show and the exhibition Ice Hockey match (Canada vs. USA). In addition to this, I was also offered the American and European leg of the Nitro Circus Live tour.
Resources discussed on this show:
Email: alister@physiooncapri.com
Get in contact with Alister to take advantage of his offer for a free initial consultation over Skype!
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Have a great week and stay Healthy Wealthy and Smart!
Xo Karen
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