Getting Involved In High School Athletics:
How To Promote Your Chiropractic Services

If your interest in sports chiropractic leads you to want to help high school athletes perform at their best, you can find opportunities to get involved, but it takes proficient skills, the ability to communicate what you do and persistence.

For Dr. Tripp Arnold, it was a mission that took five years to accomplish and eventually opened doors for other D.C.s.

In 1991, Arnold, who manages a practice in Mableton, Ga., began contacting Cobb County high schools to present his plan to provide chiropractic services on a voluntary basis.

"I wasn’t particular on what sport I wanted to help out," said the 1990 Life University graduate. "I thought it would be a good way to get involved in the community. It would help me build my practice through new associations with teachers, principals, student-athletes and parents.

"I started calling local high schools, but I ran into roadblocks. It was always the same story. They felt like if they had a medical doctor and a trainer, they couldn’t see any reason to have a chiropractor, no matter how much I would try to explain to them that I wouldn’t be duplicating something that they already had.

"But I remember one of the things (Life University Founder and President) Dr. Sid Williams always taught was persistence – to just keep going, to keep trying, to keep asking. Every year, I’d reach a point where I’d say to myself, ‘Well, it’s time to call the coaches again.’ After three or four years of getting the door slammed in my face, it was kind of disheartening. But you have to be persistent."

Finally, in 1996, his persistence paid off.

At South Cobb High School, Arnold had competed in basketball, football, soccer, track and cross country, so he called his alma mater to discuss his proposal with the new head football coach.

Coach Scott Jones, who had previously worked with chiropractor Dr. Jim Gunderman at North Cobb High, was readily receptive to Arnold’s offer to provide care, beginning with the 1996 football season, and gained approval from the school principal.

Upon beginning his work, Arnold took the opportunity to explain chiropractic to the athletes.

"I addressed the team and told them what I was going to do, as well as what I wasn’t going to do," he said. "I wasn’t going to be taping ankles and diagnosing injuries and setting broken bones. They already had a team physician and trainers. I told them what my specialty was, and that’s what I would be doing, if they wanted it."

Afterward, Arnold worked out a protocol with the head coach.

"If you’re going to take care of a minor child, which most high school kids are, you’re going to need parental consent," said Arnold. "So I formulated a consent form that the kids would take home for their parents to sign."

He received consent forms from 95 percent of the athletes’ parents, who were thrilled to have more comprehensive care available.

"Many parents came to me during the season and said, "I’m so glad you’re doing this. I wish we’d had this when I was playing high school athletics," Arnold noted.

Arnold provided sign-up sheets in the locker room for the athletes to use to get their adjustments and spinal exams, and he made visits to the school on Mondays, before practices, and on Fridays, before games.

"I would check their spines and do some brief analyses on the adjustment table in the locker room and give chiropractic adjustments to make sure that their spine was clear of any type of vertebral subluxation," Arnold explained. "This allowed them to function at their best, to help them succeed at what they wanted to do, which is to win. I worked hand in hand with the trainers and with the orthopedic physician."

Jones, now the head football coach and athletic director at Kennesaw Mountain High School, is in his 16th year of coaching, and he strongly supported Dr. Arnold’s efforts.

"I think that adjusting players in the specialized positions, before games and after a contest, is pretty important," he said. "Our kids seem to be a lot looser. We’ve got our quarterbacks, running backs and a lot of our specialized positions adjusted before a game and on Mondays, after a game.

"A lot of athletic performance is psychological," he explained. "I know for a fact that the athletes perform better. When they get adjusted, they say they feel better and that they feel looser."

The arrangement worked smoothly until November 1997, when the Cobb County School District issued a memorandum to athletic administrators to deny permission, "due to several liability issues," for chiropractors to provide care. A state law provided immunity to public schools for liability for damages for injuries resulting from voluntary care provided by physicians and others licensed by the Georgia Board of Medical Examiners, but it excluded chiropractors.

After consulting with Dr. Williams and other chiropractors, Arnold, along with a parent of one of his athlete-patients, and Georgia Council of Chiropractic President Dr. Steven Nudelman, addressed the Cobb County School Board to present their case for chiropractic care. With the support of state Rep. (now Gov.) Roy Barnes, a bill to amend the code and include chiropractors was signed and became effective July 1, 1998.

This paved the way for more chiropractors to get involved in Cobb County High School athletics. Tripp Arnold’s brother, Dr. Mitchell Arnold, a 1999 Life University graduate, now provides care for Kennesaw Mountain High School football players.

Dr. Tim Langley, a Cobb County native and 1999 Life University graduate, began his involvement by contacting three local schools in his vicinity.

"I sent letters to all the head coaches, and followed up with another letter, and then another letter, and then I started making phone calls," he said, "I met with two of the coaches, including the Osborne High School coach, who had been seeing a chiropractor for 10 years and even told me that both of his parents had been saved from surgery as a result of seeing a chiropractor."

An Osborne alumnus, Langley now delivers adjustments at his alma mater to members of the football team and the boys and girls basketball teams, with plans to provide care for soccer, wrestling and baseball competitors, as well.

He started out by outlining his objectives in care.

"I talked with athletes and their parents, and I explained to them what I did as a chiropractor and answered any of their questions. I gave what we essentially call a lay lecture or health talk," he recalled. "I told them what chiropractic was, that my intent as a chiropractor is to remove nerve interference that may occur anywhere in the spine, and that my focus is to increase their potential and prevent injuries and not to treat any condition or injury. I have the parents sign a consent form and what I call a Terms of Acceptance form, which explains what a vertebral subluxation is, what health is, and what a chiropractic adjustment is, so that there’s no misunderstanding."

For chiropractors who would like to offer their services to local high schools, Jones recommends forthrightness and good preparation in making presentations.

"Look around and investigate which programs don’t have a team chiropractor, and then find out the interest level," he emphasized. "Obviously, if a program doesn’t have chiropractic care, they’re going to be a little apprehensive to get involved with something like that, unless you have the testimony of a program that does have it."

That calls for effective communication about what chiropractors do.

"Everybody has been to a medical doctor, but not everybody has been to a chiropractor," he pointed out. "Chiropractors need to provide some type of material to the athletes and their parents to explain exactly what kind of care is being provided and to give them the facts about chiropractic. If you can provide that so they can understand how it works, then a lot of them are more apt to get involved with it. And once they get involved with it, they love it."