Hi there. It's time for another episode of the FAKTR podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Riddle. Welcome, and thanks for listening. Today, we wrap up our final installment of the 3 part master series with doctor Tim Stark. Today's discussion centers around the future of sports chiropractic and its evolution in recent years, including the prevalence of sports chiropractors in both professional sports and on National Olympic teams. Doctor Stark and our very own doctor Riddle will also chat about the critical importance of immersive hands on learning and the extensive experience both have had with volunteering to serve athletes. There is such a huge need for health care providers to be actively involved at all levels of sports and athletics, and the docs will chat about that as well.

Whether you're just starting out or have been in practice for decades, this discussion offers an incredible amount of valuable insight. Let's dive in.

So I think it's kind of foundational. We gotta turn this back around a little bit and talk about how students and practitioners kinda get there. Obviously, you are very or have been in various facets, very deeply involved with chiropractic sports chiropractic training with 2 different organizations, our American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians or Practitioners, and also FICS. I would love for you to give a brief kind of synopsis about how maybe they're different because at the end of it, you're coming out with a certification or more as a sports chiropractor. But what's the difference between the 2?

Yeah. So the ACBSP, the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians, are practitioners. They have the CCSP and the Diplomate. CCSP is a 1 year credential, roughly 1 year, and the diplomat's roughly a 3 year credential. And it's primarily based upon a 100 hours of training for the CCSP and roughly 300 hours of training for the diplomat. I earned my diplomat through my residency. So, of course, I was doing a full time residency, 40 plus hours a week. It was pretty easy to add up to 300 hours.

But after 2 years of it, I was able to appeal to the ACBSP to sit for my diplomat even though I didn't actually go through the diplomat program every weekend one one weekend a month for 3 years. I was able to appeal to them that I got my 300 hours in, And so that worked out pretty well. The ICSC, the internationally certified sports chiropractor, which is through FICS, the International Sports Chiropractic Federation, is also fairly even with the CCSP, the 1 year credential or the 1 year certificate. Again, it's roughly about a 100 hours. Both the CCSP, the 1 year, and the ICSC require some hands on training. Both of them are doing online training as well. In today's day and age, that's fine. Back 25 years ago, we weren't doing anything online.

It was all face to face. The doctors had to travel 1 weekend a month somewhere, which ended up becoming very expensive for some, to attend a class that is now oftentimes being taught remotely online. But but both of them still require a hands on component. And clearly, in the sports chiropractic world, it's pretty darn hard to teach taping online. It's pretty hard to teach soft tissue and joint manipulation online. I do have 2 ebooks about joint manipulation of the extremities. And that's probably the best effort that I've made to try to teach remotely, extremity joint manipulation. So it's not that it can't be done, but I think to do it the best way is to have that practitioner, the instructor, a sensei, to be right there by on the table correcting any problems or any inadequacies that you are practicing.

Practice makes perfect, but perfect practice makes perfect. And if you're practicing imperfectly, you're gonna be perfectly imperfect.

Love it. That's a great way to I'll tell

you what, though. Just one of those.