At UPMC Sports Medicine, we take athletic performance as seriously as you do.
We know that athletes of all levels want to keep improving. You want to move faster, play smarter, and jump higher.
It takes discipline to reach your goals and achieve your peak performance. But sometimes, it also takes the right expertise to get you the rest of the way. That’s where our sports performance program comes in.
Contact the Sports Performance Program
We run our sports performance training programs out of the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex in Pittsburgh.
To make an appointment or to learn more about our sports performance services, contact UPMC Sports Medicine at 844-408-1395.
What Is Sports Performance?
Sports performance helps athletes and active people perform at the highest level they can in sports and other physical activities. It gives you the tools and techniques you need to move with the most efficiency.
Working with a sports performance expert can help you reach your personal best. We can also help you balance life’s challenges and achieve overall wellness.
Using various assessments, we’ll work with you to figure out what’s keeping you from performing at your peak. Then we’ll create a personalized strength and conditioning program for you.
Anyone can benefit from sports performance training. Our philosophy at UPMC is that everyone is an athlete.
How can UPMC’s sports performance program help me?
From movement assessments to sport-specific training, our research-backed programs can help you improve your athletic skills. Through both physical and mental practices, you can:
- Improve your flexibility.
- Increase your overall strength, including your core strength.
- Improve your power output.
- Decrease your ground contact time.
- Increase your speed and agility.
- Improve your posture and ergonomics.
- Improve how you breathe.
- Improve your biomechanics and the efficiency of how you move.
- Prevent injuries.
Sports Performance Services We Offer
We offer many different types of performance testing, along with injury prevention and injury rehab programs.
Types of performance testing
Sports performance testing helps us measure your flexibility, strength, breath control, posture, and more. We use the latest technology to identify your strengths and opportunities. Having specific areas to focus on can help you avoid injury and improve performance.
Specific performance tests include:
- Functional movement assessment (FMA) — An FMA looks at things like your posture and gait to identify muscle imbalances that could lead to pain and injury. Learn more about the FMA.
- Instrumented muscle strength testing — This test uses special technology to measure joint torque and muscle strength.
- Force plate testing — Measuring vertical jump and strength can help find imbalances you may have, like if one leg is stronger than the other.
- Return-to-play testing — Certain injuries, like those to the ACL, have specific evaluations you have to complete to return to play.
- Pretraining performance assessment — This group of assessments measures your overall strength (upper, lower, and core) and your speed. It gives you a baseline to measure against before you start a new training program.
Other sports performance services
Because we work with a wide range of athletes, we have many different services, including:
- ACL injury prevention program — ACL injuries happen to both athletes and nonathletes, but you can lower your risk through training and conditioning. Our focus includes proper warmup, agility in landing and changing directions, and strength. Learn more about our ACL Program.
- FASTEST program — FASTEST stands for functional agility, speed, technique explosive sports training. You’ll work on all of these aspects of elite performance with our team.
- Game day speed — This routine teaches you both breath control and joint preparation so your body and breath will know how to support you on game, race, or competition day.
- Myofascial sling training — The myofascial sling is the chain of ligaments and muscles that connect throughout your body to create strength and stability. This training teaches you specific types of movement that can help with everyday functioning.
- Oxygen advantage® — Our director of sports performance is an advanced instructor of this program, which teaches specific breathing techniques. A science-based program, it can help young athletes with exercise-induced asthma and those living with the long-term effects of COVID-19.
- Postural Restoration® — This program helps correct imbalances in the body. Getting your body back in alignment can make a big difference in your performance.
- Return to Play program — This program is all about how to regain your competitive edge after an injury. It helps you get back in the game with the goal of making you faster, stronger, and more confident than you were before the injury. Learn more about our Return to Play program.
- Soft tissue hygiene — This program gets you more in touch with how your body is feeling. You learn a set of techniques to help you take better care of your soft tissue, especially after an injury. Learn more about our soft tissue hygiene training.
- Sport-specific camps — Our team hosts a variety of camps tailored to specific age groups and sports. Elite athletes partner with us to help guide athletes through training.
- Training and sport-specific programs — We offer one-on-one, group, and team fitness programs. Our experts have also developed specific sports performance programs for cyclists, dancers, and runners.
UPMC Sports Medicine experts also offer specific performance programs for:
