Sports Rehabilitation and athletic therapy

Molojan wrote: »

I'm highly considering this course at the moment. I would really appreciate any information that people currently in it could give me. Is the course what you expected? Is there a high maths/physics content? How many hours of lectures do you have? Are the lecturers approachable? And do you have to be a sporty person to enjoy this course? I have no intrest whatsoever in sports - would this be a major hindrance? Thanks in advance

Here is a recent enough thread with some of that info. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72648025nickys: what you wouldn't have known is that Carlow had the course originally, then DCU developed their course from this one.

For the first two years, the subjects needing some maths or physics will be physical sciences, quantitative methods, and kinesiology & biomechanics. You also do statistics in 3rd year.

The contact hours go up to 26 I think, I can't remember yet they're mixed between practical and theory, and yes, the lecturers are very approachable.

Not being a sports person, it could be a hindrance in that you might not get what you want from the course. There is a strong focus on developing knowledge of sporting injuries and how to rehabilitate them, so that entails knowing how the body moves during those sports and if the sport has lots of players, what injuries can come up specific to that player's position. That being said, 5 people from our larger group of 32 (when 3rd year begins, it grows to two 3rd year groups when people from physiology were accepted to sports rehab) were not active in sports, but had interest and knowledge of certain sports.

There are also lots of practical hours of fitness-based classes in first, second and third year, which you will be required to tie in to your theory classes.

If you feel you want to move down this path to sports rehab, you do need to really want it (only 18 places per course). If you are uncertain after gaining this kind of info, maybe the physiology & health science course could be a stepping stone towards a degree (or you could apply for physiotherapy in another college, but I'm not sure how focused they are on sports as a whole on that course). There are some fitness components on the physiology course, but there are a lot of professions you can aim towards afterwards (especially if you want to go down the therapy and rehabilitation side of life), as seen near the top of this page: http://www.itcarlow.ie/study-at-itc/science/science-health/cw106.htm.

IT Carlow has a reputation as having a good sporting background, its true.

Finished? yes, but in a different area of life now, not on the rehabilitation path.

The course itself is quite tough, but very rewarding. Apart from the knowledge and skills I gained in my time there, I met some wonderful people, made many friends also (both in my group, and throughout the college) and had some great experiences away from home (had I chosen to study closer to home, I might not have had).

If your daughter is into soccer and football or camogie, there are ladies teams that represent the college and are quite good too.

One thing I can recommend in that case is the Physiology & Health Science course here in Carlow IT (CW106). It can really help your progression towards physio, just like the UCD course, whilst being a really good course in itself. Most of those I knew from that course went to do a physio degree in either Northern Ireland, Scotland or England. Some went for Occupational Therapy too, whilst many of them joined the sports rehab course in the 3rd year (when we really start the specialisation stuff like movement dysfunction, clinical studies, strength & conditioning etc. There is a lot of competition for those places also).

The sports rehab course is not quite like physio from what I've gathered, in that we specialised in one area of physiotherapy (MSK/Musculo-skeletal), whereas physios tend to study a broader range of therapy routes, but don't quite specialise in anything in the undergrad studies.