Jimmy talked with Christy Zwolski from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio while they were at the APTA NEXT conference in Boston.  They talked about her two presentations Christy introduced Jimmy to a term he’d never heard before in, “Physical Literacy”.  Which is, “The Ability the confidence and desire to be physically active for life.”

They got into PT and injury prevention in some underserved populations like pediatrics, obese pediatrics and disabled athletes, and she asked, “What does it mean for a population later in life when 70% of children’s athletic involvement stops, after age 13!?”

Christy’s Bio:

Christy is a board certified orthopedic physical therapy specialist in the Sports Medicine department at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. She holds a doctorate degree in Physical Therapy from Marquette University. Specialty topics of focus in her research, published work and national presentations include the female athlete, the soccer player, return-to-sports rehabilitation following ACL reconstruction, physical literacy and injury prevention. She is the program developer for the Soccer Outreach Program at Cincinnati Children’s and also co-chairs the Female Athlete Special Interest Group within the Sports Section of the APTA. Christy represents the APTA at conferences and roundtable discussions on the topic of physical literacy, most notably at The Aspen Institute’s Project Play Summits. The April issue of Sports Health includes Christy’s latest publication, the first article on the topic of physical literacy within the physical therapy profession in the US. She was presented with the Emerging Leader Award from the APTA and the Ohio Physical Therapy Association. Additionally, Christy’s background includes soccer playing experience at the Division-1 collegiate, semi-professional, and professional levels. In August, she’ll kick-off her PhD studies at The Ohio State University under the guidance of Dr. Laura Schmitt.