Behind the Scenes: Chiropractic Encounters with Dr. Eric Blum in Sports Chiropractic

Behind the Scenes: Chiropractic Encounters with Dr. Eric Blum in Sports Chiropractic

In this episode of the ICA Sports and Fitness Science Podcast, Dr. Brant Hulsebus hosts Dr. Eric Blum as they discuss his extensive experience as a sports chiropractor. Dr. Blum shares his journey from an injury-prone swimmer at the University of Arizona to treating top athletes at events like the Olympics in Tokyo. He delves into his work with USA Swimming, pro hockey, and pro baseball teams including a special stint with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The conversation emphasizes the importance of connections, staying in one's lane, and communication in building a successful career in sports chiropractic. Dr. Blum also highlights some of the technologies he relies on and gives advice for young chiropractors aspiring to enter the sports field.

Transcript

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Hello, I'm Dr. Brant Hulsebus and I wanna welcome you to another edition of the ICA Sports and Fitness Science Podcast. Today we have a guest joining with us, Dr. Eric Blum. He is joining us from Arizona. Is that correct? Correct. All right. So Dr. You've got quite a sports resume, so we're really excited to have you on here and I wanna talk a lot about different things that you've done. But the thing that excited me the most was I got to see that you actually got to be the chiropractor at the Olympics in Tokyo. Could you tell us a little bit about that experience and how you got there and kind of who you were representing? Yeah, of course. So first, thank you for having me. So my experience at the Olympics kind of came on because of my background. So walked on to the University of Arizona swim team. I was a swimmer. That was the and. Freshman year, patella slipped behind my leg, ripped the quads, took me out of it basically. But that's how I ended up eventually getting into chiropractic. And I started working with a lot of swimmers because that's what I knew. I could analyze stroke mechanics and different injuries and, and all that kind of fun stuff. And. I I actually contacted the coach at Arizona and started working with, I was practicing in la That's where I've been for 25 years. whenever Arizona would go to LA for the Pac 10 tournament, he would have me go to Long Beach and take care of the team. And then in. 2004, he had me go to Olympic trials with Amanda Beard and some of the other Olympians on the team. And then that kind of opened the doors for me actually, and ended up working with USA swimming. then USC brought me in and the coach had a ton of professional swimmers there from other countries, but they had no support staff I would start treating them and traveling a little. And this one guy. His name is Sly. He's from Tunisia. He was the first gold medalist for all the Muslim countries, and he started taking the Jew around the world with him basically, and we're like brothers. And. That's how it opened up. But we've been to Dubai, Qatar, Turkey, South Korea, China, Japan, twice Portugal. And so during COVID, we went to Portugal for Olympic trials. He got accepted for his fifth Olympics, I believe. And then we went to Tokyo. And when you travel, you know, you could go with a team and you're treating everyone. So, USA swimming took me to London one time. And you're, you're working your butt off. You are not sleeping. You're with everyone. But the beauty of finding an individual is he was my only guy. So when we were in Dubai, we went skiing. When we were at the Olympics, we would go see different events. It's much more laid back for sure. Sounds interesting. Sounds like a lot of the places you went to Also, I don't know, as being part of the International Chiropractic Association, that there's a large chiropractic presence there. Did you find often that people were confused, maybe who you were or what you were doing, or unexposed to chiropractic at some of these places? Interesting. Yes and no. I'm always on the back end where all the other physiotherapists are. So once you go international, it's more. You're a physio. You, you know, there were other chiros there that I would see, you know, you're not just adjusting at that point, obviously. I'm doing all the deep tissue work, stretching him, flushing him out before and after a race. I was also his. Sports psychologist and I was his coach for the Olympics in Japan. He needed a coach to, he did open water swimming for that event, so I was feeding him while he was swimming around. And, so you're doing a lot more when I travel also. You're bringing other stuff with you. So I am, I'm big on PEMF technology. I've been using it outta my practice for like. years and the company has a new, smaller unit that's easy to travel with. And I take that and it's amazing. I mean, it gives me an edge, it helps me. It's the one tool I fall to, but then I'm still doing all the muscle work, the, BFR and the this and that, basically. Totally understand what you're saying about help feed him and everything. Because more than once, I was almost signed to be the emergency goalie in a hockey game as a team chiropractor. Yeah, thank, thank goodness had never actually happened.'cause at that time I didn't know how to ice skate. I was really scared. So we do put on different hats when they need us, don't we? we, we sure do. Now the other thing, you know, talking about sports and chiropractic this is not the only thing you've been known for in sports as I'm part of the Pro Hockey Chiropractic Society. We were just talking, you're on the board of the Pro Baseball Chiropractic Society and, and obviously there must be a story how you end up on the board of that. It might be a baseball team you worked with previously or currently or, or assist with. Look for all the younger dcs out there. A lot of this is luck in who, you know. It's not all the letters behind your name and all that kind of stuff, it's connections. man, back in, I don't even know, I'm gonna say 2000 and. Whatever. Four-ish. I went to Vegas for a pro sport conference. Met some guys there. One of them became a mentor Dr. Allen Palmer, who's with the hockey and, and baseball, and I wasn't with a baseball team or anything, but he's like, come on, Eric, join you do sports and this and that. maybe two years later I got, I was up at a, for those who remember a David Singer seminar up in San Francisco and my phone rang and this guy's like, hi, I'm looking for Dr. Blum. And I'm like speaking. He's like, hi, this is Steve. Steve Finley. I just got traded to the Dodgers. Can you come to the stadium tomorrow and treat me? I'm like, absolutely. I'll be there. Hopped on a plane. Flew back to la I. Well, Steve got traded to the Dodgers and Alan used to treat Steve as well as guy in Chicago, and they both gave him my number. Ironically, Steve was enrolled in chiropractic school. His background was kinesiology, and then he became a major league baseball player instead. But he. Brought me in. And then the head trainer did not like chiropractors, but I was there for two years and then he got traded. So I got, or the head trainer got let go. So I got let go. And then a number of years later I got a phone call. I used to go to the winter baseball meetings. help out with the PEMF technology.'cause I was getting it into all the baseball training rooms. So, to a meeting, came home and got a call from the new head trainer for the Dodgers who was from the San Francisco, he's like, Hey, we want to fly you out for spring training. And I walked out. The first guy I treated was Clayton Kershaw. He puts one both knees on my table and the table starts to tip and the trainer looks at me like, you're gonna be outta here if he falls. But anyways, I treated Kisch and a bunch of the other guys, and the next day I walked in and the trainer threw me a polo that said Dodger medical staff on it. I'm like. Does this mean I got the job? So anyways, I did that for another three years. And look, it's a lot of fun. I mean, I have a ring from the 2017 World Series, even though we lost 'cause of the Astros. It's a national title ring and. It, it's amazing. And now I, I actually am in Arizona because Aaron Judge's agent flew me out here and I took care of about 30 of his baseball players to get them ready for the season. And I do some private concierge now where guys fly me around privately and stuff. It's fun. That's a lot of fun. And you know, I get, I get to work with minor, I'm in a city two hours outta Chicago, so we don't get the Chicago teams when we get the their farm teams. So we get to do a lot of that here. I. So a lot of young chiropractors ask for advice. They say, Hey, I really wanna become the sports chiropractor for this team or that team. I often tell 'em, you have to hope that somebody quits or decides to retire in order to get the spot. And you said something about athletic trainers. I've had my fair share of them over the years. Talk a little bit about how you gotta really form those relationships, right? That's a big part of it. Yeah, you got the phrase you need to know. Here's your phrase. Stay in your lane. Know your lane, and that's all you do. the Dodgers, look, they had PTs, ATCs, this person, that person, but they brought me in because they could not adjust. That's all they needed. So even though I could do more, I'm biting my tongue a lot, that's what you do. It also depends on the team, because other teams will want your advice for stuff and they'll have you doing the deep tissue work and assisting with other things. So. Every team is gonna be different, basically. And, and that's, you just gotta stay in your lane though. That's the biggest thing. If you, you need to be humble. You need to sit back, keep your thoughts to yourself.'cause you're gonna look, I had a PT in the training room coming to me saying, Hey, can you teach me how to do this move? And it was like, I. Can't really, you know, and it puts me in an awkward situation because I want to be a team player, but at the same time it's like, come on, dude. You guys don't get the same training we do. you need, you need to know how to do that. The other thing also is communication. The more you communicate, so. If a player came over to me and they didn't have anything, or it was a newer player, I would always go to the head trainer and say, Hey, so and so wants to get this adjusted. Anything I should know, and is it okay? You always communicate. Communication is so key. And just if it's, and then afterwards you go back and you say, Hey, I did this. I opened this up. He was able to squat better. He had more range of motion, whatever it is. And you're not doing it to show off like, oh, look what I did. It's just keeping them in the loop. Hey, I found this with sticking on this player. I just want you to know I'm working on it, but so we're all on the same page. I went to Dr. McDougall's method, his classes, and had an iog hockey player whose peer perform gls wasn't firing. And so the trainer came to me. He was like, I don't know what else to do with this guy.'cause a lot of times that's our specialty. I don't know what else to do with him. And so I did McDougall's method and he couldn't believe it afterwards and I had an intern at the time, preceptor, and she watched the trainers take him to the other room to retest him to make sure I wasn't smudging the test. And immediately he had a list of guys for me, the next game that he wanted me to look at after maybe seeing one or two guys a game. Now I'm seeing 15 of 'em because all of that one day, I don't tell Dr. McDougall the success story. I don't want him to get excited, but. Yeah. So yeah, so Todd and I are like brothers. We actually have the same birthday, but he's a lot older than I. I'm a younger, better looking brother, he, we met years ago. It was like this we had to meet at a hotel in LA off campus for UCLA gymnast because UCLA didn't want to bring a Cairo to campus, and it was this whole thing, but we just clicked and became good buddies. That's the reason why the Dodgers brought me in that second time because the head trainer had a horrible experience with Barry Bonds, his own private guy, and clashed a lot, and it, you know, it wasn't good for. Chiros I say, and always thought we were super aggressive and this and that, and when he saw me do the drop technique, it was like, whoa, what's this? Okay? You're not just cracking everyone and, and that. mean, man, the amount of doors that have opened up for me I mean, I love this guy and I owe him so much because he's taught me such a valuable tool. I. And I always say between that and the pimp, it makes me look good. know, I get the results I want because of what they've taught me. But you, you know, I've done a number of concert tours where I'm working on all the dancers, and once one person sees it, then oh, you gotta treat the drummer and this person and that person, and. It, it works. I mean, can you believe that what we do works? It's amazing. My busiest seasons are, we have an older veteran who's trying to hang on a couple more years and he, wherever he played and performed, the NHL, he loves getting adjusted. So the moment he finds out I'm in the locker room before every game, then it's monkey see, monkey do. That's a huge part of it, correct. Yeah. Yeah. So well, I wanna thank you for jumping on with us. It's been a lot of fun and maybe we'll do some more of this in the future, but I always end the podcast asking my guests if they have any more final words they'd like to say that maybe I did, I overlooked or missed. Yeah. You know, the one thing I want to say is to the young guys who are looking to get in, don't always go straight I. the pro teams. Know your background. So I said I was a swimmer. I. I started off just going to the club teams, volunteering, doing free seminars and stretching people out. And then I started getting pe, you know, kids coming in. that coach, got a job at USC, he brought me in USC, so you never know where things are gonna go. And that's what opened the door for me was just starting with a local club team and working with them. You never know. That was BJ Palmer's quote, right? You never know how small one. You do today will affect tomorrow. So I was even at a restaurant this weekend, or chiropractic state association. We had an amazing server. So I asked her if she was ever looking at a career switch 'cause I was looking for a new office manager and it turns out she's there studying sports marketing and everybody told her, I work with this team. She's from a couple towns over and I gave her email and contact information to the people on the team. And you never know. Yeah. Yeah. That's how it happens most of the time. And thanks. scenario, always ask, what's the worst thing they say? No. Okay, big deal. You Yep. to the next one. Absolutely. Well, thanks so much. I really enjoyed you being on here and okay. Said we'll probably touch talk again in the future. So if you like this podcast, you like what you're here, make sure you like, subscribe, share this podcast and come back. We'll do the new podcast every two weeks and looking forward to seeing you again next time. Thanks again