Dr. Alan Sokoloff is the founder, owner, and clinic director of the Yalich Clinic Performance and Rehabilitation in Glen Burnie, MD, where he has practiced for over 36 years. He served 2 terms as President of the Maryland Chiropractic Association, was selected as Maryland’s “Chiropractor of the Year 2001-2” and was the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physician’s Sports Chiropractor of the Year 2006. He holds a post-graduate degree as a Diplomat of the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians and has been a member of the University of Maryland Sports Medicine Team since 1991.
In this episode of TechTalk Podcast, Brad Cost, Dr. Jay Greenstein, and Dr. Alan Sokoloff sit down to discuss:
Alan's journey from undergrad schooling to a successful sports chiropractor.
Sport chiro highlights, like seeing players involved in chiropractic at a young age.
Dr. Sokoloff’s Sweet 16 - Critical knowledge bombs in tenology that he speaks on.
SHOW NOTES:
5:23 – Chiropractic school to the chiropractor for the Baltimore Ravens. “Well, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I went to the University of Maryland Baltimore County for undergrad and realized the average age of a chiropractor was 59 years old. It was a good marketing strategy, so I went to chiropractic school, came back to Maryland, and started working in the training room at the University of Maryland. I got a few years of experience under my belt and was able to apply to work at the Olympic Training Center, where you need five years of team experience. I worked in what I call practice-utopia, where I got to work on the best athletes in the world. They don't have co-pays, co-insurance. They don't cancel their appointments because they have to get their hair done. They need to care about their health. Based on how you do there, you can move up. I moved on to the next thing, which, at the time, was the Goodwill Games. I worked with some of the greatest in the world because it was a world event. Based on how I did there, I had the opportunity to either go to the Olympics or the Pan Am Games. I got the Pan Am Games and was asked to join the Baltimore Ravens that year. Believe it or not, this year celebrates 25 years of me working with the Baltimore Ravens.”
8:17 – Adjusting father and son Baltimore Ravens! “This year marks the third player I worked with on the Baltimore Ravens, who I treated their fathers when they were Baltimore Ravens. Is that a really cool thing or does it mean that I'm getting old? It's been a great ride.”
9:27 – The schedule of a successful sports chiropractor. “You have to be one organized somebody. I have whiteboards there and calendars here to know where I'm going, when I'm going, when I have a day off. My seasons have changed of busyness. A typical day or a weekend in football when we travel - if we're playing anywhere on this side of the Mississippi River, we're flying out on Saturday to play a game on Sunday. If we're going to the West Coast, we’re leaving on Friday. If you're having joint practices pre-season with another team, we’re leaving on Tuesday. You have to have the ability to leave your practice and be able to work in that arena. It can be very time consuming. We go to the West Coast, we're playing in LA on a Monday night game, so we get back here at 6:30 AM on Tuesday and my first patient is 7:30AM. You have to have the ability to come back to work and give it 110%. I've spent nights sleeping at the clinic because we got back at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning and I knew I had to be treating, so it didn't make sense to go all the way home. Schedules are crazy. March is a great example. We have the Combine and the Professional Football Chiropractic Society Conference that first weekend. The next weekend is the Big Ten Basketball and I work with Maryland basketball, so I’m there. The next weekend is spring training with the Orioles. You need a calendar. You need a team. That's the beauty of what I do, why I love what I do. I love working in teams. I love working with people. I love to share chiropractic, experiences, knowledge.”
18:37 – Starting them young. “One cool thing I have to say about college football is working with some of those athletes, watching them get to the pros, and seeing them ask for chiropractic care because they experienced it at the collegiate level. When I speak to groups, the first thing I say is thank you to all those people that treated these kids, as they became better and bigger athletes, with chiropractic care. One of the greatest opportunities for chiropractors to get involved in sports is at a collegiate level. Then you go from the college level to the small percentage that gets to the pros and they're asking for chiropractors. It's the minions that are in the trenches that have helped me get to where I am today.”
22:12 – Technology in the sports chiropractic industry. “In the NFL and most of the major colleges, there are different feelings on different types of technology. For a while, it was laying in saltwater tanks. I saw some teams purchase three or four of those for $300,000, then a new trainer or strength and conditioning coach will say those aren’t needed, but this technology is. The professional sport leagues are always looking to technology to try to gain an advantage. Look at travel now, right? Everybody looks at Jacksonville. Why do they do so well when they go to London? They've got some sort of formula down. Now there's going to be a game in Rio. While the time zone is kind of close, you're still putting extremely large men on an airplane for a long period of time and have them play football. There's technology behind that figuring out what time they should leave to not interrupt their sleep cycle. I've got to experience two football coaches with the Baltimore Ravens. When we'd go west, one of them would have us stay on East Coast time while the other had us adapt to West Coast time. Now, staying on East Coast time means breakfast, training, and treatment start at 5:00AM. For those who are social, we're going to meet our friends out in California and having dinner at 11:00PM EST.”
25:00 - The Professional Football Chiropractic Society Conference. “The Professional Football Chiropractic Society is about 20 years in, and for the last five years, we have sold out our conference. You know what that means? That means that people want to come, much like your Your Business Adjustment Summit. Our professional football conferences are half students and half doctors. If you're a chiropractor looking for a sports-minded student chiropractors, that's the place to go. I've hired three or four people from there. I've gotten so many students. It's not only what you learn in the classroom, but it's also a great opportunity.”
36:48 – Sok’s Sweet 16 - critical knowledge bombs.
Number one: leave your ego at the door. If you're in your office, you're in charge, right? You make all the clinical decisions. When you go outside your office in an environment that's not yours and somebody is working with those athletes every single day, you're just a tool. You go in, you do your thing, and you come out. You may see things that are being done that leave you asking why they didn’t do something else, but understand, they're not your patients. You need to leave your ego at the door. If you see something, you have to have the ability to communicate, ask questions, and learn.
Number two: do letters really matter? We're talking about getting postgraduate degrees, getting certified as a strength and conditioning specialist, getting the letters a lot of the colleges offer like ACBS, PEL, MNOP, QRS. Do those letters really matter? No. Don't take those classes unless you're taking the classes to learn. If you want to learn and have greater knowledge, yes. Outside our profession, a lot of people don't know about the letter system.
Number three, and one of my favorites: Show me the money. This is one of the things I'm going to be speaking on at Your Business Adjustment Summit on June 22nd. Gone are the days where you do things for free to spread chiropractic. No. Every NFL team has a chiropractor. Most professional teams have a chiropractor affiliate in one way, shape or form. If it's good enough for the pros, it's good enough for little Joey. Don't give yourself away. You need to know what you're worth. It doesn't necessarily have to be with the team. It could be with a company, or it could be something outside of your office. You're leaving the confines of you. What is your time worth? How do you calculate that?”
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