Taylor McWilliams - San Diego Padres

[MUSIC] You are listening to the sports rehab experts podcast. We sit down with some of the most highly regarded experts in the field of rehab, for physical therapists, athletic trainers, and much more. We dive into what makes them tick and hear about the lessons they have learned along their journey. Come listen to what these experts have to say. [MUSIC] And welcome inside to the latest episode of the sports rehab experts podcast. Today we have the minor league physical therapist for the San Diego Padres. We have Taylor, McWilliams. Taylor, welcome on in. >> Hey, thanks for having me. >> All right, Taylor. You mentioned this is your first podcast ever. So for those people that are listening that don't know who you are, kind of give us a little bit about who you are, where you came from, and what got you involved in PT. >> Yeah, sure. So I'm originally from Minnesota Twin Cities area. I grew up playing sports, probably like any sports physical therapists did in their past. But grew up playing baseball, football, basketball, kind of a little bit of everything. It was just kind of my passion, anything that had a ball in it. I was all about it. So I always had an interest in sports my whole life. And then I think like what a lot of physical therapists experience is, I end up having an injury during baseball where I required physical therapy to get through that injury. And I've been to a couple of different doctors and they just try to give me medication or just be like, hey, maybe you should just take some time away. And so when I went to a PT and they actually said like, hey, we know how to help you here, some exercises here, things that you can do. It just kind of opened my eyes to like a different style of medicine. I guess you could say where you could help athletes. You could help people get back to what they wanted to do. And that was for me like where my interest in physical therapy all began. And that was in high school. And then really luckily for me from there, that was just kind of the goal throughout, like throughout undergrad. I knew that's what I wanted to do. And then I'd say once I got into PT school, again, I always know I was interested in sports just because of my passion for sports. But my specific career in baseball, again, it was one of those things where I didn't realize that you could be a physical therapist in baseball until I was talking to one of my professors. And when I heard that that was an opportunity, sometime during my first year, again, that became my goal. And everything I did from that point was geared towards the ultimate goal of working in baseball. So that's how I got to where I am. Gotcha. And so after, you know, when you went through PT school, I saw that you did a residency program. Kind of tell us a little bit more about the decision to go to residency after physical therapy school. And then kind of why you chose your particular program. Yeah. So again, you know, when I found out that you could be in baseball, I started asking questions in and actually someone who went to my, you know, was a previous grad of my PT school. He was already working in baseball. And so again, I talked to that professor and I asked him, hey, can you give me a little bit more insight or a little background of his path? How did he get to this position? And he mentioned, hey, he did a sports residency. And then he went on and did an upper extremity fellowship and then got hired on with one of the teams. And so again, when I heard that that was a path that just became kind of my interest. And, you know, it seemed like, all right, this seems to be a good way to get there. And then, you know, throughout PT school, this was kind of when, so I graduated 2018. So PT school was 2015 to 2018. So a lot of resencies were starting to pop up. Well, I was in PT school. There were not nearly as many as there are today. So there was a big push from professors, from residencies trying to get people interested in them because I think they realized that at that time, it wasn't, we'll say like, super common. You know, it was a little different of a path to go into residency after PT school. So there's a lot of people that came to our class and were talking about different residencies from different programs, kind of saying, hey, you know, here's our program, here's what we offer, here's our program, here's what we offer. And the program I ended up picking was based out of the Twin Cities. And the reason I picked it was the, like the director of that residency also had a big passion for baseball. And he had actually worked with baseball athletes in Arizona in his past. And so I felt like he had good connections. I felt like it was a good, you know, a good connection, a good duo, where it would set me up to potentially, again, continue to pursue my career in baseball. So I ended up doing the sports residency through Fairview in Minneapolis. And again, it worked out really well. He knew a lot of people. I got introduced to different people in baseball. And again, and, you know, I don't mean to like jump ahead, but that was then how I got introduced to the upper extremity fellowship that I did. Again, it was the same fellowship that this person who had graduated from at PT school. So he and I ended up like, and I actually know this PT now, he works for the royals currently. We both went to the same PT school, same residency, same fellowship. And then, you know, different teams now. But, again, that was how I heard about that fellowship. My residency director introduced me to the director of the fellowship. I met him actually at CSM during my residency, got talking with him, applied and luckily ended up getting that position. And that was really like the biggest step, like the biggest door that opened up for me for baseball. Right. And that's actually a perfect segue into talking about your upper extremity fellowship. So you went through ATI's fellowship. Kind of tell us a little bit about some things that you learned. And during your upper extremity fellowship that you may not have covered during your sports residency. Obviously, since this is kind of more focused on baseball specific, what are some things that you learned in that fellowship that you thought were invaluable? Yeah. So kind of like background. I mean, I think the biggest thing with sports resences, obviously, you're spending a lot more time just in general, like in every sport, you know, you're covering football, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, whatever you, you know, peaks are interest, but you definitely want to experience a lot of different things. So it's a lot more of just general, like, all right, here's how you'd work with an athlete. Here's different things to consider with return to sport. You know, working with a high level athlete compared to then in the clinic potentially working with your 65 year old total knee, right? Like those are two totally different things. So the sports residency really just gave me an opportunity to spend more time focusing on how do I work with a younger population, more active athletes who want to get back to sport and utilizing that information. And then when I went to fellowship, for me, then it was completely, like, upper extremity focused. Probably 80% or more of my caseload was someone who had their head shoulder or elbow pain. And that was designed for that fellowship. You know, like the front desk who was scheduling appointments knew if there was a shoulder or elbow on the weight list to be evaluated, like, they went on my schedule. And that was like how that fellowship was set up. So that really helped. So then I had the opportunity to treat a lot more shoulders, a lot more elbows. So in all honesty, probably the biggest thing that I learned was really like was elbow rehab and all honesty. I didn't see a lot of elbow rehab during my sports residency just because being in Minnesota, not as many baseball players, just with like the environment, you have a lot more hockey players, soccer, basketball, things like that. So I saw a lot more lower extremity injuries. So then being in the fellowship, again, gave me way more opportunities to look at the elbow, spend more time with the shoulder. And I feel like I was able to kind of fine tune my skills, understanding like range of motion measurements that were important, strength measurements that were important, progressions for shoulder rehab, progressions for elbow rehab, you know, potential setbacks that you could experience. So that was really helpful, which then helped carry over to when I went to when I when I got involved in baseball. It wasn't my first time seeing a lot of those things. Right. And so after fellowship, kind of tell us a little bit more about your journey into working in working for the Padres currently. Yeah. So after fellowship, so unfortunately for me, my fellowship year was during like that 2020 COVID year. So it was kind of a little weird. I ended up having a little gap when fellowship ended. You know, some teams were kind of hiring, some were were delayed, you know, just in general, a lot of baseball teams will hire kind of around like this time of year, like the month of November, just without contracts are built out. But I actually had a little bit of a gap where I worked in a clinic for about six months, just a local clinic out here in Arizona. My fellowship, those are all back up. My fellowship had brought me out to Arizona. I worked with the royals. That's who's affiliated with that ATI fellowship. So I was with the royals for the summer of 2020. And then when that ended, my wife and I decided to stay out in Arizona because it was my goal to be in baseball. So we just stayed here. I got a job at a PT clinic out here. And then when I started to see different jobs lining up, I mean, I just applied to all of them and got lucky enough where the potter has accepted me. So it was a little nerve wracking in all honesty during like those six months just because again, it was my career goal. and with it being COVID, I didn't know how that would affect it. I didn't know if there were teams that were hiring. Again, my fellowship was a little different because of COVID. I'm not having as much hands on experience during the fellowship itself. I should say when I was in Arizona, I was like during the COVID time. It was unique. It was a little nerve-wracking, but obviously things ended up working out the way they did. I'd say I got a little lucky with some timing, but here we are. Right. Now that you've reached part of that lifelong goal of being able to work in professional baseball, what are some different challenges that you obviously worked in the setting during your fellowship, but now that you're in it full-time, what are some different challenges that you've noticed that you may not have expected while you were dreaming of it, while you were in PT school, and while you were in residency? Yeah. I think I'd say probably one of the bigger challenges is, at least for me, is the pressure that I probably place on myself to try to get these athletes back as quick as I can, but also obviously as healthy as I can, making sure that they're in a good spot when they go back. Then really dealing with athletes that don't succeed right away. Obviously if a player succeeds right away, it's great. Everybody's excited and you feel good about yourself, you're confident what you did. It's those athletes that maybe take a little bit longer, have a setback. They seem like they're doing really well, and next thing you know, they hit a wall, or they take a big setback, or they even get a re-injury. I think for me, it really makes me reflect on what could I have done better. Did I do something wrong? Did I miss something? Did I send this athlete out too soon? Did I not have the right strength measurement? Just something pretty much like where did I potentially go wrong? I think that's just a pressure that we place on ourselves. In my opinion, specifically working with professional athletes, knowing that this is their livelihood, this is how they're trying to make money. This is their job. So then my knowledge, skills, treatment potentially affects their livelihood as well. And so kind of taking that into consideration. And obviously people deal with that as well in a clinic setting. If people can't get around, they might not be able to do their job as well if they need to be mobile at their job. I totally understand that. I think it's just the world that I live in in the training room. You kind of will say live and die with their successes because if they are still injured, they're right there looking at you like, hey, what else can we do? Or, you know, coaches in front of a staff like, hey, like when is this guy going to get back? You know, I thought he was and now I've got to kind of restart. So that's probably one of the biggest challenges is dealing with the setbacks, the failures within rehab. Right. So kind of want to shift gears a little bit. When you're talking, you know, people wanting to get into baseball. Is there any specific skills or things that you think are like absolutely central that for a baseball PT? I don't think there's anything specific for baseball, PT's in jet like specifically. I think anybody who wants to get into like professional sports. I think you just need to have a growth mindset. I think you need to be open to different treatment techniques. You know, and I know like there's a huge push to be like evidence base. I do my absolute best to be evidence base. I prefer to do things that are based on evidence. I'm very much exercise heavy mobility, heavy range of motion, things like that. However, I do have the luxury of what I do is not based on insurance. You know, I don't have to fulfill codes or anything like that. So I can do things that aren't always evidence base or like wouldn't be reimbursed. And so I really wasn't aware of those things until I got into baseball. Just again, because you don't really use those in the clinic. And so I think having that growth mindset and being open to trying something new, even if you don't read about in literature. Remember everything everything we do or so I should say. Literature can't research everything that we do technically right there's sometimes ethical things where you couldn't look into that. So like how do we know if it's effective or not. Sometimes anecdotal evidence is good evidence right like expertise is level five evidence. So being open to trying different skills, different treatment philosophies, different techniques, different modalities, hands on treatment, things like that. You may not always use in a clinic or you may not have been exposed to in PT school. I think can be important. Again, that's not the majority of my treatment, but there's definitely been times where things that I probably had no idea about until I got to baseball. Because of my setting, you know, I use and it's been successful for me at times. So really like to sum it up, I think being open is going to be like the most helpful thing to anybody who wants to get into professional sports. Right, I think that's great advice because you know myself I'm very, you know, exercise heavy. But you know in the past there's been people that come to me and they say you know this is really worked for me in the past. And I may not personally think it's the best treatment, but if it's something they believe in and something they've used in the past that works to my to say, you know, that's not going to work because I don't like it exactly. I think that's a great piece of advice for anybody that wants to, you know, get into professional sports where they are going to be encountering athletes and patients of all sorts of backgrounds. Yeah, absolutely. All right. So your journey, I think you kind of reflected on it a lot is how you had good mentorship, right? You looked for mentorship for someone that had a similar passion for you and baseball for for your residency director. And then you found someone that you know you followed their path, you know, almost step for step. So what are some recommendations for when you're reaching out or trying to find someone to mentor you? Obviously you probably have quite a few mentors in different spaces, but what's something that you looked for in particular? You know, I think I would agree. I think some of the mentors I've had, I wouldn't be where I am without the different mentorship throughout my career. So I think having a mentor is extremely important. I think I got lucky again where just because of like the path that I went through, you know, you're kind of given a mentor, you know, a residency or a sign of mentor, same thing with fellowship. But I think making sure that you guys have either like similar interest similar potentially like similar like treatment styles where like, you know, you're not just going to butt heads because you want to do this. They want to do the other thing all the time. And again, that's where like being open is going to be helpful. But I think just having conversations with different people involved in sports like I think like what you're doing with this podcast where you reach out to other people, you talk to them, learn about their journeys. Same thing. If you have an interest in baseball in football in basketball, whatever it may be using resources like LinkedIn, using resource like podcasts, you know, going to different clinics, just talking to people who are involved in it. And they may know people that, you know, could be good mentors or they may be willing to be a mentor like for myself, you know, I've always wanted to give back to people who are interested in sports because I recognize the value of the mentorship that I had where I want to be able to provide that to other people who are also interested in sports. So I think just reaching out, having conversations, going to different events, you know, like CSM or going to sports specific conferences and really just starting to like talk to different people, see what their background is, see what their interests are. And you never know who you made me and what opportunities may come about. So I, again, probably comes back to the same thing of being open, you know, being willing to have a conversation, being willing to, you know, reach out and just learn from other people and, you know, have that desire. So. Gotcha. So a couple more like broad and I guess more vague questions. So you've been around a lot of sports PC throughout your time in residency and fellowship announced pro sports. What makes a good sports PT to you? I'm feeling like a, like a broken record, but I really think someone who's willing to learn, you know, someone who has a, you know, like you're going to have like you're back and you're going to have your treatment preferences, you're going to have just things about you the way you treat that, you know, those are going to kind of be set in stone that's probably a little bit more of who you are and what you believe. But again, I think someone who is willing to try a new technique, someone who is willing to go to a new course to like learn how to use that technique. I mean, I probably go to three or four different, like whether it's a sports events and conference or a treatment philosophy type of, you know, what's what I'm looking for. Or just like con ed course, I try to go to multiple every off season to really just try to like broaden my horizon, try to learn as much as I can and find different like pieces that you can grab again. I'm not going to really change from someone who's very exercise based with my treatment, but I can still grab little bits and pieces from all these different philosophies and find ways to intermingle them with like my baseline or I say like with like the bread and butter what I do. So again, going back to your question, I think physical therapists who are willing to learn from other philosophies learn from different PT's, try different techniques, try different skills, you know. get different certifications and then like meld them together into like one like Treatment style. I think that's gonna be like your most successful person to mean people who are very You know closed-minded or like, you know, I don't want to like bash on some philosophy But like let's just say they pick one philosophy, you know, whatever their S.F.A. and they only do S.F.A. They don't listen to anything whether it's like PRI dry needling, you know soft-tissued techniques Whatever it is and they're like, nope, I am doing this. My guess is they're missing the boat on some things They are probably not seeing something, you know, whether it's a range of motion mobility They're not trying a certain like technique to help reduce someone's pain or information Whatever it may be if you are very close-minded, you're probably gonna miss the boat with things if you're open If you're willing to try different things again, you don't have to become like a guru in that other philosophy But at least being aware of it and knowing how to like utilize specific techniques is gonna be probably the most helpful Right And so what is it about that sports that makes it so fulfilling to you? Obviously you've had this dream of kind of working in pro baseball since you said you had your own baseball injury back in high school So what makes it that you know this this journey in this goal so worth it that you know, this is why I want to do this job You know, I think working with athletes who are motivated is probably one of the biggest things You know, I think as a physical therapist we all probably are most fun patients with the people who come in They're ready to work. They want to get better, you know It's not the person who comes in is like oh, I just want a massage today or oh, I didn't do my exercises I'm not feeling any better help me out right like Those are kind of a usually a drag unfortunately everyone's gonna deal with those types of people But working with those people that are motivated that want to get better that have goals themselves I think that's what's fulfilling to me and then really seeing like the successes of those people kind of be able to like Live it out through them. I think it's fun for me. You know, I work at our spring training facility When guys go out and you know, they've kind of graduated rehab and they're doing a Progress like a game progression They'll lot times do it in like the rookie level which is usually for us is played at our spring training facility So I can actually go out and watch them and so that's like one of my biggest like Joyce is watching a player that potentially have worked with for 14 or 15 months Especially if they're like a Tommy John rehab and then being able to like see them actually pitch right like I remember the day that they Essentially blew out they showed up. They're depressed. They're sad. They're like oh my gosh my career's over How am I gonna get through 14 months of rehab without pitching in a game and then actually seeing them do it and seeing like the joy on their face Seeing like the excitement that they have I think that for me is like what's most fulfilling you know helping other people accomplish their goals And getting back to what they love, you know, it's hard not to to enjoy that Yeah, I think that that return to play and seeing them get back on the field is probably like the number one thing no more answer for that question for any sports PT All right Taylor a couple more questions before we get Jada here Kind of walk us through a day in the life of what it's like to be a minor league PT for the San Diego Padres Yeah I'll take a day like in the middle of the summer like in the season so I mean we'll show up players will start to kind of filter in And really for a lot of these guys they will start off their day doing kind of like what we'll call like an activation or Corrective exercises things that maybe are kind of like postural related Ranged emotion related getting their muscles turned on pre-miss just preparing to do the majority of the activity for the day And what kind of help I'll doing like some soft tissue being like doing manual resistance You know you can say like stretching joint momentation whatever it may be that they need That's usually how our day starts And then they'll go out and they'll go through like a dynamic warm up with one to one of our stringing conditioning coaches And then if they're scheduled to throw that day that's when they will do their throwing and we're pretty involved in that whether You know fun part whether it's like us getting to play catch with them because You know they're going a certain distance that nobody else is going so then you know we're the person that steps in for that or You know like monitoring their intensity or You know taking video or Standing with the pitching coach and kind of analyzing mechanics me for someone who's been struggling Whether it's like in the bullpen or like they've had like this on and off injury whatever it may be that's really kind of the majority of our day Is obviously built around like they're throwing most players in baseball are That are injured are pictures with shoulder and elbow related injuries just because of the intro of the game You obviously do get position players They get injured, but again most of our time is with like pictures We have those injuries so after they pitch or throw sorry their throwing program they will they'll go do their lift for the day with their stringing conditioning coach That's usually time for us to kind of again kind of reflect talked pitching coaches You know think about what Programs or maybe like what we want to change them what would we see? Different things like that and then after they're done lifting they'll come in and that's where we'll do a lot of like the recovery for them Which can involve any sort of treatment soft tissue dry and ealing you know, we've got modalities And different things like that and then when they leave we'll write notes Usually if I need to change a program or again if there's a new injury, you know that's when I'll do a lot of my programming throwing programs exercise sheets things like that is at the end of the day and then Go back home. So It you know, it's definitely different than a traditional PT jump The amount of time that I truly do of like treatment isn't quite as much I think in this setting I spent a lot more time planning They're again their activation their exercises They're throwing programs and modifying those based on what they need that's probably the majority of my time And then obviously like helping them with their exercises providing treatment when needed but It's not like your you know eight to five job where someone comes in and you've got one person for an hour or two people for an hour You know everyone's kind of there at one time They're pretty sufficient in their exercises. You make modifications where I needed you do treatment where I needed And then for me it's fun getting to go out play catch, you know, watch a guy hit in the cages. Maybe watch a guy in a game that night If they're you know in a in their game progression whatever it may be so Gotcha, and so do you have a favorite memory so far working with the podger is anything that stands out in particular? I mean, I'd say you know this past this past post season was pretty fun for us in general You know, I didn't really have a lot to do with me but In terms of the the team like probably my most like My favorite memory has been this past post season the playoffs watching our big league team You know beat the meds beat the Dodgers who nobody thought we were gonna do obviously unfortunately fell short to the Phillies But I just think like the environment of our clinic Clinic of our complex was very fun, you know, everyone was really really into it really invested You know, we were getting to go to some of the games You know, it was a really like exciting culture to kind of be around and so I mean obviously like winning is fun. So I think that playoff run has probably been the most fun thing That I've been involved with so far Gotcha. All right Taylor last question You've obviously given a lot of great pieces of advice But is there anything that you would give advise that you wish you had heard or you had heard along your journey that you want to impart upon anybody that's listening for someone that wants to get into sports PT? Yeah, I'd say don't get discouraged by any failures that you may have again If you're I should say if you want to be like in professional sports even collegiate sports at a higher level sport It is a small group of physical therapists in the grand scheme of things Obviously there are people who are very successful with like cash-based clinics working with athletes outside of their teams, but inside Working with within an organization again, whether it's professional or collegiate It is a smaller number of people so I'd say don't get discouraged if you're first attempt at getting into You know whatever organization you're applying for you know if that doesn't go how you want it to Remember there other organizations are gonna be other opportunities reflect on what you know, maybe like you could change or what you can improve on I know we've interviewed PT's or you know, we've had an intern when we we're interviewing for that One of the things that we focused on was you know someone who maybe got denied in the past What did they do to try to improve their resume? What did they do to try to like grow in the timeframe between their you know First failure and this time that they're applying so I think making sure that you're always trying to become a better physical therapist and not just being content or complacent It's gonna help you be most successful. So again, don't get discouraged continue to grow and I think you know The chips are gonna fall where they may and you're you're gonna very likely end up in a position you want Perfect, I think that's a great way to end this podcast Taylor. This has been great for your first podcast. You're an amazing guest So with that being said do you have anything that you'd like to plug or anything that you'd like to shout out before we get you out of here? No, not really, but I appreciate your time. I mean, I appreciate the invite. It's been fun I'm sure when I listen to it, I'll learn how to be even better next time, but again, I really appreciate the invite and my only plug would be Go Padres. All right. Cool. Thank you, Taylor. Again, for your time. And this has been the latest episode of the Sports Rehab Experts Podcast. Shout out to Taylor MacMoliams of the San Diego Padres for coming on to the latest episode of the Sports Rehab Experts Podcast. If you like today's guests and want to hear more episodes from great future guests, please like and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Spotify or wherever else you're listening. [Music]