Sports physiotherapy advancing in New Zealand

According to our own website, a sports physiotherapist is defined as A recognised professional who demon-strates advanced competencies in the promotion of safe physical activity par-ticipation, provision of advice, and adaptation of rehabilitation and training interventions, for the purposes of preventing injury, restoring optimal function, and contributing to the enhancement of sports performance, in athletes of all ages and abilities, while ensuring a high standard of professional and ethical practice.1 So, who are we, and what are we doing to promote our own description of what a sports physiotherapist is? Sports Physiotherapy New Zealand (SPNZ) is the largest special interest group of Physiotherapy New Zealand, and a new BJSM group partner. In the mid-1990s, a number of phy-siotherapists interested in sports started regional groups to discuss sports-related issues. These groups soon amalgamated to form the New Zealand Sports and Orthopaedic Physiotherapy Association, which later became SPNZ. Before this, the only specific support for sports phy-siotherapists was with the New Zealand Sports Medicine group. Sport, especially at an elite level, works best with a multidisciplinary approach. Why, then, would you need a sports physio-therapy group in New Zealand, or indeed anywhere in the world when there are multidisciplinary sports medicine groups? Part of the answer is inferred by the last component of our definition—professional and ethical practice—and Dr Anthony Schneiders2 largely covers this topic in his editorial in this issue.