Hey everyone! I’m Anthony Inzillo, the National Director of Sports Medicine and Performance here at Area Scouts. I grew up playing sports and have been for my whole life. Starting with baseball, soccer, and basketball when I was young, I transitioned to football and lacrosse as I got a little older, then shifted to individual sports like golf, tennis, and snowboarding as I entered my adult years. Being able to combine my love of sports with my passion for exercise and healthcare made becoming a Sports Physical Therapist the perfect career choice for me.
I graduated from the University of Delaware’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program in 2012 and immediately moved down to Pensacola, Florida to work under world renown orthopedic surgeon, Dr. James Andrews. As I gained experience and his trust, I had the opportunity to rehab elite athletes from the MLB, NFL, NBA, and NCAA, some of which have gone on to win World Series titles, Super Bowls, and National Championships, all while continuing to sharpen my skills and learn.
I also spent my spare time volunteering with a local college football team, helping at NFL OTA’s/training camps, and earning board certifications in Sports Physical Therapy and Strength & Conditioning. Eventually, these experiences and accomplishments gave me the opportunity to work as a Physical Therapist in the Alliance of American Football, the National Football League, and the XFL. With the combination of my experience in a world class sports medicine facility, and as the PT for multiple professional football teams, I have had the chance to work with so many great athletes, learn from so many great mentors, and do so many cool things in my career.
“When one door closes, another one opens.”
Enter COVID-19. If there is anything to quickly interrupt a job in sports, it’s a global pandemic. Fortunately, this situation opened my availability and led me to my current position here at Area Scouts. I was entrusted with creating the B.A.S.E. Assessment, the B.A.S.E. Certification Course for our evaluators, as well as our ever-growing corrective exercise library. These are now some of the proudest accomplishments of my career! Creating a comprehensive movement/athletic assessment that is being used with athletes across the country is a great honor and I’m excited to grow our programs so that we can help as many athletes as possible.
Improve Performance and Reduce Injury Risk
My goal when working with any athlete is to improve performance and reduce injury risk. My philosophy is that to perform well, one first needs to move well. Spoiler alert: those who move well also tend to be most resilient to injury. Not only does the B.A.S.E. Assessment provide an outstanding baseline of an athlete’s movement quality, but it also goes several steps further and measures upper and lower body strength, power, balance, speed, agility, and endurance. However, the part that excites me the most is what we do with all this valuable information.
When an athlete completes the assessment, their scores are compared with norms for their age and sport. Athletes are then sent individualized corrective exercise videos to work on their specific needs and improve their scores in every area of the assessment. So, in addition to detecting movement deficiencies and weak links, the athlete is also provided with targeted tools to address them.
Enjoying the Process
Throughout my career, my most rewarding moments have come when I have been able to watch my athletes return to the field/court after a tough injury and rehabilitation process and see them perform even better than they did before the injury. This actually happens far more often than you might think. During rehabilitation after a major injury or surgery, much of the focus is obviously on fixing the injured body part, but another huge part of any good rehab program is identifying the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that led to the injury occurring in the first place. This could be due to many different factors, like too much workload/volume with inadequate rest, poor movement patterns, areas of insufficient mobility/strength/motor control, fatigue, improper training habits, poor nutrition/sleep habits, or any combination of these.
Getting access to the expertise of a team of professionals and taking a step back from the day-to-day grind of their sport often gives athletes the time and attention they need to address problems that they may not have even known existed prior to their injury. Two large parts of this discovery are a thorough movement assessment and asking the right questions.
Here at Area Scouts, we provide athletes access to this information and the tools to address their deficits proactively, before an injury occurs, rather than reactively. Our mission for you is the same as my goal for any athlete…. To maximize performance and reduce the risk of injuries so that you can enjoy the sports you love and reach your full potential. I am thrilled to be part of the Area Scouts team and cannot wait to help you reach your goals!
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