{"id":112606,"date":"2026-11-11T09:19:55","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T14:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=112606"},"modified":"2026-11-11T17:25:28","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T22:25:28","slug":"more-space-more-staff-as-brock-sport-medicine-clinic-grows-to-meet-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2026\/11\/more-space-more-staff-as-brock-sport-medicine-clinic-grows-to-meet-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"More space, more staff as Brock Sport Medicine Clinic grows to meet demand"},"content":{"rendered":"

One year after opening its doors<\/a>, the Brock Sport Medicine Clinic had already outgrown its original space.<\/p>\n

A recent expansion brought more room, more practitioners and more training opportunities for graduate students, allowing more people to receive care \u2014 from varsity athletes to community members who have never played a sport at Brock.<\/p>\n

Located in Canada Games Park, adjacent to the University\u2019s main campus, the clinic welcomed its first patients in May 2025 and held its grand opening that September. It opened with four treatment beds, four private treatment rooms, a smaller exercise space and just one physiotherapist.<\/p>\n

This spring, another 1,000 square feet was added, bringing the clinic to 3,500 square feet. The expansion made room for six more treatment tables, a full turf area, a larger exercise prescription space and more equipment, including a treadmill, force plates and Vald testing technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore space has allowed us to bring in different practitioners and in turn, we\u2019ve been able to attract different patients into these spaces for treatment,\u201d says Steve Lidstone, Associate Director of Sports Performance and Sports Medicine.<\/p>\n

The clinic now has six physiotherapists, three massage therapists, two chiropractors, an osteopath, a pedorthist for orthotics and braces and its newest addition, a mental performance coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a community clinic focused on serving not only our undergraduate student body, our graduate student body and faculty and staff, but the wider community as well,\u201d says Lidstone. \u201cIt\u2019s a full-blown community-based clinic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the roughly 700 members of the Brock Functional Inclusive Training (Bfit) Centre<\/a>, also located in Canada Games Park, upwards of 200 also visit the clinic for treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to mimic the service level provided to varsity athletes and offer it to the community as well,\u201d says Lidstone.<\/p>\n

The expansion also supports student learning. Brock\u2019s Master of Athletic Therapy<\/a> (MAT) program launched in May 2026<\/a> with 26 students in its first cohort. Through the clinic, athletic therapy students see first-hand the work being done by physiotherapists to help athletes return to sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, when someone goes for physiotherapy, the goal is to return them to whatever their normal activities of daily living are, and if it\u2019s someone who is active in sport, that means taking it to the next level so they can return to sport,\u201d says Nicole Chimera, Program Director and Associate Professor in Athletic Therapy. \u201cThat piece is really critical for our MAT student clinical reasoning and knowledge-based development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brock Sport Medicine accepted 12 MAT students for placements with varsity teams, where they work under certified therapists to earn clinical and field hours. Those hours are essential for preparation for the Canadian Athletic Therapists Association National Certification Examination. Students from the Master of Professional Kinesiology<\/a> program can also complete placements in the Brock Sport Medicine Clinic.<\/p>\n

Brock also recently launched a paid one-year Sport Physiotherapy Fellowship program designed for physiotherapists seeking high-performance sport hours and mentorship. The two newly appointed fellows will gain experience in the clinic working under a mentor. Fully registered, they can treat community patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe expansion really mattered because it was operating at maximum capacity before. Now, it\u2019s really opened up more space,\u201d says David Albines, Sport Physiotherapy Fellowship Lead. \u201cTo be more sport physio and sport medicine focused, we needed more space to have a gym and space for patients to move. Now there\u2019s a turf area, more squat racks and just more areas to move, jump and really test whether they can return to sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

No referral is needed to see any practitioner at the clinic, though a doctor\u2019s note may be required to claim massage therapy benefits.<\/p>\n

To book an appointment, visit the online booking site<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One year after opening its doors, the Brock Sport Medicine Clinic had already outgrown its original space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":112609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,9794,7484,13793,7,3319,1,58],"tags":[9524,12347,12348,14422,14423,15323],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112607,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112606\/revisions\/112607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}