In the last several years, the men and women of our military services are never far from any of our minds. While most of us are more likely to think of sports medicine as relating to athletic performance or normal exericse, many don't realize that our field has been linked to military service for many, many years. Ask many veterans what the initials "PT" mean to them and in most cases they will tell you 'physical training' (and maybe with a sneer in place).

Science fiction is a great way to stretch and exercise your imagination, especially when it is in areas that you know something about. For all you football fans out there, you should check out the Galactic Football League series by Scott Sigler as a great example of how science fiction can make you think about what you already know in different ways. For me, a particularly pertinent example of this 'reexamining what we know' came with the movie "Wall-E".

How do you know the Sports Medicine professional you are seeing knows what they are doing? When we go to a physician, or an accountatnt, or even hair stylists, we all know to look for some type of licensure or professional certification to ensure that the individual we are seeing has knowledge and experience that pertains to what we're there for. But how do you do this when you see Sports Medicine professionals?

A quick test: Raise your hand if you think that "Sports Medicine" only pertains to elite athletes..... This is an important question to us because after all, we are an "Institute of Sports Medicine and Human Performance". Does that mean that we are and should be only concerned about what happens on the practice field and in the arena? Or is there some way that what we do and study is applicable to everyone?