For the past three years, South Florida Rehab & Training Center (SFR) has been providing professional and nonprofessional athletes of all ages with a state-of-theart throwing program at its ultramodern South Miami facility.
Founded in 2012 by owner Gabriel Carvajal and former college and pro player Bill Schopp, the program is the first official southeastern affiliate of former MLB pitcher Tom House’s National Pitchers Association (NPA) Pitchers and Catchers Camp.
“Back in 2012 I visited Tom House for the first time at the University of Southern California and he expressed an interest in working with someone he could trust to develop a permanent, stationary program on the east coast,” said Carvajal. “We met with Bill Schopp and he and I became practitioners in the program, which we’ve now extended to high school and college quarterbacks and every throwing athlete, including sports like water polo.”
The program is available in both group and individual classes and focuses on teaching the proper body mechanics involved in throwing effectively while preventing injury or re-injury. First-time athletes in the program can expect to go through a thorough functional movement test which will provide a clear picture of where they are physically and allow SFR to work with them to develop a custom program addressing their strengths and weaknesses of movement.
“Our number one goal with this program is to keep shoulders and elbows healthy and our number two goal is to create velocity,” he said. “But the name says it all: Rehab and Training Center. We work with athletes who have never been injured as well as athletes who have been injured and are avoiding getting re-injured. They have the best of both worlds—top notch physical therapy and a throwing program that will help prevent them from getting injured again and improve their existing techniques.”
South Florida Rehab & Training Center is a bilingual facility certified in Active Release Technique, RockTape, Trigger Point, Functional Movement Systems, NPA Throwing System, Rod Dedeaux Research Baseball Institute Throwing Program and Graston Techniques. They endeavor to possess the most current equipment and technologies in the field of physical therapy, including cold laser therapy, AlterG antigravity treadmill, custom orthotics and deep muscle stimulators. Existing and former clients of their throwing program include professional athletes such as Plácido Polanco, Danys Báez, Édgar Rentería, Kendrys Morales, Dayán Viciedo and Alexei Ramirez.
“We focus on sport specificity in training first and then throwing mechanics to perfect an athlete’s form and minimize the possibility of them getting hurt,” he said. “What we may do with a tennis player may not necessarily be the same thing as what we do with a water polo player, but the result will always be improving athletes’ abilities to create peak velocity over longer, healthier professional and nonprofessional careers.” South Florida Rehab & Training Center is located at 6808 SW 81st Street. For information, call 305-905-4188 or visit www.SouthFloridaCenters.com.
