Eric Ferguson: The player gets benefits he did not expect

My specialization is called muscle activation technique and it’s a technique to find and correct muscle imbalances. This particular technique helps to eliminate sports injuries, to prevent them and to increase athletic performance. When I came here I started accessing the team members and did a little bit of treatment on the first day. We continued the treatment on the second day trying to improve the athletes who were injured and those who aren’t, trying to improve them as well. I can do the similar treatment trying to take them away from the injury and increase their performance level.

The technique is really unique. The way we view the body, the decisions we make, the thing we measure and calculate before we actually start treatment are very different from what’s typically out there in the States and in Europe. This is relatively new. This has only been around for just 15 years. Most of the time people having pains in their backs or the shoulders, getting other kind of treatments like massage, electric stems, ice… they feel better for the day and then the pain comes back. If a treatment is really working the pain should not come back. It should not just keep revolving around better-worse-better-worse, it should be a little better – a little better – gone. The exciting part about this is when I have the players who’s not injured and I see them on the table and I start treatment even though they have no injury and they tell me ‘everything’s fine, we have no pains’, I say let me look around and I find some minor problem and they say ‘hey, you fixed my minor problem and I jump a little higher, I was actually reaching a little further, I was doing the things and it felt easier’. It is exciting for me and a player who gets benefits he did not expect. That’s even better than a prevention, that’s making an athlete more efficient. He can move better, react quicker, be stronger, recover faster. So it cuts down the time they need to rest and recover, they can play longer, rest less, play more often, less down time.

No. It is all manual, all hands-on. I use computer for notes. We do have computer and machines to prove what we are doing – for other scientists, athletes who needed. But they aren’t needed for therapy.

Good question. They are a little banged up, beat up, maybe common for the end of the season but I think that especially with this kind of treatment it is possible to make them feel better. I tried to do it as good as I can in this short amount of time I am here.

It was developed by man named Greg Roskopf. He works in Denver, Colorado, with the Denver Broncos and the Denver Nuggets. He developed this technique 15 years ago. And he began teaching this technique, I learned from him. Now he is no longer teaching and I teach for him in the States and around the world. I work in the Muscle Activation private clinic in Austin, Texas, with few people working for me doing the treatment. We also do a kind of sports training to back up the treatment. We customize exercise programs that are more tailored to the athletes’ needs based on the treatment we see on the table. We are trying to make them stronger, faster and less injury prone.

My first experience with one of the players was with Sonny Weems. It started from him, thanks to Sonny, to his agent Roger. He was injured here in Moscow and he wasn’t getting better. So Roger asked if Sonny can go to States and see me, because we have a kind of relationship, I helped Roger with his injuries so he has faith in the technique. I worked with Sonny, he had an ankle problem. He stayed in my clinic for a couple of days; I actually did not see the ankle problem even though there the pain was. And I worked on his hips and his back and after few days he was fine. He got back home here in Russia and he is playing fine since. When I got here and started accessing the team members I made similar changes. We still need more work. Similar changes in Victor, Sasha and Milos has been good so far.

It’s been great. They’ve been very hospitable… As a matter of fact I had a Birthday on Thursday so they brought me a gift so… Everything has been nice, the accommodation was great, everyone treated us very well and I am thankful for that. I have been happy to be here. But the thing I excited about most is how the players do with my particular treatment.

Thirteen years ago I worked with professional golfer named Darren Clarke. I actually lived over in UK a little while. I had similar experience with him. The thing I was happy about this particular treatment – in sports with no contact the number of injuries should be significantly lower. There is no reason for injuries in golf, tennis, volleyball. Even in basketball which is semi-contact. Injuries either in non-contact sports or even in basketball injuries which come off no contact, their number should be significantly less. If there is an injury from non-contact situations that means that the athlete has problems with his muscles that can be prevented. You should care about the muscles, making sure that everything is working on optimal level so they isn’t break down when you do non-contact sports, so that running for a shot and pulling hamstring is not happen. If you are taking care on regular basis it should not happen.

Maybe so. Make some phone calls, get me into Timberwolves! (Laughs).

This technique can be applied to any sports. I have basketball, soccer, football, baseball, tennis players. As long as someone has muscular system and brain it works. There are typical injuries in every sport. For the baseball pitcher I gonna see the shoulder problem, for basketball players – ankle and knee problems. This treatment covers everything, head to toe.
Every muscle, all of them are working together. We can use the soccer player as an example. Imagine how if he has strong legs but problematic arms it can still affect the legs. It will be like running with your arms crossed very well. The weak neck can negatively affect his sprinting speed. So if we look holistically to everything, head to toe, and we find the problem with the shoulder we can make him running, sprinting and cutting better by working on this problems.

We might do that, we are talking about that. So maybe.