What do the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants have in common besides baseball? It’s acupuncture. Both teams employ a staff acupuncturist and the players are happy to share their clinical successes with the public. It is not uncommon for both amateur and professional athletes to use acupuncture. From olympic gymnastics to professional basketball, acupuncture has an important role.
New York Yankees
New York Yankees starting pitcher A.J. Burnett gets acupuncture from the team acupuncturist. When Burnett was considering signing with the Yankees, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman sweetened the deal by promising to sign on a team acupuncturist. Burnett says of acupuncture, “There’s no doubt in my mind that I think it’s helped… I found that I responded really well to the acupuncture….”
San Francisco Giants
Looking at the West Coast, San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Randy Johnson gets acupuncture from the SF Giant’s team acupuncturist. Randy Johnson is the 24th pitcher to win over 300 games and, at age 46, his is also one of the oldest to do so. Professional athletes have aged well using acupuncture. Morten Anderson, former field goal kicker for NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, received two acupuncture treatments per week as part of his ongoing healthcare program. At age 48, he was the second oldest player ever in the National Football League and retired as the NFL’s all-time leading scorer. He set the NFL record with the most games played at over 368 and has scored in excess of a record breaking 346 consecutive games.
Football, Basketball, Olympics
Other athletes who benefitted from acupuncture are football’s Joe Montana and defensive lineman Michael Strahan, basketball’s Dwayne Wade, Shaquille O’Neal, Jason Kidd, and Vladimir Radmonovic; and professional golf’s Fred Couples. Looking at olympic gold 2008, Nastia Liukin took the gymnastics women’s all-around olympic gold medal home with the help of acupuncture. Coming off of a bad year in 2007 with an ankle injury, this gymnastic from Texas used acupuncture to make a come-back all the way to olympic gold. In a process of continuing education, it is important for athletes to recognize the important tools for success and acupuncture is one of those important tools.
