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Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: True Sports listeners, you're about to listen to the famed Dr. Sharif Tabbah, founder of Athletics Rehab in South Florida. Dr. Reef has a wealth of experience treating some of the NFL's very best athletes. He shares his wisdom on starting a practice, breaking down movement and assessing athleticism. You're also gonna hear him touch on understanding the basics, progressing exercises for the absolute elite, and whether or not one can truly isolate the VMO. As always, let me remind you, listen, learn and share this pod because this is how you're gonna help not just True Sports, but our profession as a whole of sports physical therapists. Now, if you want to join our team of True Sports PTs in Maryland, PA, or Delaware, we're always looking to add to our outstanding team. Just shoot me a DM @truesportspt on Instagram, or email me directly yoni@truesportspt.com. We look forward to hearing from you. For now, though, here is Dr. Reef.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: We got Dr. Reef with us from Athletics down in Florida. So excited to have you, Dr. Reef. Thanks for joining us.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Thanks for having me. Long time coming.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for working with all, with all the scheduling, and all the moving parts. I totally know how that goes. Tell the audience of sports, physical therapists that are listening in now, how you got to where you are.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Sure. So I started, I really started my career in the fitness industry, probably like 2004, three, four something like that. I got into personal training, with in school for business and really fell in love with the personal training side and fitness and exercise. Just, it really clicked for me and I really enjoyed it. So I was applying the things I learned to my own workouts and things like that and starting to get better results on that side. And as that improved, my love just grew deeper. Throughout that time, I had a client that was a physical therapist, a young guy, and he was over at Columbia University of New York. He was a clinician over there, and he had gone to New York University and he was like, listen, you're, you've got a pretty good handle on a lot of this stuff you should really think about going into physical therapy.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: And I had been lucky. I never had any major injuries and I had to do rehab, which is how a lot of PTs end up doing physical therapy. But this was kind of my first exposure to it and I really loved the idea. In 2008, you know, we had all the market crash issues and I watched how people's expenditures were changing and I found that, okay, in theory, if I'm dealing with people who are injured, that should be recession proof, who knew we'd be dealing with a potential recession now and determining how true that is. But so fast forward a bit and I ended up applying to PT school, finished my business degree first, and then went into PT school, ended up going to NYU, and then one day we had a guest lecturer, which was that same, old client of mine.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: So that was a pretty cool full circle moment and got a chance to see him and he said, wow, you actually did it, and here you are at NYU. So that was pretty funny. And, from there, just really enjoyed, I always knew orthopedics was the route I was gonna go and sports just that had, I had been doing performance enhancement, and corrective exercise specialties with my personal training along the way. And then I had always played sports growing up. And from there, I at NYU had kind of looked into how can I try to pursue my dream of working with professional athletes. And along the way got exposed to different opportunities and through one clinical instructor in New York referred me down to some other people down that in Miami that he had gone to school with and had some clinics that worked with pro athletes.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: So I did everything I could to work with the school to get that approved for my rotations. And I, you know, a lot of pushing and shoving, and we got it done and I came down, and I said, no matter what, I'm gonna make sure I kill it and these people wanna hire me. So did that, got successfully a job offer. Went back up to New York, took my exam, took my Florida license exam from there and everything and moved down and never looked back from there. I did a few years, working with these guys, learning everything I could and just developing myself and being exposed to a lot more on the high level performance side as well. And then branched off after about four years, opened up Athletics, this is now 2000 and probably 15, 16. And from there we kind of built athletics, started with one clinic and built it up into three now.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: That is awesome. What I hear a lot when I talk to students or people younger in their career, they say, I wanna work with pro athletes. It just seems to be like a common dream. Very rarely do I look down the pike and I look at an athlete that's not, that hasn't, or I look at a PT that hasn't stuck with us, that they're have met that dream or met that goal. So how do you do that? Give me the nitty gritty of how you filled your schedule with elite athletes.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Well, a lot of it comes from, I think, from having to do the necessary steps early on to put yourself in that type of situation, which for example, that's kind of the story I alluded to already. You know, leaving my friends, family and loved ones behind and chasing and pursuing an opportunity because I knew South Florida is one of probably the top three or four places in the country, only three or four places in the country you could really heavily, work with professional athletes on a year round basis. That's a nice draw of a location, the weather, all these kinds of things. So, that was one thing, being willing to take that leap of faith. Also not taking no for an answer, you know, when the school didn't want to give me, an out-of-state new residency location or a rotation location that, I just didn't accept that and I drove everybody crazy and did what I needed to do to get it done and then, and made sure that it happened. Also figuring out ways to stand out from the crowd. I always tell students coming out like, if you wanna get into sports, you can't just come out and say, Hey, here I am. I have my DPT. It's like, okay, so do you and everybody else, like, what else have you done to stand out from that crowd?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Things like I came out of PT school with my CSCS certification. I had had five years of personal training before even getting into PT school and, different things like that to make sure I set myself up for success, made sure all my rotations were based around that type of environment. Really chasing professional athletes along the way. And then trying to really provide, once you're out there in the field, I was lucky enough to have chased down an opportunity to put myself in that situation, but then from there, making sure that you're providing a service that stands out from the rest.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: The biggest thing I would say is when I recognize that a big difference working with professional athletes versus maybe recreational athletes and things like that, is you have to think more critically. You have to think outside of the box. You have to find new, unique ways to challenge the athlete while still, focusing on your primary goals from a rehabilitation or a performance standpoint, making sure that a four-way ankle isn't gonna be enough [chuckle], so how are we going to do the same type of four-way ankle strengthening that's required, but also maybe incorporate multiple body systems or a cognitive element or different things that we can continue to challenge a high level athlete to maintain their engagement, but also to be able to represent and replicate something more realistic to what they'll have to do in their sport. So I think taking those risks and being headstrong about what you want and then making sure you're able to just provide a good service and from there word of mouth will let it build.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah I love that. It's funny, I went through the same crap with my graduate school. I was just dying to work with elite level athletes and they're like, here's the list of hospitals that have outpatient clinics. I'm like, how the heck, how's that gonna help me? And so what, what kind of barriers did they put up around that? They just said you can't set up your own?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: I think it's, honestly, it's been a long time, so I don't remember a lot of the details, but I know it was a lot of challenges, every... The schools always say, sure, it's no problem if you wanna set up your own rotations, but then when the time comes to it, it's more headaches, more paperwork, more risks, whatever it might be, for the school. So they're not keen to go out of their way to make that happen and there's some schools even down in South Florida that I know not only frown upon it, but don't allow it. So that could be something that's important to understand.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: If you're a student that hasn't picked a PT school, potentially understanding what are the rules around establishing a new, clinical site? Should it be that you're not finding what you want on their list? And, I think that's an important element to understand when picking PT schools as well, is what does that clinical placement process look like? Some schools do lottery, some do first come, first serve some, so many different ways that it's done. I think it's an important thing to understand and know, hey, if I can, if I go out and find my own thing, 'cause this is really what I want and this is a place the does what I want to do, are you gonna work with me to get that done?
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. I think, that's really good advice. So it's really an awesome story of kind of you jumping over hurdles that were placed in front of you, what was the biggest challenge moving from an employee to being self-employed? And what was that decision really like for you?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Yeah, that's, there's a lot of things that are different there. Number one is the risk, obviously a lot of financial risk, a lot of responsibility, a lot of hurdles that you never knew you would have to overcome, because we see a lot of people that come out and they wanna, they wanna open their own practice or they wanna get more involved in the business side, and that's great, but you need to ask yourself, what have I done to prepare myself for that type of challenge? I even have a full business degree, a four year business degree and still felt under prepared in a lot of ways.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: And I'm still learning as we go seven and eight years later and I still feel like, I don't know [laughter] half of what I wish I did, so at PT degree, we come out and we learn how to do physical therapy so they don't prepare you for starting a business or running a business or all these elements. So there's a lot of things that you have to prepare yourself for. So I know throughout the process, I started, when I started to make the conscious decision that this is the direction I was gonna go, I started to listen to a lot of podcasts on business and books, audio books. I say a lot of audio 'cause I was doing it while driving and commuting to work and things like that, or at the gym and just trying to expand my education as much as I could to prepare myself as best I could. There is a great book and what is his name? Jared? The cash based PT. Do you know who I'm referring to? Jared, what's Jared's last name?
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: I know him as the cash based PT.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Yeah, so I can't remember his name, I mean, I did all his stuff and listened to all his podcasts and, that helped early on and just kind of got me thinking in a different way and things like that and then just trying to build a team that makes sense for you to try to grow with and overcome these obstacles as you go.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. Any other book recommendations? I get that question a lot. What are you in the middle of now that you would recommend to a sports PT listening to this?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Oh, that's tough to say, I think if we're talking business, like I mentioned the cash based PT stuff is great with, with Jared and from a leadership management standpoint, I did a lot of goodness, what's his name? The military...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Jocko.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Navy Seal Jocko. There you go. Jocko Jocko's books did all of his books great, great great reads and really good principles something I take home with me still and think about a lot is his primary principle of, as a leader, you have have to be able to look up and out. You can't be looking down and in, and he gives good examples in business and he gives good examples, in military and war and the concepts are the same and understanding, if you're head down in the weeds all the time, you can't figure out how to steer the ship and what direction you need to go, so finding the balance between those two things is very, very difficult, that's where building a really solid team around you comes and plays a massive, massive role.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, I think that's really important. Another military based leader, David Goggins always talks about his foxhole. Who do you have with you? Who are you going to battle with every day? And surrounding yourself with like-minded growth mindset individuals I've found to be super helpful and a challenge to discern who is it that that fits in that foxhole, right? I think that's such a heavy skill to learn is how do you gauge who's worthwhile? How do you gauge who to invest in? It sounds like, it sounds like you have figured it out. So tell me more about athletics. How is athletics structured, and what sets you apart in the landscape of elite level PTs?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: So in terms of how we're structured, I mean we're a clinic that tries to focus on quality over quantity, the best that we can changing reimbursements and things we present ever and neverending challenges. But the goal, we stay primarily out of network, and we try to keep our volume a bit lower so that we can improve our overall quality of care. It is an endless battle because, you know, as the economy is suffering and people have less money to spend, you have to battle that side of things a lot and it's forever a battle to demonstrate your value and why you cost more than, you know, the in network clinic across the street and things like that. So that's an endless, endless challenge. In terms of just the direction we try to go is really attacking the athletic individual, whether that's a professional or recreational or someone who's just in the military, you know, and I shouldn't say just someone who's in the military.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: We look at military personnel as athletes. Absolutely. So all of these different levels of athleticism really still equates to an athlete and how you're gonna treat them and how you're gonna approach that and making sure our team is all certified strength and conditioning specialists as well as doctors of physical therapy. And we all have a good understanding of the performance side of things as well as the rehab side. And everyone always talks about bridging the gap between performance and rehab. Like, okay, a lot of people say that, but how are we really doing that and what does it mean to really do that? Well, in order to really do that, you have to truly understand both sides of it and be able to demonstrate that and be able to take someone back from the post-operative table to all the way back to playing at a high level.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Dr. Reef, you make it easy to segue into my clinical side of this.
[laughter]
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Perfect.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: A lot of this is... Yeah, I appreciate that. So watching all of your outstanding content, you place a tremendous emphasis on balance, proprioception, stability, and things of that nature. Why do you place such an effort on that and where do you learn those things?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: So I think it's very important to incorporate a lot of that stability, training and balance and proprioception, because number one, it's especially when you're dealing with athletes, but with anybody, you're addressing overall coordination. You're improving, co-contraction, stability, muscle activation, and just overall health of the muscles and joints and things. So in life, you'll get a lot of, we'll get a lot of criticism of like, oh, you don't play, you know, football on a bosu ball, or you don't play basketball on an unstable surface. Like, okay, that's obviously true...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Speaking of... Yeah go ahead.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: That's absolutely true. However, you also don't move like a robot either. So if we train very uni planner all the time, then we rehab very uni planner. What's gonna happen when we get dynamic down the field or on the court? I mean, a great example is looking at like ankle sprains in basketball. I mean, so you're not getting away from ankle sprains. People are attacking the board, they're landing on each other's feet. I mean, there's just no way, it's gonna happen. So how do we improve their ability to withstand that or avoid it? You could say it's really, it's not even so much avoid it as it is withstand it because as you improve someone's proprioceptive awareness, say they're on a bosu ball and they're doing an exercise, and that ankle starts to roll to different end ranges, that is starting to develop eccentric strength at those end ranges.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: It's starting to develop a cognitive awareness and proprioceptive awareness of where they are in space so that their body understands if someone's not trained in that way and they get into a slightly averted position or inverted position rather, and they're starting to roll the ankle, they could either throw a spasm, which is the body's response to trying to protect it, which could result in an issue, muscle cramp or a strain, or it could roll all the way and they don't have enough control to decelerate and change that direction, which does result in a sprain or a tear.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: So by training in that type of environment, we're able to prepare the body and work all those proprioceptors and be comfortable in those uncomfortable positions. Now, no one's saying that there isn't an important place for traditional strength and conditioning as well, or traditional rehab exercises as well. Of course there is, we'll do balanced training on the floor as well. Doesn't have to always be on an unstable surface, might not be as, as, you know, as sexy on social media and things like that, but it's a very, very real, component of what an athlete or any individual in general needs to be also working on.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, I mean, I think you do a good job of understanding the entire range of challenging an athlete, right? And so you gotta check those boxes, make sure that they can do it on flat ground before you have them standing on whatever type of ridiculously unstable surface I've seen you have them stand on. Right. So just making sure you're following that progression and know how to scale, how to progress, but also scale. And I think you do, you guys do a great job of it. Talk to me about your change of direction coaching and how you teach and approach acceleration, deceleration and change of direction teaching.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Sure. When you start talking about change of direction and linear speed and things, it's really important that we, as clinicians or coaches or whomever, really have a good understanding of what does that mean? What do those mechanics need to look like? And what are the differences? You know, you see a lot of exercises done, especially with social media, and say, okay, do we know what we're doing and why? And what are we working on? Are we doing a wall drill, which is supposed to be designed for acceleration and striking back and down? And we're super-setting that with build-up runs and max velocity type exercises. Okay, well, one is not necessarily related to the other. Yes, they're both related to sprinting, but are we putting it together in an organized and intelligent fashion? And I think that whether we're talking about change of direction, speed, decel, or exercises, the same concept remains, which is progressions and regressions. So if we can start at a regressed level and work our way through a logical progression, then that is going to prepare the movement, prepare the athlete, and work on the individual steps and then get us up to that dynamic level. A good example would be like, if we're going to do a, say, a crossover drill over a hurdle, we're going to lateral crossover. So we're going to bring the outside leg across.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: It's going to be like a one, two, three. So as we come across, we might just do what we call an individual first. We come over the hurdle, focusing on those mechanics, bam-bam. And we get back to base. Come across, bam-bam. Now, what do we want to see? Are the hips flipping the way we want? Are the arms being thrown? Is the trunk torso going in one direction and the hips in the opposite? You know, do all those little pieces look correct? And we coach through that and make sure it does. Once that's all looking good, we get into the next level, which could be something that we call like reflexive. So we're going to go over and we're going to come back. So they're going to hit the crossover. They're going to come straight back across. And then they pause. So now it's gotten a little bit more dynamic over the true change of direction, right, where we're actually going to the right and now we're coming back to the left. With that, some footwork might need to change. It's the same mechanics of what we just worked on, but now they're pivoting off of that inside leg, or they're going to pick it up and put it back down so that we're getting a reciprocal foot movement to keep us dynamic on the field. You'd be surprised how many high level athletes will do a drill like that and they'll pivot off of an inside leg, which is like, okay, maybe that feels natural to you.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: But what happens if you're shadowing me and instead of me coming back this way, which you thought I actually come back the other way. Now, if you're pivoting, you're closed off to me and you can't make the turn. You've got a speed turn to come around, you know, something like that. So we work on those little mechanics. If that looks good, we can go to the next level, which is maybe what we'll call continuous, which is over and back, over and back, over and back. So without stopping, can we actually hit that reverse button going back and forth multiple times in a row and still keep those good mechanics from the ground up, from the ankles, from the knees, from the hips, from the arms, the trunk, everything going in a good way. If that all looks good, then we maybe say, okay, what did we even do this drill for? Maybe we're working on a DV who has to read the receiver, drop, crossover, run, and then needs to flip his hips and break the other direction. Okay, cool. So now let's actually work on that. So you literally built from the very low level individual mechanic to a reflexive, to a continuous, to like a dynamic, actual sports specific movement.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Dude, that's good freaking PT like right there. Yeah, you gotta...
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Appreciate it.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Have that around, right? But you gotta know. Here's what I heard that was so important to me. You have to know what a perfect one rep looks like. Before you know how to scale, before you know how to progress, before you get sports specific, what does an awesome rep look like? And to your point, not just at the hips, not just at the knee, not just at the affected limb, the entire chain. And that is the beauty of pulling on a solid foundation of exercise movement or human movement. But then to understand, then to be able to teach the athlete, this is a great rep. Here's what I need you to look on. Here's what I want you to focus on. Then here's how we're going to progress. And too often, understanding those good mechanics, you're absolutely right. Even on the Dr. Reef Instagram feed, it's impossible to know that early stage that you've already checked that box, right? So it's just awesome to hear that, that you got to see the good mechanics, know good mechanics, and then be able to teach and articulate the good mechanics without overloading the athlete. So that is, that's super well put. I wish I would have gotten that in grad school. Where did you get that?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: You know what's funny, I get asked that question a lot. I don't have a great answer. I think being around it for a long time, being in the industry for a long time in terms of a good background where you understood the personal training side, and then the performance side, and then the physical therapy side, and then putting yourself in environments where you get to see it done at a high level and learn. I had a professor in PT school who always said, "All you need to know is your anatomy and your kinesiology. And if you know those two, you'll be great when it comes to, especially with orthopedics." So that always stuck with me and I said, "Okay, let me make sure I always understand those things." So I always... Let me say it like this, I always tell people, you don't have to necessarily know a sport perfectly or have played the sport to be able to coach the mechanics if you're good with movement and biomechanics. You can just study some film of things being done well or in real time and understand, "Okay, this is what that movement pattern should look like, and this is how I could maybe improve that movement pattern to improve efficiency based on my knowledge and understanding of movement, kinesiology, and anatomy." And then from there, develop drills that make sense to specifically work on that function or restore that function if we're talking about rehab or whatever it might be.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: One of the most common questions I get asked, like, "What book do you read to learn all this balance stuff or all this core work or all these progressions on the field?" It's like, "Well, I don't know. I never read one." It's more just understanding everything and being able to put it all together and use your creative mind and not being afraid to create. As long as you have a good logic, I always tell our team, "Have a why behind everything you do." If you know why you're doing what you're doing and you have a rationale, then you're not wrong.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, I love that. Your answer to that question should be the Dr. Reef handbook, which I assume it's forthcoming. That should be your freaking answer, but I think you're right. Remember what that takes, so that takes prep and that takes care. You have to understand what's the goal of the session, what's the goal of the exercise, what's the goal of the words that come out of your mouth. All of that needs to be tightened up, and that's going to help you find your why. Dr. Reef, you might be the busiest physical therapist in the entire country, so I want to be super respectful of your time. I'm going to wrap this up with a rapid-fire round. Ready?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Yes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: I did not send you these. Here are your five questions. You ready?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Yes.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Who's your favorite athlete?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Oh man, I can't do that 'cause you're gonna get me in trouble.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Everyone's got to have a favorite athlete. Mine's Patrick Ewing. Who's yours?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Oh, wow. I mean, Michael Jordan. It has to.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: That's a horrible answer. Dude, are you from New York?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Nope... I am, but so what?
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay, I'm not from New York.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: What he would do in the air and the way that he would move. He just did things that no one else could do. He defied gravity, his comfort. Talk about body. Talk about spatial awareness and just being comfortable in the air. Crazy.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: If he plays today, is he as dominant?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: It's a different game now, I guess, right, so.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Thank you, I appreciate it.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Hey, it doesn't matter. He played when he played.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: He played when he played, you're right. As a Knicks fan, the guy ruined my childhood, so I can't say I'm a Jordan fan. Next. Ready? Favorite exercise.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Favorite exercise.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Don't repeat the question, doctor.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: So are we talking about for myself? Are we talking about for rehab purposes? Are we talking about this? We need more context.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yes. Yes.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Yes to all those. Love that. My number one rehab exercise that I will, it's more so that I will incorporate with a million different things is the TKE, the terminal knee extension. I want to take that and I want to add that to a million different movements to make sure that we're really hitting that VMO, hitting that good quad squeeze and taking a basic little exercise like a step down, adding a TKE, an RDL, adding a TKE, a Bulgarian, adding a TKE. So kind of a cheat because I get to add it to a lot of different things...
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: You do, man.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: But that's probably my answer.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: That makes a good answer. Can you isolate the VMO? Can that really be a sweet spot...
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Right. I knew I was going to get that question back. I knew I was going to get that one. As soon as I said it, I knew I was going to get it. Well, we'll leave that to be debated for all the researchers, but I'll tell you what. I find that I use it to work on attacking that VMO where we feel a palpable decreased tone and things like that coming off of longstanding knee injuries. We see a lot of athletes that have had a knee injury that they played through and the off-season time, they just want to kind of get it back right. And we're finding good tone through the lateralis and we just get to that VMO and that medialis has just got a lot of lack of tone. And once you start really hammering these TKEs and all kinds of variations, a lot of that really does improve, so.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. I'll take it. I'll debate you on a later pod, but it was a worthwhile answer. Okay.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Fair enough.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Downside of treating pro athletes.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: That's easy. I would say you're always on their schedule to some degree.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: I hate that. I hate that...
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: So, you know, you set your boundaries, but to some degree, you're kind of always on their schedule. You do your best to work around it, but.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Urgh! Just show up on time, guys. I know you're listening to this pod. Just show up on time. You made an appointment with Dr. Reef. He's got other things to do. You're not the only human in the world. Just show up on time. He just wants you to stand on a bosu. Okay, the number one IG that you follow is who?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Oh, wow. That's a tough one.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Don't say Dr. Reef.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Yeah, duh. Athletics page? No. So, man, I really don't know. To be honest with you, I'm the worst because I'm on social. I'll do my post and I'm off social. Which is probably why my engagement isn't as good as it could be. I try not to spend too much time on there. I mean, honestly, most of my social feed is all NFL related. I'm staying in touch with what's going on, staying in touch with, you know, anybody who's injured, seeing how all our athletes are doing and things like that. So my feed is a lot of football and then it's all I do a lot of scuba diving and travel. So it's all like football and travel, so.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Well, I love it. And if you could if visit one place or go back to one place that you recently visited, it would be where?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Favorite place in the world is without a doubt, Costa Rica.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Oh, that was quick.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Yeah.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay, deal.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Yeah, without a doubt.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Good. Like well-founded, far reaching. I appreciate you indulging that. Tell our audience of sports PTs where they can find you.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Absolutely. So you could find find me at @doctor_reef. It's spelled out. D-O-C-T-O-R underscore R-E-E-F. And then, of course, @athleticsrehab and as well as @athletics.performance. Those are all our social handles and we're at athleticsrehab.com.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: I love it. And where are you taking athletics in the next five years? What's your goal?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: You know, our goal is to continue to grow and build a solid team and open up to more locations and having the right team. And right now, we're really focused on slowing down our growth to really build up a solid team so that we can grow at a more effective and sustainable rate.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Oh, I love that because it hints at something that I've I've worked hard on. You can grow really fast, but are you growing really intelligently?
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: For sure. And as the market changes and the economy changes, new challenges continue to arrive. You know, you survived COVID and thought that there's nothing else that can come at you, but really all the COVID challenges are really arriving now, so.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, you're exactly right. So Dr. Reef, you've been awesome. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you daily. I'm sure we can get you back on and dig in to the VMO, how to best isolate and recruit your vastus medialis, thank you so much. I look forward to catching up soon.
Dr. Sharif Tabbah: Sounds great. Thanks, Yoni. I really appreciate you. Take care.
Dr. Yoni Rosenblatt: All right.
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