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He Tore His Shoulder Playing Rugby. Now He Is a Rugby Team's Doctor.

Skylar Pond tore a labrum playing rugby in 2000 and chose rehab over surgery. He now treats the Seattle Seawolves and an MMA fight team from West Seattle.

<h2>The Clinic on California Avenue</h2> <p>Sports Medicine Northwest operates out of 2324 California Ave SW in West Seattle, reachable at 206-682-0676 or by email at info@sportsmednw.com. Co-owner Dr. Skylar Pond earned his Doctor of Chiropractic from the University of Western States in 2008, then added the school&#x27;s Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician credential. That is not a one-line bio. Pond holds a jiu-jitsu brown belt. He put in ten years of kettlebell sport and CrossFit. From 2010, he competed at CrossFit Games West Regionals for seven straight years. The competitive record is on the same bio page as the credentials.</p> <h2>The Shoulder That Started It</h2> <p>The turn toward sports medicine came in 2000, and it came from an injury. Pond tore the labrum in his right shoulder playing competitive rugby, confirmed on MRI. His bio says the options put to him were surgery or rehabilitation, and he took the rehabilitation. Eight years later he graduated as a chiropractor. Today he is team physician for a professional rugby side. The bio offers no outcome data beyond his own account, and mentions no follow-up scan. What it gives is the shape of the thing: the injury that sent him into this work is the same kind of injury the work now treats.</p> <h2>Team Physician for Rugby and MMA</h2> <p>Pond is team physician for the Seattle Seawolves, the city&#x27;s professional rugby side, and for the Ivan Salaverry MMA fight team. He also trains there. His bio has him competing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu as a brown belt out of Ivan Salaverry MMA, which makes him a patient of his own subject matter as well as its doctor. Before jiu-jitsu it was ten years of kettlebell sport, CrossFit and the Broken Skull Challenge. Rugby and mixed martial arts sit far apart on the spectrum of contact sports. Pond treats athletes from both out of one building in West Seattle, and rolls at one of them on his own time.</p> <h2>The Ring Dinger, By the Clinic&#x27;s Own Account</h2> <p>Sports Medicine Northwest also markets something more specific: certification in the Ring Dinger Technique, a trademarked spinal decompression method. The claim is the clinic&#x27;s own, made on its own page: before Sports Medicine Northwest certified, it says, no clinic in Seattle or anywhere in Washington state held that certification. No outside body is cited for the count, and none appears on the page making it. It is a claim about a credential, made by the holder of it.</p> <h2>Eight Providers and a Long Insurance List</h2> <p>Beyond chiropractic adjustment and the Ring Dinger certification, Sports Medicine Northwest runs a wide service list: PRP joint injections, IV therapy, shockwave therapy, acupuncture, cold laser treatment, orthopedic massage, Graston Technique and corrective exercise. The clinic&#x27;s site names eight staff members. They include Dr. Jessica D&#x27;Auria, Dr. Lauren Procopio, a naturopathic doctor, Alicia Pond, who practices East Asian medicine, and Shannon Lindstrand in orthopedic massage. The practice accepts a long list of insurers: Lifewise, Premera, UnitedHealthcare, Regence, Blue Cross Blue Shield, First Choice Health, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente and Medicare. Eight providers and nine insurance networks, in one building on California Avenue. The clinic describes what it does as blending strength and conditioning, competition and corrective exercise with chiropractic, massage, acupuncture and regenerative medicine, which is a wider brief than the word chiropractor usually carries.</p>

The Clinic on California Avenue

Sports Medicine Northwest operates out of 2324 California Ave SW in West Seattle, reachable at 206-682-0676 or by email at info@sportsmednw.com. Co-owner Dr. Skylar Pond earned his Doctor of Chiropractic from the University of Western States in 2008, then added the school's Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician credential. That is not a one-line bio. Pond holds a jiu-jitsu brown belt. He put in ten years of kettlebell sport and CrossFit. From 2010, he competed at CrossFit Games West Regionals for seven straight years. The competitive record is on the same bio page as the credentials.

The Shoulder That Started It

The turn toward sports medicine came in 2000, and it came from an injury. Pond tore the labrum in his right shoulder playing competitive rugby, confirmed on MRI. His bio says the options put to him were surgery or rehabilitation, and he took the rehabilitation. Eight years later he graduated as a chiropractor. Today he is team physician for a professional rugby side. The bio offers no outcome data beyond his own account, and mentions no follow-up scan. What it gives is the shape of the thing: the injury that sent him into this work is the same kind of injury the work now treats.

Team Physician for Rugby and MMA

Pond is team physician for the Seattle Seawolves, the city's professional rugby side, and for the Ivan Salaverry MMA fight team. He also trains there. His bio has him competing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu as a brown belt out of Ivan Salaverry MMA, which makes him a patient of his own subject matter as well as its doctor. Before jiu-jitsu it was ten years of kettlebell sport, CrossFit and the Broken Skull Challenge. Rugby and mixed martial arts sit far apart on the spectrum of contact sports. Pond treats athletes from both out of one building in West Seattle, and rolls at one of them on his own time.

The Ring Dinger, By the Clinic's Own Account

Sports Medicine Northwest also markets something more specific: certification in the Ring Dinger Technique, a trademarked spinal decompression method. The claim is the clinic's own, made on its own page: before Sports Medicine Northwest certified, it says, no clinic in Seattle or anywhere in Washington state held that certification. No outside body is cited for the count, and none appears on the page making it. It is a claim about a credential, made by the holder of it.

Eight Providers and a Long Insurance List

Beyond chiropractic adjustment and the Ring Dinger certification, Sports Medicine Northwest runs a wide service list: PRP joint injections, IV therapy, shockwave therapy, acupuncture, cold laser treatment, orthopedic massage, Graston Technique and corrective exercise. The clinic's site names eight staff members. They include Dr. Jessica D'Auria, Dr. Lauren Procopio, a naturopathic doctor, Alicia Pond, who practices East Asian medicine, and Shannon Lindstrand in orthopedic massage. The practice accepts a long list of insurers: Lifewise, Premera, UnitedHealthcare, Regence, Blue Cross Blue Shield, First Choice Health, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente and Medicare. Eight providers and nine insurance networks, in one building on California Avenue. The clinic describes what it does as blending strength and conditioning, competition and corrective exercise with chiropractic, massage, acupuncture and regenerative medicine, which is a wider brief than the word chiropractor usually carries.

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