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Akron chiropractor backs local athletes
BENJAMIN WHITE
Associate Editor
Published: December 17, 2012
The waiting room of Dr. Rick Battaglia's Fairlawn office looks like any other during an early weekday afternoon – a few chairs occupied by retirees. Behind a set of glass doors, however, lies a room full of exercise balls and brightly colored workout equipment, a geriatric playground during midday.
A new patient would never know that Battaglia has treated Cleveland Cavaliers, Olympians and countless collegiate athletes throughout his 27 years of practice as the sports world developed a burgeoning relationship with chiropractors.
Battaglia grew up in a sports-centric family in Youngstown, attending Boardman High School before playing as a stand-up defensive end for Youngstown State University. He eventually found himself confronting multiple shoulder separations that forced him off the field.
He worked with the team orthopedist and chiropractic physician to rehabilitate his shoulder, and Battaglia, a pre-med major, eventually decided to pursue a career as a chiropractor.
“My choice was either to have surgery to tighten up the muscles or hang it up,” he said. “So I just focused on school at that point.”
After finishing his undergraduate studies at The University of the State of New York, Battaglia received his doctorate degree from Cleveland Chiropractic College of Kansas City. He began working in 1985 and opened his own practice in 1989.
Battaglia’s practice, like the majority of chiropractors’, did not begin with any deliberate focus on sports. He mostly treated patients with general lower back and neck pain, including a University of Akron track and field coach with a problem in his cervical spine.
After his successful treatment, the track coach referred a few of his players, and Battaglia’s name spread through the athletic program.
“At first, it started as a trickle of some track athletes,” he said. “A couple years later, I started seeing some of the football team.”
Though he never entered into any official agreement with UA, Battaglia became known as the de facto UA athletic chiropractor, with Zips accounting for 15-20 of his weekly patients. He currently treats a wide range of athletes from UA teams including football, tennis and golf. He mostly volunteers his time with the students.
“It’s my way of giving back to the community,” said Battaglia, who has never spoken with press about his unique work with collegiate or professional athletes. “I’m sort of a staple there.”
Nowadays, Battaglia, who served as the president of the Ohio State Chiropractic Association from 2005-2006, remains a fixture in the stands at Zips sporting events. Former UA football coach J.D. Brookhart valued his contribution so much that he insisted Battaglia be included in the team’s official program and provided him with a Mid-American Conference Championship ring in 2005.
Battaglia has also treated a host of professional athletes, including a stint as the team chiropractor of the Akron Racers softball team. He said he routinely treats area NBA players and former Zips who have achieved success in the NFL. He also treats professional golfers passing through Akron for the Bridgestone Invitational.
The majority of his patients, office workers hunched over keyboards and coffee, benefit from his expertise in sports. Battaglia says his athletics-inspired practice places him in a minority of chiropractors; he routinely assigns special stretches and exercises to patients, even those who have never touched a football or golf club.
Chiropractic, founded as a vitalistic pseudoscience in 1890, endured many decades of revision and derision and from the medical community before morphing into an established and accepted science. Still, Battaglia estimates that only one in 10 NFL teams (including the champion New York Giants) employ a chiropractor. The athletic community has begun to employ noninvasive chiropractic methods as a way to speed up recovery timetables and prevent future injuries.
“If you all work as part of a team to help these players perform at their highest abilities, I think people are starting to see the benefits,” he said.