Conditions
Athletic skill is physical and neurological. Balance, reaction time, coordination, visual tracking, and recovery all depend on the brain and nervous system working together with the muscles and joints. This page explains how we look at the nervous system side of performance and recovery, and where our care fits alongside coaches, trainers, athletic trainers, and medical providers. It is general information, not a diagnosis.
Any head injury with confusion, repeated vomiting, worsening headache, drowsiness, weakness, or seizure needs emergency care. See the warning signs on our Concussion & Brain Injury page. Severe neck or back pain after a hit, fall, or collision also calls for emergency care. Mayo Clinic lists severe neck pain after an injury as an emergency sign (Mayo Clinic, May 2026).
Dr. Wright is a Doctor of Chiropractic with advanced training in functional neurology. He is not an orthopedic surgeon. We do not replace your coach, athletic trainer, physical therapist, or physician. Our role is to look at how the nervous system is working and to support the rest of your team.
Proprioception is your sense of where your body is in space. It draws on position sensors in the joints and muscles, the inner ear, and the eyes, and the brain combines them in real time. After an injury, fatigue, or time away from training, that sense can be less sharp, which can mean slower corrections and less stable landings.
A 2010 systematic review in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise looked at neuromuscular training for preventing sports injuries. In the seven well-conducted studies, programs that combined several types of exercise lowered the risk of lower-limb injuries, acute knee injuries, and ankle sprains. Balance training alone lowered ankle sprains (Hübscher and colleagues, 2010).
Our evaluation looks at balance inputs one at a time and at how the brain combines them. If one input is lagging, training can challenge it in ways that fit your sport.
Reacting to a ball, puck, or opponent involves a chain: the eyes take in the scene, the brain processes motion and position, decides, and sends the command to move. Eye-tracking, visual processing, and timing all play a part. Sleep, fatigue, and a past head impact can also slow things down.
We can test eye movements and visual tracking as part of an evaluation and talk through what we find.
Returning to sport after an injury is a decision made with your physician, athletic trainer, or therapist. After a suspected concussion, an athlete should not return to play until cleared by a healthcare provider. Our part can be a closer look at balance, eye movements, and coordination, so that lingering problems are not overlooked. We do not issue medical clearance. See our Concussion & Brain Injury page for more.
Knee, hip, and shoulder problems are covered in our Chronic Pain page. For hands-on soft tissue work, see Myofascial Release.
We start with a conversation about your sport, your history, and what is holding you back. Then we examine balance, eye movements, coordination, and how the nervous system is responding, as described on our Neurological Exam & Evaluation page. If it makes sense, care is built around exercises designed to challenge the systems that are lagging. We tell you honestly when something else, such as strength training or physical therapy, is the better next step.
We can look for balance or visual processing problems and work on them, alongside your training.
Yes, we evaluate people with lingering symptoms after a head injury. See our Concussion & Brain Injury page.
No. Return to play is a decision for your physician or athletic trainer.
No. Weekend runners, golfers, and gym regulars are welcome.
Bring any imaging or reports and a list of current symptoms and medicines. Wear comfortable clothes.
Next steps
If you want a closer look at the nervous system side of your performance or recovery,