Movement is at the heart of everything Certified Athletic Therapists (ATs) do: from helping clients move better, to teaching movement patterns, to restoring function after an injury. For Richard DeMont, PhD, Certified AT, and Director of Concordia University’s Athletic Therapy Program, this shared focus is also what connects athletic therapy to another important framework: physical literacy.
Physical literacy refers to the motivation, confidence, physical competence, and understanding needed to value and take responsibility for being active throughout life. It provides a natural overlap with the goals of athletic therapy, as both prioritize movement quality, confidence and education as keys to lifelong health.
For Richard, these parallels are not just theoretical; they’re lived through decades of practice. From sidelines and clinics to the classroom and research, he's seen how the principles of physical literacy can enhance prevention, rehabilitation and overall wellness in clients across all ages.
Richard’s journey into athletic therapy fittingly began with teaching. “I was training to be a Physical Education teacher. There were varsity sports at the university I went to, and I helped out,” he recalled. His interest deepened in his prevention and care courses, where he learned basic assessment, CPR and taping; skills that inspired him to pursue a career in athletic therapy full-time.
After several years working in clinics and university settings, Richard realized his passion extended beyond hands-on care to education and research. When he was asked to teach the Prevention and Care course in the university’s physical education program—where he was working as a Certified AT— the role required him to return to school and earn a master's degree. That experience opened a new dimension of his career and set off his journey into teaching and research.
In the academic environment, Richard became increasingly interested in how the principles he applied daily in injury management could be better understood, taught, and studied. A turning point came when he attended a talk on physical literacy and met his current research collaborator, David Arsenault from Champions For Life, a Canadian charity dedicated to developing physical literacy in children and young people across the country.
That encounter re-ignited his interest in the preventative side of athletic therapy. Richard began investigating how physical literacy could help people be proactive about injuries. That is, researching movement skills that avoid vulnerable positions and build the muscle control needed to protect joints when ligaments can’t.
Within the physical literacy framework, Richard’s research now centres on movement competence, the ability to move with control, confidence and awareness. “Instead of focusing on the product, like how many push-ups you can do or how high you can jump, it is about the process,” he explained. “How well do you move? How well do you land? Are you putting yourself in vulnerable positions?”
This “process over product” mindset is transformative, especially when working with children or clients returning from an injury. By teaching quality of movement rather than outcome, both physical literacy concepts and athletic therapy treatment can help individuals build movement confidence and aim to prevent future injuries.
While physical literacy is primarily youth-oriented, Richard notes its relevance extends far beyond childhood. “There are adults who don’t have good movement capacity,” he said. “If Athletic Therapists, regardless of where they work, recognize the foundations of physical literacy, the movement competence, motivation, and instilling confidence in their clientele, it provides a strong framework for preventative and rehabilitation goals.”
“Someone might come in with a lower back injury and be scared to move,” Richard shares. “That’s not so different from a child who’s afraid to try a new skill. In both cases, we teach them incrementally, small, achievable steps that help them move a little better, build confidence, and eventually realize, ‘I can get better.’”
This approach of emphasizing gradual learning, confidence-building, and awareness of movement quality is physical literacy in action; helping people to move well, understand their bodies and trust their ability to improve.
Richard’s career has come full circle, from working hands-on with athletes, to teaching prevention and care, to now leading research that shapes how we think about movement and can inform athletic therapy practice. His journey reflects the evolution of athletic therapy itself, which is grounded in prevention, driven by education, and constantly expanding to include new understandings of how people move.
Through his collaboration with organizations like the Champions for Life Foundation, Richard has also contributed to the development of tools that strengthen this connection between movement and prevention, including the ChildFIRST (Child Focused Injury Risk Screening Tool), designed to identify movement vulnerabilities early and build stronger, safer foundations for activity.
Physical literacy, as Richard sees it, is not separate from athletic therapy, but works hand-in-hand with it. Both share the same goal of helping people move with confidence, competence, and purpose. Whether it’s a child learning to land safely after a jump or an adult relearning to trust their body after injury, the principles remain the same.
For Certified Athletic Therapists, integrating physical literacy means more than adding a new framework; it’s about reinforcing what’s already at the heart of the profession: empowering people through movement, for life.
To learn more about how athletic therapy integrates movement, education, and prevention into care, visit www.athletictherapy.org and explore how Certified ATs support movement for life.
Physical literacy refers to the motivation, confidence, physical competence, and understanding needed to value and take responsibility for being active throughout life. It provides a natural overlap with the goals of athletic therapy, as both prioritize movement quality, confidence and education as keys to lifelong health.
For Richard, these parallels are not just theoretical; they’re lived through decades of practice. From sidelines and clinics to the classroom and research, he's seen how the principles of physical literacy can enhance prevention, rehabilitation and overall wellness in clients across all ages.
Richard’s journey into athletic therapy fittingly began with teaching. “I was training to be a Physical Education teacher. There were varsity sports at the university I went to, and I helped out,” he recalled. His interest deepened in his prevention and care courses, where he learned basic assessment, CPR and taping; skills that inspired him to pursue a career in athletic therapy full-time.
After several years working in clinics and university settings, Richard realized his passion extended beyond hands-on care to education and research. When he was asked to teach the Prevention and Care course in the university’s physical education program—where he was working as a Certified AT— the role required him to return to school and earn a master's degree. That experience opened a new dimension of his career and set off his journey into teaching and research.
In the academic environment, Richard became increasingly interested in how the principles he applied daily in injury management could be better understood, taught, and studied. A turning point came when he attended a talk on physical literacy and met his current research collaborator, David Arsenault from Champions For Life, a Canadian charity dedicated to developing physical literacy in children and young people across the country.
That encounter re-ignited his interest in the preventative side of athletic therapy. Richard began investigating how physical literacy could help people be proactive about injuries. That is, researching movement skills that avoid vulnerable positions and build the muscle control needed to protect joints when ligaments can’t.
Within the physical literacy framework, Richard’s research now centres on movement competence, the ability to move with control, confidence and awareness. “Instead of focusing on the product, like how many push-ups you can do or how high you can jump, it is about the process,” he explained. “How well do you move? How well do you land? Are you putting yourself in vulnerable positions?”
This “process over product” mindset is transformative, especially when working with children or clients returning from an injury. By teaching quality of movement rather than outcome, both physical literacy concepts and athletic therapy treatment can help individuals build movement confidence and aim to prevent future injuries.
While physical literacy is primarily youth-oriented, Richard notes its relevance extends far beyond childhood. “There are adults who don’t have good movement capacity,” he said. “If Athletic Therapists, regardless of where they work, recognize the foundations of physical literacy, the movement competence, motivation, and instilling confidence in their clientele, it provides a strong framework for preventative and rehabilitation goals.”
“Someone might come in with a lower back injury and be scared to move,” Richard shares. “That’s not so different from a child who’s afraid to try a new skill. In both cases, we teach them incrementally, small, achievable steps that help them move a little better, build confidence, and eventually realize, ‘I can get better.’”
This approach of emphasizing gradual learning, confidence-building, and awareness of movement quality is physical literacy in action; helping people to move well, understand their bodies and trust their ability to improve.
Richard’s career has come full circle, from working hands-on with athletes, to teaching prevention and care, to now leading research that shapes how we think about movement and can inform athletic therapy practice. His journey reflects the evolution of athletic therapy itself, which is grounded in prevention, driven by education, and constantly expanding to include new understandings of how people move.
Through his collaboration with organizations like the Champions for Life Foundation, Richard has also contributed to the development of tools that strengthen this connection between movement and prevention, including the ChildFIRST (Child Focused Injury Risk Screening Tool), designed to identify movement vulnerabilities early and build stronger, safer foundations for activity.
Physical literacy, as Richard sees it, is not separate from athletic therapy, but works hand-in-hand with it. Both share the same goal of helping people move with confidence, competence, and purpose. Whether it’s a child learning to land safely after a jump or an adult relearning to trust their body after injury, the principles remain the same.
For Certified Athletic Therapists, integrating physical literacy means more than adding a new framework; it’s about reinforcing what’s already at the heart of the profession: empowering people through movement, for life.
To learn more about how athletic therapy integrates movement, education, and prevention into care, visit www.athletictherapy.org and explore how Certified ATs support movement for life.
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