Sports Physical Form
Learn all about what Sports Physical Forms are generally for and download a general template for your school, local little league, or your city’s team!
What is a Sports Physical Form?
Sports Physical Forms, also known as Pre-participation Physical Examination Forms, are important documents that athletes need to have and accomplish before participating in a sporting event. They are normally required by schools, little leagues, and sports organizations that manage sporting events.
Sports Physical Forms are important to organizers of sporting events because these forms ensure that the athletes participating in certain sporting events are healthy. At the same time, these forms also identify if athletes have health issues and/or abnormalities that might put them at risk if they participate in certain events.
These forms normally have three parts:
- The first part is a medical questionnaire, which mostly contains questions about a person’s medical history. This asks patients about the times they went to a hospital or clinic for a check-up or emergency, what kinds of conditions they were diagnosed with (if any), their family’s medical history, how they are feeling now, etc.
- The second part is a physical examination sheet. Athletes are required to have themselves checked by licensed physicians. This is the medical screening part and the results and findings of the physician will dictate whether or not the athlete is allowed to participate in a certain sporting event.
- The last part is the clearance section, which is filled out by the attending physician. This is the part where the physician will decide to clear them for competition or to forbid them from participating due to certain risks.
Printable Sports Physical Form
Download this Sports Physical Form to assess the readiness of athletes prior to physical exercise.
How do Sports Physical Forms work?
Before we get to the meat, it’s best you know that Sports Physical Forms normally have certain laws they need to comply with. These laws are often mandated by a school, a city, a state, a province, an organization, etc. Given that, some forms have more hoops and more sections that need to be filled out. What we will be discussing is simply for general forms, not ones specific to certain places.
The first thing usually done is the athlete writing their clerical information ( full name, date of birth, father’s and mother’s names, parents’/guardians’ contact details, etc.).
The second thing they need to do is answer a medical questionnaire. If they are answering a printed form, they just need to put checkmarks on the answers they think are appropriate. If it’s an editable PDF, they just need to tick checkboxes. Here are some questions that they would normally have to answer:
- Have you ever stopped exercising because of dizziness or passed out during exercise?
- Have you ever had chest pain or discomfort in your chest during or after exercise?
- Has anyone in your family died of heart problems or sudden death before age 50?
- Does anyone in your family have a heart condition?
- Have you ever had a head injury or concussion?
- Do you have trouble breathing, or do you cough during or after activity?
- Do you take any medications for asthma (for instance, inhalers)?
The third thing athletes need to do is to see a physician who normally handles athletes, especially for pre-participation medical check-ups. The physician will test athletes, usually the following: their eyes, ears, throat, nose, neck, lungs, cardiovascular, etc.
The physician will check if these body parts are okay or if there are any abnormalities. They will indicate their findings on the sheet.
Depending on the findings, the physician will either clear them for competition or forbid them due to certain abnormalities, which may pose a risk for the athlete if left unchecked, so they will likely be recommended for further evaluation. They will do so by ticking the appropriate checkboxes and signing the form.
Sports Physical Form Example
Now that you know what Sports Physical Forms are all about and what it normally contains, it’s time for you to see what one looks like! We at Carepatron created a general and printable Sports Physical Form PDF template, and here is what a filled-out sample looks like.
Download this Sports Physical Form Example (Sample) here:
If you are running a school or are part of a sports organization, and you’re looking for a Sports Physical Form template to issue to athletes, feel free to download the template that we’ve made. If you like what you see and think this template is good enough, don’t hesitate to download and make as many copies as you want! You can choose to print it and have athletes and physicians fill it out in person, or if you want to go paperless, issue this to them via email! Though, we still recommend that you issue physical copies. You don’t have to think about online logistics that way unless you already have a system in place.
When would one normally use a Sports Physical Form?
Whether you’re using this printable Sports Physical Form or another, these forms, in general, are issued whenever there is an upcoming competition. These will be issued by a school or by whatever organization is handling the event.
Since these forms require athletes to have themselves examined by a physician, these are typically issued several weeks before a competition so that the athlete is given enough time to not only fill out the medical questionnaire but also to have themselves checked by a physician at the nearest medical facility.
If you are part of an organization and have already partnered up with medical facilities for your event, inform all athletes to visit the facilities you’ve partnered with so they know where to go for their medical examinations.
Sports Physical Forms are usually good for an entire season of events, so one should suffice for every season, even if there are multiple events. Though, if an athlete gets injured or gets sick at any time within the season, it would be best to have them fill out another Sports Physical Form and get evaluated to ensure that they have recovered or to check if they are still at risk.
What are the benefits of using a Sports Physical Form?
It can identify potential health issues.
Given that Sports Physical Forms require athletes to be examined by a physician, this form can serve as a jumping pad for athletes to find out if they have health issues. Sure, they can answer certain questions on the questionnaire that are about their having afflictions in the past. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have those afflictions now, but what if they have a different set of afflictions this time, and they’re just unaware of it? The physical examination can bring things to light, and athletes can have abnormalities addressed as soon as possible.
It can keep athletes from getting hurt due to potential health issues they may have.
Yes, it is absolutely disappointing and frustrating for an athlete to get barred from participating in a sporting event they have spent their blood, sweat, and tears training for. But no sporting event is worth it if they end up putting their lives on the line because of a health condition. As sad as it is to be forbidden to participate, Sports Physical Forms can also save lives and spare athletes any danger by identifying potential health issues. These health issues may be aggravated by simply participating in a game, or they might affect them in the sense that they are more likely to get injured.
It can promote healthy habits and remind athletes to take care of themselves.
Let’s say that the physical examination does result in the athlete not being cleared. They can seek advice on how to get healthy or healthier based on the results, even if they’re disappointed that they weren’t cleared. The frustration can become the motivation to get cleared for the next set of competitions. They will be able to develop healthy habits and find ways to train using more efficient and safer methods to make them less injury prone.
Why use Carepatron for your sports-related work?
Sports isn’t all about the games, you know! Health has a lot to do with it. Let’s say you’re a sports physician, a coach, a trainer, or an events organizer; you want your athletes to be healthy! Sports Physical Forms can help with that since they mandate athletes to get themselves checked. Download our Sports Physical Form template from our resource repository and issue it to your athletes before a season officially begins!
If you take the time to browse around our resource repository, you’ll even find awesome exercises to add to your training, in the event that you don’t have them. We have the likes of the Harvard Step Test and even the Illinois Agility Test. You can download our templates for those as well to gauge your athletes!
Using our platform will also grant you access to our storage system, where you can store your clinical documents in a HIPAA-compliant manner. Scan filled-out copies of our Sports Physical Form PDF and store them with us to create digital backups! Just in case one of your athletes loses a form by accident, you have a backup!
Here, at Carepatron, we’re all about helping you do your work better! So download as many resources as you want and need for free!
Commonly asked questions
If they fail, it’s likely they will not be cleared to compete and will be endorsed for further evaluations. This will most likely be a frustrating and disappointing outcome, but it’s best for the athlete because it’ll give them the opportunity if there’s something wrong with them that they need to address. It’ll give them a chance to find ways to get healthy so they can get cleared for the next set of competitions.
That depends on where they’re from. Some cities, states, countries, or sporting event organizers have different sets of rules. Normally, athletes only need to do this once per season. Some only need to fill one out annually.
They need to get themselves checked, then it’s up to the physician to determine if they should compete or not. If the illness they had isn’t so bad, there might be a good chance that the physician will allow them to compete while reminding them to take it easy. If it’s bad, they won’t be allowed and will need to be evaluated again later. If they get sick midway through the seasonm but get well enough quickly, they can return midway instead of waiting for the next season.
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