Aaron Gootzeit, DC, MS, CSCS
Louisiana Tech University – Kinesiology, Exercise and Health Promotion (2012)
Louisiana Tech University – M.S., Kinesiology, Sports Performance (2014)
Palmer University- Doctor of Chiropractic (2021)
There have been many twists and turns throughout my education and professional career that have somehow brought me to an amazing point in my life. Currently I am a Chiropractor that specializes in rehabilitation and performance. My patients range from Little League Baseball players with overuse shoulder injuries to high performing athletes preparing for their upcoming season or to come back from an injury to 81 year olds who do not want to stop exercising and being active. I love my career choice not only for the people I get to work with but also because it is in line with a journey I set out on many years ago and allows me to use almost all of the skills I have acquired along the way.
I grew up in New York City, and like most people in that area I had no idea where Louisiana Tech was or that it even existed. In 2008 I transferred to Tech and had absolutely no idea where I was going or how I was going to get there. I was already a kinesiology student at my past school and decided I should stick to the major. That’s when I took my first Dr. Szymanski class and got absolutely shaken up, motivated, and intrigued. The wake up call that was “Exercise Physiology”, propelled me down a path of growth and self development. During this time of growth and development, I picked up 2 passions: personal training/helping others achieve goals and Rugby (shout out to Tech Rugby).
Fast forward to one of my last quarters as an undergrad student, I was making my schedule and realized I only had “one more Doc class” left and it was “Strength and Conditioning ”. It sounded interesting and I was pretty excited to learn. This class changed my life and inspired me to continue my education in the graduate program in the Kinesiology Department pursuing a Masters in Kinesiology and Sport Performance. This would be my first step to becoming a strength and conditioning coach in professional rugby.
During grad school I continued to play rugby and was able to help rebuild the Tech Rugby program and even win a league championship! Outside of that I was the Graduate Assistant for Health and Wellness at the Lambright Center. I took on responsibilities as a personal trainer, staff supervisor, program coordinator, and group fitness instructor just to name a few of the hats I wore in that role. I was also afforded the opportunity to work with Doc as a strength and conditioning assistant with the Louisiana Tech Baseball team for a season. This gave me my first experience in the role of a strength and conditioning coach.
During my graduate studies I was fortunate enough to earn a summer internship at the Tiger Rugby Academy which was a USA Rugby Olympic Development Academy for the 2016 olympic cycle. That summer was amazing! I made some lifelong friends, learned a ton from a couple of amazing mentors, and got my first taste of what constantly being on the road and full time training looked like! I was hooked! At the end of the summer following graduation I was offered the opportunity for full time employment. The money offered was not great at all, but I was in the game and that was really all I wanted, so I took it!
While working at Tiger I was given the opportunity to travel all over the country and work with some amazing athletes, a couple who competed in the olympics and went on to unbelievable international careers or domestic professional careers. The thing about training for rugby full time is that there is never really any off season; especially for the players that are on the rise or trying to get noticed through the club system. The average competitive rugby player in the US will play from February or March (depending on region) to November, not to mention you travel all over the country for the top competitions. This grueling schedule made programming very difficult at times due partly to time but also due to the constant threat of injury and player fatigue.
Dr. Szymanski has what he calls the “strength coach elevator speech”, it is “A strength coach’s job is to keep the athletes healthy, strong, powerful, and on the field”. Words to live by. They circulate in my head and help guide my programming to this day whether it’s for an 81 year old or for a 23 year old trying out for a professional contract.
When I was working with these athletes we would generally only get 2 – 3 weeks max 3 – 4 times a year to actually hit the gym hard with the athletes, the rest of the time we were working to prevent injuries and recover from competition while not losing strength and power. As time went on I learned that it did not take as much to maintain the strength and power of this caliber of athlete as it did to keep them healthy and on the field. I dove down a rabbit hole of rehab, prehab, and recovery techniques to use with the athletes at the academy.
As time went on like all things, my time in Columbus, OH came to a close. As part of Tiger Rugby Academy I signed a contract with the Clemson University Rugby Club to be their full time strength and conditioning coach as well as an assistant rugby coach. This was another great year of coaching great athletes, traveling, and great rugby! As the year came to a close my contract with Clemson was ending and the coach who brought me on was resigning. Time to figure out the next step! I had a three options: continue with Tiger Rugby and hope for the best, take a job at a chain strength and conditioning facility, or go back to school.
The last trip I took with the Clemson Rugby Club was to the Collegiate Rugby Championship in Philadelphia, PA which is the biggest college rugby tournament in the country and is televised nationally. At the tournament Palmer College of Chiropractic was recruiting postgraduate rugby players to play for their rugby club and pursue a Doctor of Chiropractic degree. After some internal debates and phone calls I applied for Palmer, got in, and started classes all within about a 6 week period.
When I went to Palmer I was on a mission to learn as much as I could about rehab and get back to sports. When I became eligible about halfway through my schooling I applied to be an intern in the rehab department. I loved it! I was learning all the cool things and getting the opportunity to incorporate what I learned up to that point. I ended up spending almost all of my free time during the day there. At that point I was confident that I was going to use exercise and chiropractic modalities to keep people healthy, strong, powerful, and on the field.
When I started filling out applications I realized the world had a different plan. Of the “dream jobs” I found- some I never heard from after sending my resume, some I needed more experience as a chiropractor, and others I did not feel comfortable accepting once I had insight. This led me to taking a job at a family practice that did 5 to 10 minute appointments, with no time or space for exercise. After a while at this practice and instances of patients not getting the results I thought they deserved due to the restraints of the practices model, I left. I started my own practice in a facility that specializes in training young athletes.
Currently I am able to offer 1 hour appointments that include chiropractic care including adjustments and soft tissue work as well as time in the gym 1 on 1 doing exercises geared at recovering from injury, preventing injury, and improving performance. I truly enjoy waking up everyday and going to my office. I am truly excited to see where the rest of my career takes me.
I want to finish by saying that although I happened to come across Tech by chance, I truly believe being there was one of the most important parts of my life. I started as a child without direction and finished with all the tools to chase my most wild dreams. The teachers challenged me to become the best version of myself, they held me to a high standard, they showed me unwavering support, built up my confidence, and they instilled values and lessons that I still carry with me today. There is no way I would be able to have taken the chances and leaps of faith I have taken without the lessons I was taught during my time as a student in the Louisiana Tech Kinesiology Department.
- Postscript:
I love that I am back to working with athletes and active people in a gym setting. I am planning to once again get involved with high level rugby in the future. I was told that this was not possible. I would have never tried to make it possible if it weren’t for the lessons I learned at Tech including a statement I heard on my first day of the grad program, “get comfortable with being uncomfortable”.
The Exponential Factor 