David Potach

About Me

I am a healthcare executive, sports physical therapist, and author with over 25 years of experience in sports medicine, rehabilitation, and strength training. I serve as the Director of Rehab and Sports Medicine at Beth Israel Lahey Health in Beverly, MA, where I oversee rehabilitation and sports medicine services across multiple hospitals and clinic locations.

Throughout my career, I have been a leader, sports physical therapist, strength training & conditioning coach, running coach, and author. I have focused on training athletes, individuals, sports teams, organizations, and companies interested in reaching their optimal performance levels.

My goal is to help as many people as I can achieve their goals in sport, school, and life. I have worked with thousands of athletes, from runners to soccer players, gymnasts to dancers, undergraduate to doctoral students. In doing so, I have thoroughly enjoyed helping navigate the journey.

Experience

I have worked with athletes at all levels, from amateur to professional and Olympic. The NSCA honored me as one of the first recipients of the NSCA’s Sports Medicine Professional of the Year award (2005), and I was one of Nebraska’s first Board Certified Sports Physical Therapists and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists.

I began my career as a Strength and Conditioning Coach at Creighton University, which allowed me to work with high-level intercollegiate athletes across all sports, as well as professional and Olympic athletes. I continued my work with professional athletes at Omaha Sports Physical Therapy, Quest Personal Training and Coaching, and Injury Prevention Project. More recently, I have led rehabilitation programs at Children’s Hospital and Medical Center, Dartmouth Health, and Beth Israel Lahey Health.

As the founder of Injury Prevention Project, I’ve developed comprehensive programs focused on reducing injury risk for athletes, including specialized protocols for ACL injury prevention, ACL reconstruction rehabilitation, hamstring injury prevention, and foot and ankle injury prevention.

Publications and Speaking

As an author, I have published several articles on sports rehabilitation and contributed to textbook chapters on injury prevention, rehabilitation, speed training, and plyometric training. In 2022, I published my book, Sport Injury Prevention Anatomy with Human Kinetics, and in 2024, I released Financial Management for Rehab Leaders: A Practical Guide.

I have contributed chapters to multiple editions of the Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning and NSCA’s Essentials of Personal Training textbooks. (And I still write short articles here and on Medium.) I have also spoken internationally and regionally about leadership, plyometrics, sports rehabilitation, running, soccer, and strength training and conditioning, including presentations at Beijing Sport University in China and various professional conferences across the United States.