Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Kevin Melendez.
Hi Dr. Melendez, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I can remember my first major injury like it was yesterday. I was 14 years old, and it was a typical High School spring varsity football practice, coaches yelling at players and players complaining about how hot it was. It was near the end of practice; we were going over our 2-minute drill. I played running back, and on this specific play, my job was to run a screen to the right, catch the ball and run out of bounds to stop the clock. I had done this hundreds of times before, but this time was different. The pass was a little high, I still managed to catch it, but then BAM… I was struck by two linebackers (who both went on to play D1 college football). I just remembered my best friend running up to me telling me to get up; my response, “I can’t feel my left arm.” That was the first of a total of 11 shoulder dislocations, to which I endured in less than a one-year span, mainly while playing my main sport of basketball. After labrum surgery and roughly 4 months of physical therapy, I was back and better than ever. Then there was my second major injury. I was 16 and obsessed with the idea of outworking any of my peers. Between 2-3 hours of basketball training and an extra 8-12 miles of running a day, I was in peak physical conditioning and ready to earn a basketball scholarship in my junior year of High School. I had experienced some back spasms and subtle back pains but didn’t think anything of it; just “push through the pain” is what I would tell myself. On the morning of our first game of the season, I woke up and couldn’t feel both of my legs. Imagine telling your legs to move, but they don’t listen. I yelled at the top of my lungs for my parents, and roughly 20 min later, I started regaining feeling in my feet again. I immediately went to go see an orthopedic specialist, where he then informed me and my family that he strongly recommended back surgery and I would for sure miss my high school basketball season. I was 16; there was no way I was going to get back surgery that young without first looking into other options. I remembered how great Physical Therapy was for my shoulder and decided to try the conservative treatment of PT first. Fast forward 1 year, I was fully recovered and playing my senior season of high basketball where afterwards I was offered multiple opportunities to play college basketball. I was fortunate enough at the early age of 14 that I knew I wanted to be a Physical Therapist. Also, not only did I want work as a Physical Therapist, but I wanted to own my practice in order to have full control of the type of impact I wanted to have in this world. My goal is to provide the level of treatment, education, and customer service people deserve in order to achieve the things they want to achieve in life. This is much more than just playing sports. This is being able to play with your kids pain-free, going to work every day without having to take pain medication, and not avoiding household chores or participating in fun social activities without the fear of making their injury worse. Fast forward again, 14 years since my first injury, I graduated with my Doctorate in Physical Therapy and opened up Swish Physical Therapy & Performance in Oviedo, Florida.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
All things worth doing are typically hard, and the journey is rarely smooth, like the saying goes, “smooth seas don’t make skilled sailors.” Most students during grad school typically just focus on graduating, which is an EXTREMELY hard thing to do at that, and they should be applauded for doing so. However, grad school for me involved working anywhere from 20-40 hours a week in addition to learning as much about business whenever I could because of my aspirations of being a clinic owner as soon as possible post-graduation. After receiving my doctorate in May of 2021, my next step was passing my national boards exam in order to receive my license to practice in Florida. Unfortunately, I failed. Yes, I FAILED my first time taking my boards exam. This really hurt; I felt like I let everyone down, my family, my friends. 8 years of college and thousands of hours of studying, just to fail. I was down in the dumps, discouraged, disappointed for about a week. Knowing that all my hard work was not going to be wasted, along with having my drive to succeed no matter what, I sucked it up and began studying for the test again. I self-reflected on my shortcomings, limited the amount of pity I gave myself no matter how legit the reasons were for not passing the first time, and 2.5 months later, I passed. I received my license in October of 2021 and opened up my own clinic 7 months later. I have to give a major shout-out to my business partner and, more importantly, my brother, Michael Melendez, for taking a chance on me and SWISH. SWISH would not be where it is today without you. The biggest struggle you can have when starting and maintaining a business, I believe is surrounding yourself around the right people, one’s who you can truly trust and have your best interest at hand. I am fortunate to have that 10-fold with my brother Michael Melendez.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am the sole Physical Therapist and owner of Swish Physical Therapy & Performance in Oviedo, Florida. At Swish, we take pride in providing professional athlete-level treatment, education, and communication to the general population in order to maximize their recovery. When someone goes to an outpatient physical therapy clinic in which the traditional model is used, you would most likely be scheduled with up to 3 other patients during the same hour as you. The best metaphor I can give between a traditional outpatient physical therapy model and our Swish model is like a fast-food restaurant vs. a fine dining experience. Another thing that separates us is that we don’t charge based on each individual appointment. During our initial evaluation, we determine what your goals and aspirations are to then discuss what injuries are preventing you from accomplishing them. At SWISH, the cost of therapy is based on my ability as a therapist to get you to reach your goals. I am blessed to be in a position to help guide people in reaching those goals in which they may have felt might have never been able to accomplish because of their injury or injury history. My brand is simple, help athletes (a person who lives or who wants to live an active lifestyle) recover from a current injury in order to perform better at their daily activities, work demands, exercise routines, and/or sport participation.
What do you think about luck?
When I think of luck, I think of things that I myself did not have any control over. With that being said, I am the luckiest man in the world to have had been born into the family I have. I’m lucky enough to have a support system that truly wants what is best for me way beyond business, but most importantly personally. As for bad luck, all my injuries at the time seemed like bad luck. Due to them, I was always in physical and emotional pain throughout high school. However, my experiences have taught me that bad luck only stays bad luck until you or it decides to turn it into a silver lining. It was because of my injuries in high school that led me into the Physical Therapy career path, a path that I am truly passionate in. All the endured pain gave me the tolerance to overcome the many times the notion of quitting creeped into my mind. So said “bad luck” gave me purpose and something to fall back on during the times when they were needed. I do think it is imperative to point out how impactful my parents have been for me throughout this journey. Watching my parents have a company of their own to which they were always eager in sharing with us kids’ business ideas and financial decisions. Their entrepreneurship was clearly infectious. Until this day, they are my biggest supporters, and I love Ya’ll for it. Without my folks, I wouldn’t have had the courage to take on this path. Again, I couldn’t be happier in having them in my life, and I want them to know, y’all will be the reason why I will continue to be successful in whatever I put my mind to.
Contact Info:
- Website: swishpt.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcoachkev/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100051774774287
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf7ZKxdJMlRXnDi7fbNiOsw
