Dr. Rachel Ziner, the Director of Sports Medicine and Head Athletic Trainer at Catalyst Performance, is ready for medicine to move in the direction of preventative care rather than reactionary treatment – and she is not waiting around for others to make that happen.

We caught up with Dr. Ziner during Women’s Wellness Month to discuss her journey into athletic training and the impact of her work at Catalyst Performance Center. 

Life at Barnes Tennis Center

Dr. Ziner’s home away from home, the Catalyst Performance Center, operates as a private company within Barnes Tennis Center. It includes a gym where athletes can train privately, receive sports massages, or participate in strength and conditioning programs. Catalyst, which specializes in tennis, also provides athletic training coverage for USTA and ITF tournaments at Barnes, incorporating advanced techniques like biocomposition analysis to optimize athletes’ performance. 

Whether she’s treating an ATP Tour player or a parent while their child is on court at Barnes, she takes a holistic and functional approach, understanding and treating the entire person.

Her head-to-toe screenings take a comprehensive look at range of motion, flexibility, strength, power, agility, and more. Assessments include quad flexibility, ankle dorsiflexion, and shoulder mobility testing. From there, Dr. Ziner and her team identify high risk areas, muscle deficits, and/or imbalances and create a customized plan for each athlete.

“Everything is connected. A limitation in strength or range of motion in the shoulder can lead to lower back pain. It really shows the importance getting to the root cause of the problem.”

Although a separate entity, Catalyst collaborates extensively with Barnes, working with Steve Adamson and his academy, ATP players like Patrik Trhac, Texas Longhorn alum Siem Woldeab–now a coach at Barnes–juniors, parents, and all of the pros at Barnes, who have become some of Dr. Ziner’s closest friends. 

Teaching Professional at Barnes, close friend, and client Ivan Thamma shares, “Rachel is one of the most thoughtful and hardworking people I know. She has an incredible ability to cater to each client’s specific needs, adjusting their training and rehabilitation to ensure they get the best possible care. Her deep knowledge and genuine care make her exceptional at what she does.” How would he describe her in three words? “Thoughtful, adaptable, and knowledgeable.”

Her Journey from Boston to San Diego

A lifelong athlete herself, Dr. Ziner has played tennis since she was 4 years old. Growing up in Boston, she also played softball and danced, and got injured a lot. This inspired her to study physical therapy (PT) in college, but when it came to having to choose between PT and athletic training, her love of sports and medicine made athletic training the clear path.

Her academic background includes a Bachelor’s in Health Science from Quinnipiac University, a Master’s in Athletic Training from Merrimack College, and a Doctorate in Athletic Training from Temple University. She is a Certified Athletic Trainer (ATC) by the Board of Certification and has worked in both Division I collegiate athletics and high school sports.

She speaks about her dad and her peers at Catalyst as big influences in her life. She also has had particularly great mentors, specifically Nick Benitez at Harvard and Bobby Stachura (now with the Red Sox) at University of Rhode Island. 

Now she is in a position to pay it forward, managing her own team of personal trainers, athlete trainers, sports physical therapists, and performance coaches at Catalyst. In addition to her role at Catalyst, she also works as an adjunct professor at Temple University in the Department of Health Professions.

Custom Work for Female Athletes

Dr. Ziner and her team work with athletes of all ages, from nine to seventy-five, and have adopted a specialized approach for female athletes, knowing that certain conditions–from ACL tears to osteoarthritis and osteopenia–are more common in females. 

“When we’re looking at women, the first thing we’re looking at is hormones and where they’re at in their stage of life,” she explains.

Hormonal fluctuations play a significant role in injury risk, particularly ACL tears, which women are up to eight times more likely to suffer than men. Metrics like quad-hamstring ratio and Q-angle provide reliable insight into the risk of ACL tears, so she starts there when treating girls ages 11 to early 20s, who are at an age where hormones play a significant role. Catalyst also has pelvic health physical therapists, whose expertise can be especially valuable for women after pregnancy and childbirth.

Beyond these areas, Dr. Ziner sees other topics like nutrition as extremely important for females to be aware of and address.

Nutrition and Essential Habits

Nutrition plays a pivotal role in athletic development, particularly for adolescents. Dr. Ziner emphasizes the importance of balanced macronutrients–carbohydrates, healthy fats, and proteins–while promoting a realistic, non-restrictive approach to food.

“If you want ice cream, have the ice cream, but everything in moderation. We need to destigmatize carbs and fats,” shared Dr. Ziner.

She also educates athletes on nutrient timing, ensuring they fuel properly before, during, and after play. Beyond nutrition, she stresses the importance of sleep, hydration/electrolytes, and the discipline of building lifelong healthy habits.

“If you want to play a sport and be good at it – go to college for it, be a really good high school player, or make a career out of it – you have to create these [healthy] habits and patterns when you’re young,” she noted. “Also, it’s just good for your development as a human.”

Mental Health and the Training Room as a Safe Haven

Awareness of the mental and emotional challenges that come with athletic performance continues to grow. Dr. Ziner shared that when she was pursuing her masters and doctoral degrees, her programs replaced strength and conditioning classes with mental health counseling so that trainers were more equipped to handle the mental and emotional demands of athletics. 

“I’ve spent most of my career working with teenagers,” explained Dr. Ziner. “I was working at a high school [in Boston, where she’s from] before I moved here. It’s a very tough age. I created my athletic training room as a safe haven for anyone to talk to me about anything.” 

Athletic trainers often become as trusted as a family member or friend, Dr. Ziner explains, and she takes that responsibility very seriously.

If needed, she will refer someone to a counselor or sports psychologist as this is outside her core expertise, and they can help them with the mental side, including in a case like an ACL tear, which is a trauma and often requires the athlete to overcome the fear of running and changing direction again.

Getting Athletes Back on the Court

One of Dr. Ziner’s favorite things about her work is that she gets to be closely involved in the full spectrum of an athlete’s journey from initial injury back to play, which is incredibly fulfilling.  

The results speak for themselves. As Thamma shares, “There was a time when I had a wrist injury that I was truly worried about. Rachel carefully adjusted my recovery process, making sure every step was tailored to this unique situation. Her patience, adaptability, and deep understanding helped me recover fast and feel confident to get back on the court. I was truly shocked at how fast I recovered.”

Results like this are possible because of the highly customized and interdisciplinary nature of the treatment. Dr. Ziner is passionate about getting complete history and a 360-degree picture of the athlete in order to most effectively treat them. “She doesn’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach,” says Thamma. “Rachel takes the time to understand each client’s individual needs, adjusting their training and rehabilitation in a way that works best for them.”

Mobility, Flexibility, and Actionable Advice

Mobility and flexibility are critical elements of Dr. Ziner’s work. Along with hamstring and quad stretches, she advocates for daily exercises like 90/90 hip switches, pigeon or figure four stretches, and thoracic spine movements (thread the needle, child’s pose, cat/cow) for back health. Dr. Ziner has personally suffered from back issues, so spinal health is “a near and dear cause to me.”

More broadly, her advice to everyone, regardless of age or other variables, is simple: “Making your body happy with good food, hydration, and sleep is the best advice I can give people.” Dr. Ziner is crystal clear when she talks about the impact of taking care of your body: “Put in the work and you’ll see the benefits. You’re never going to want to go back to the way you were before.”

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To reach Dr. Ziner directly with any questions, email rachel@catalystperformancesd.com.