Today we’d like to introduce you to Dominique “DJ” Betancis.
Hi Dominique “DJ”, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was Texas born-and-raised out of the city of El Paso, TX prior to continuing my education in central Texas and now calling Austin, TX home. I have been recognized as the youngest true sports performance Doctor of Physical Therapy and recently joined the world-class team of Kollective inc, arguably the best and only sports and social performance club of its kind.
Growing up, and while always being a student first, I was a multi-sport athlete with a primary focus on basketball and football. It was throughout my sports and fair share of injuries that I also held a strong interest in pursuing a career within the medical field. This led me to pursue my career and strong passion for sports performance physical therapy. Although having the opportunity to continue basketball at the collegiate level, I made the decision to instead attend the University of Texas at San Antonio after earning a full academic scholarship and have never been more grateful for such a decision, now building a strong reputation in the industry treating professional and high-level athletes and individuals.
My goal in this life has always been to make the absolute most of the only one I have and leave no potential untapped. I set out to beat the odds of being a young latino male, of being born and raised in a small border city, of being an athlete, and anything and everything I was told I couldn’t nor was never expected to achieve. While being an all-city high school point guard, I graduated number nine overall of my graduating class. A vivid memory I have is being called to the principal’s office one day and being accused of cheating in school. What they didn’t see is the countless late nights of studying I did even after long days of school, training, and practice every single day. I was told I would never be a standout nor play college basketball due to my size, yet that was quickly and undeniably proven wrong with numerous personal and team achievements. I remember my first semester of my undergraduate program, my professor of an auditorium class made it a strong point to preach the low likelihood that maybe only two students of the entire class would be successful in being accepted into a doctorate of physical therapy program following graduation, making the majority of the class strongly reconsider their career path. I ultimately ended up graduating with my Bachelors in three years, as well as received acceptance into, and even began, my first term of my doctoral program prior to even attending my undergraduate graduation. I was given very low hope for my goal of working with professional athletes, yet today, I am humbly thriving within the professional sports industry as my primary clientele.
My goals and aspirations are never surrounded by simply proving others wrong, but what I’ve learned is to always believe in yourself, develop and exceed your own expectations, and know your value in doing so. No one is going to believe that you can do something that they can’t. What’s going to separate yourself from others is the countless hours of work in doing what others are not willing to. It’s never accepting failure and doing whatever it takes to overcome any kind of adversity. It’s the outside noise of the world that I didn’t ever let bring me down, yet always motivated and pushed me even harder. That’s how we got here today, and this is only the beginning for me. We’re just getting started.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Getting to where I am today was far from a straight path of progress. Although, it was the adversities along the way that taught me the most, pushed me harder, and made me better in the end. Without getting into much personal detail, becoming successful simply requires a lot of sacrifices. This was instilled in me at a very young age. I remember while all my friends in high school would rush out of school at lunchtime, I walked myself to the weight room or the gym and was getting extra work in every day even prior to practice in the afternoon. I applied this work ethic to every part of my life, but in doing so I sacrificed a social life, leaving friends behind along the way, time away from family, as well as faced all the trials and tribulations in persistently chasing opportunity. One instance was deciding to pack up and leave my home of Texas and move to Florida to initiate and grow in working with my athletes. This endeavor significantly costed me financially, mentally, and emotionally, yet I knew it’s something I had to do and sacrifice temporarily to achieve what I wanted to and get to where I wanted to be. Growth is made outside of one’s comfort zone, a place not many are willing to go. I always held and understood the mindset of delayed gratification and sacrificing now, and with the achievement of my goals would come everything else and better. It’s easy to have a dream or goal in mind, but in achieving it comes relentless work, determination, and ultimately sacrifice in overcoming all the obstacles, trials, tribulations, discomfort, and outside noise along the way. If you want something bad enough, you’ll go through the fire for it. The easy route never leads to distinguished success. If it were easy, everybody would do it.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a Sports Performance Doctor of Physical Therapy with the team of Kollective inc. I earned my Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) from the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences – Austin, TX in 2020. Prior to that, I earned my Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology – Athletic Medicine from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2018. I am a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) sanctioned by the National Strength and Conditioning Association. I am also a clinical partner with the team of Hyperice. What I do is evaluate orthopedic and musculoskeletal injuries, conditions, and dysfunctions with individualized treatment and programming to achieve and exceed the goals of all my patients/clients.
From rehabilitation to recovery, training, and performance, I utilize a multidisciplinary approach combining manual therapy techniques with sport/position-specific rehab and training, exercise recovery, corrective exercise, injury prevention, and strength and conditioning for return to sport, activity, or simply optimal level of function. Most view physical therapy as its own entity, ideologies, and practices. What has distinguished myself as a practitioner is bridging the gap between rehab and sports performance by working with high-level individuals of different backgrounds and being able to adapt to and understand their bodies and demands, provide education, rehabilitate, train, and as well as optimize overall performance of what my patients/clients do.
I provide care to NCAA, Olympic, and professional athletes of various sports, leagues and industries to include NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, UFC, USA, IFBB, and Formula racing to name a few. I’ve worked in various locations from Florida to Texas, as well as traveled with/for my athletes/clients. Whether a post-operative patient, a weekend warrior, or a professional athlete, I individually tailor rehab, training, and programming that will decrease recovery time and optimize performance to get every patient/client back to doing what they love and at the highest level.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I’m one to personally believe that luck has nothing to do with success. Hard work puts you where “good luck” can find you, and I have personally learned that the harder you work, the “luckier” you seem to be. You get out of this world what you put into it. Good things don’t come to those who wait to get lucky but to those who go out and make it happen.
Contact Info:
- Website: thekollective.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dj_betancis/
Image Credits
@kendallgmedia
