The Doctor Behind Your Recovery
One named, board-certified doctor. Three machines most clinics don’t own. Two locations across San Diego County.
Dr. Chris Garcia, PT, DPT, SCS, CSCS
Founder, Sports Performance Physical Therapy
He was thirteen when he first understood what physical therapy could do. He was being raised by his grandmother, and helping her through her own recovery set the course for everything that came after.
He qualified as a Doctor of Physical Therapy, then earned board certification as a Sports Clinical Specialist — a credential held by a small fraction of physical therapists nationwide. That took him to the United States Olympic Committee as a physical therapist, into rehab roles around NFL Combine training, and across Europe as the private therapist for professional tennis players.
Then he brought that standard of care home. He founded Sports Performance Physical Therapy in Chula Vista in 2014, and today runs two locations across San Diego County.
His focus now isn’t elite athletes. It’s people in their 40s, 50s and 60s who have been told their pain is just age — parents who want to keep up with their kids, stay on the course, and stay off the operating table.
Most of them arrive having already been told there are three options for a stubborn tendon or a worn-out joint: rest it, inject it, or operate on it. When none of those work, they get told to live with it.
That fourth option is what this practice was built for.
Your care team
Whichever clinician you see, they are a licensed Doctor of Physical Therapy trained in the same protocols, working from the same three machines. Plans are built to one standard, so your care doesn’t change depending on who is in the room that day.
Every plan is reviewed against the same three questions: are you a genuine candidate, how many sessions should this condition take, and what would we tell you to do instead if shockwave isn’t the right answer.
How we decide whether you’re a candidate
Regenerative therapy isn’t right for everyone, and the honest answer is worth more to you than a booked appointment. Every enquiry gets assessed against the same three things before we quote you anything.
1. What’s actually wrong
A tendon that has stopped remodelling behaves differently from an inflamed one, and an arthritic joint behaves differently again. We examine before we treat, because the diagnosis decides whether shockwave, EMTT, or a combination is the right tool — or whether none of them are.
2. What you’ve already tried
This is the question that matters most and the one people are rarely asked. Someone whose cortisone injection wore off after six weeks needs a different plan from someone weighing up surgery, and both need something different from someone who has never had it properly loaded.
3. What you actually need to get back to
Walking the course, lifting a grandchild, standing through a shift. The goal sets the session count and the loading plan — not a package, and not a number that came from a brochure.
What’s different here
Three machines, not one
Most clinics that offer shockwave own a single device. We run focused shockwave, radial shockwave and EMTT, and use them in combination — because deep tendon insertions, broad soft tissue and cellular-level healing don’t respond to the same input.
A named doctor, not a rotating room
You are treated by a Doctor of Physical Therapy, and the plan is built and reviewed by one. No hand-off to an aide, no twelve-minute slot dictated by an insurer’s visit cap.
You know the cost before you commit
Cash-pay and out-of-network by design. You get the number, the session count and the timeline up front, so nothing about the plan depends on what a benefits department decides to approve.
We’re also willing to say no. If your condition isn’t one these technologies help, you’ll be told that, and pointed toward what does.
Not Sure If This Is Right For You?
If you want to know what our advanced triple-therapy treatment costs and what convenient times we have available for your recovery journey, please click the button below and complete the short form: