Retired
Founding Partner and Physical Therapist
Thomas C. Windley is one of two co-founders of Premier Physical Therapy and Sports Performance and currently serves as the organization’s CEO. A licensed physical therapist with a Doctorate (Ph.D.) in exercise and sport science, Windley embraces the concept of evidence-based medicine. In treating physical therapy patients and counseling sports performance clients, he draws upon current research, to incorporate scientifically validated methods into his daily practice.
Windley helped pioneer the use of sophisticated 3-D image technology to improve golf performance and reduce injury risk, while he was a post-doctoral fellow with the University of Pittsburgh and the coordinator of the Golf Fitness Laboratory operated in Pinehurst, N.C. by the university’s medical center. His work combined research, clinical practice, and golf expertise, to prevent injuries and enhance performance in golfers of all ages and abilities. In addition to working with hundreds of recreational golfers, Windley has worked with golfers on the Canadian Professional Golf Tour, the PGA TOUR’s Nationwide Tour and the LPGA Tour.
Early in his career, Windley spent more than a decade in applied sport science research. A portion of Windley’s research efforts involved internationally recognized research designed to help rehabilitate athletes with knee ligament injury. At the Outpatient Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy Clinic at the University of Delaware, he coordinated the clinical aspects of a five-year $1 million National Institute of Health (NIH) grant to study the most effective ways to rehabilitate athletes with injury to the anterior cruciate ligament. Such injuries normally require surgery and can sideline athletes for as long as a year. The pioneering work, performed with Drs. Lynn Snyder-Mackler, Michael Axe, and the University of Delaware physical therapy clinical staff, has enabled many elite athletes to return to their sports without surgery. He has also been involved in research on risk factors for knee ligament injuries, interval throwing programs for baseball and softball players, weight loss methods in wrestlers, differences in strength and flexibility of male and female golfers, and injury patterns in male and female golfers. “Being involved in current research has given me a scientific framework from which to make clinical decisions that ultimately drive my ability to help people return the activities of life they enjoy most, said Windley.”
Windley has authored or co-authored 10 peer-reviewed scientific publications, 13 professional abstract presentations, and one book chapter in addition to numerous invited professional presentations. His research findings have been presented before national conferences, including the American Sports Medicine Institute’s Injuries in Baseball Conference, the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual conference, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Better Golf Through Technology Conference, the American Physical Therapy Association’s Combined Sections Meeting, and the National Athletic Trainer’s Association’s annual meeting and clinical symposium.
Windley earned his Ph.D. in exercise and sport science at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in exercise and sport science, and a Master of Physical Therapy degree, both from the University of Delaware, whose graduate school of physical therapy is rated second in the nation by U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools.”
Windley has been interviewed by national publications including the New York Times, Golf Digest and New Living Magazine; and by regional and local TV stations.
Windley and his wife, Jennifer, who is also a licensed physical therapist and University of Delaware graduate, are both Delaware natives. They have two daughters named Sarah and Kayla and one son named Billy.
