Sports acupuncture is a non-defined general term used by many practitioners who apply acupuncture to treat activity or sports-related injuries. The principle behind this term is based solely on the practitioner’s own experience in either “sports” or “acupuncture.” Currently, there is no regulatory board with set guidelines defining the term, nor is there a governing body regulating practitioners who employ this term as a way to describe their services and area of specialty. The Synthesis of TCM & Sports Medicine In TCM theory, acupuncture can inherently treat pain through removing obstructions from the channels and collaterals and treating underlying disharmonies. In addition, acupuncture has been used since its inception in the treatment of injuries and pain without applying any specific “sports” lens. It is only very recently that the brilliance of acupuncture in relieving pain and accelerating the healing process has been combined with modern sports medicine, generating an effective and unique system for treating injuries and pain. Both traditional Chinese medicine and sports medicine are lifelong studies. The student of TCM and the licensed practitioner who are motivated to undertake learning and mastering the tools of sports medicine, can glean techniques from both paradigms. With respect to each medical framework, the goal is to synthesize these two systems, leading to a comprehensive assessment and treatment protocol. The ultimate aim of sports acupuncture should be to enhance the field of sports medicine with traditional Chinese medicine. In practicing sports acupuncture, the TCM practitioner should never neglect the patient’s constitutional or zang fu differential diagnosis. One of the many strengths of TCM is its ability to balance the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems and, as a result, increase the patient’s health and their ability to handle inflammation. Paying attention to the context of the injury, to the larger picture of the patient’s overall health, can most definitely make the difference between achieving lasting results and not achieving them. Do not make the mistake of assuming that all injuries can be treated solely as a localized problem. There are too many instances where the localized injury is merely the result of a complex combination of external and internal factors. In other words, the localized injury will more times than not, have postural imbalances and a contributing organ dysfunction that are preventing proper healing. Moreover, it is a common clinical finding that a diseased organ can manifest pain and dysfunction in its channel, which is a foundational principle of TCM. Therefore, the practitioner should examine whether the localized injury has this relationship as a contributing factor. To become proficient in sports acupuncture, the practitioner needs to recognize the importance of mastering not only TCM, but also sports medicine methods that can dramatically help direct the acupuncture treatment and improve outcomes.