I will start by saying this has nothing to do with the Governator’s recent indiscretions (luckily). Have you ever seen the movie Pumping Iron? It is a docudrama which covers the lead up to the 1975 Mr Olympia contest, which Arnold Schwarzenegger wins for the sixth consecutive time. Now whilst there are not many applications to the world of sports physiotherapy, unless of course you work closely with bodybuilders, there are a few gems in the film which are relevant…
Today we are mixing it up. We are going to do something a little bit different. Today is a guest post from Richard Evans, who is the Head Physiotherapist from Right to Dream (discussed below). We have had a few contacts with Rich, and he was keen to get involved with contributing some content to the site. So from this month, Rich will be contributing to the site by adding some of his own clinical tips and posting interesting case studies for discussion amongst the community here at TheSportsPhysiotherapist.com. I thought that he was in such a unique and interesting situation I could not say no. He has got some great things to talk about from a unique perspective, so enjoy (over to you Rich)…
What situation do you most dread during game day coverage? I know what my most dreaded situation is – seeing one of my guys stay down after a tackle, laying motionless on the ground. I think at that point you know, as the sports physio, it is GAME TIME! The decisions that you make over the next few moments have the potential to impact the rest of that player’s life. Pretty heavy huh! So you would want to make sure that what you do when you get out there is evidence based wouldn’t you? This article gives you that knowledge…
Hamstring injuries are an extremely common sporting injury. Hawkins et al. (2001) showed that hamstring injuries accounted for approximately 12% of football injuries. In certain sports, such as Australian Football, hamstring injuries have the highest incidence of any injury (Warren et al., 2010). This means that many teams, and their sports physiotherapists, invest massive amounts of time and energy in hamstring injury prevention. This is clearly based on the adage that ‘prevention is better than cure’. So what can we do to prevent hamstring injuries??
As sports physiotherapists we readily prescribe exercise programs to our athletes/patients – quite simply – it is a massive part of what we do. As well as exercises, we also tell our patients what they should NOT be doing – “You should not do this OR that”! Have you ever wondered how much they really take our advice? Unfortunately (for both us and the patient) our patients are frequently non-compliant with our rehabilitation programs.So here are some evidence based tips to improve patient compliance!
I know what you are thinking, I really do. How can a lack of knowledge EVER make you a better physiotherapist? You are thinking it can’t! Well, you are probably right. Probably. But I feel that there are some times that not knowing something, a diagnosis, the best interventions, the current research, whatever, can make you a better sports physiotherapist in the eyes of your athlete.
As a sports physiotherapist it is absolutely essential that you have the tools required to complete your trade. This means that you must be (over) organised with your on-field sports kit, or you will risk being unprepared for an injury. As many of you know, injuries happen fast, and the game officials expect an injury resolution even faster – so you do not want to be left messing around in your large sideline kit looking for something you should already have. Below I discuss the 8 essential items you need in your ‘On-Field’ sports physiotherapy kit.