Monday night training session at South Dartmoor CC, with the older age groups; ; U11’s, U12’s, U13’s, U14’s and U16’s.

Today I had 3 clients parents message me prior to this evenings training session wanting to book their child to see me.

My first client was a follow up appointment after being advised to get a scan on his Achilles, the results came back fine so the other week i applied K-tape to his heel to give the support he felt like he was missing. This week I checked his ROM with active, passive and resisted movements and all has improved brilliantly. His pain is still occurring at the attachment site of the Achilles but only a 2/10, due to this he felt like he was ready to return to play, I was certainly happy to hear this! I spoke to my client and his parent and said that if they were both happy with their treatment and no need for further questions, that I was happy to not need to rebook him for another session, his pain has decreased, his ROM has increased. I did however advise to take training easy, gradually build himself back up as he has missed a few weeks. I then told him to make sure he keep doing his calf stretches to prevent the Achilles becoming tight and pulling from the attachment site, especially while he is still growing.

My next client that was booked in was also a follow up appointment with an achilles injury. I started off with palpation around the heel, mainly to see if there was any pain on palpation (PoP) which there wasn’t. after palpation was cleared, I then checked the ROM of his ankle with resisted movements and all was fine. He asked if I could apply K-tape to his heel as it makes him feel more confident, I applied it starting from the base of his heel following up the achilles to the point of where the gastrocnemius starts, I then added another piece across the where the pain site used to be (back of the heel). I advised to keep stretching his calves and there was no need for a follow up appointment for next week, unless the pain comes back.

My last client of the day was a new client. His parent, prior to the appointment, mentioned that he had an ankle injury. When my client came through the door with his other parent, he told me that it wasn’t his ankle it was more his heel. I palpated the area where he pointed to (Achilles) while he was sat on the edge of the bed, he said there was no pain while touching it. While he was still sat on the edge of the bed I cleared the joints above and below, ensuring the ROM was fine at the knee and the ankle; actively, passively and resisted. After this I got my client to lay on his front on the physio bed so I could have a feel of his Achilles, his calf muscles and his hamstrings. While palpating, I noticed there was slight tightness in his calf muscles which may have been causing the pain in his achilles. I decided to perform the Thompson test on him to make sure that his achilles was still attached, this came back negative which means that his achilles was still attached. I decided to give him a soft tissue massage on his gastrocnemius, while doing so I found that his med head was tighter than the lateral gastroc head, which managed to loosen as I carried on massaging. I then helped him stretch his calf and advised to make sure he drinks plenty of water and to keep stretching, especially after sporting activities.

Due to having a little time left, I managed to head up to the AstroTruf to make sure the boys were all doing their stretches for their cool down. The coach of U13’s asked if I could teach the stretches to his players again, to make sure they were all doing them appropriately and correctly.