U14’s Game at Ashburton

Today U14’s had a game against a team who have travelled from Newport, Wales.

There was an injury prior to the game who had messaged prior to see if I was able to see to this athlete and give advice. The athlete was c/o ankle pain from twisting it 5/7 ago, his parent explained that it had swelled ‘like a balloon’ but from applying ice throughout the week the swelling had reduced. The athlete was able to fully weight bear with no pain and the swelling when I assessed had gone. I checked ROM and it was slightly painful in DF and Inv near end range. I applied K-Tape to give extra support, however he did not want to participate in the match.

I then assisted with a Club Warm up and provided a Cool down session after the game had finished.

During the third quarter of the match an athlete came off the pitch injured from being ‘stamped on’ by another player on the top of his foot above the cuboid. There was slight redness but no swelling. I assessed his ROM and it was painful at end range. I applied an ice pack and suggested he rested for the last quarter of the match. He did not want any tape.

Overall due to being pitch side, it is difficult to do anything other than wait for injuries to occur. However, next time I may get players who are already injured to come meet me at the pitch where I am (if they are local) so I can assess them fully rather than a quick 10 minutes whilst at their training session.

Shaldon Primary School

Today we stayed in doors due to the weather.

There are four age groups who attend this after school club so we split them in half. The first half the younger groups (year 1 and 2) played games for the first half hour then the other half of the session we went upstairs in the classrooms and filled in fun filled McDonalds Fun Football activity books.

What Went Well

Today went well as the kids still enjoyed our football session even though we have had to adapt to what facilities were provided to us. We were also able to keep our group separate to the other age group who was put with us, this was a good thing due to current guidelines of sticking to your bubbles and this case primary schools have their own bubbles in each year group. We have to respect these rules and ensure that all pupils from the same age group stick together.

Next Time

Next time we could possibly do something different in the hall rather than just mini matches as a couple of the athletes from the younger groups got bored of playing mini matches for half the session. However they did seem to enjoy the activity books upstairs.

Ashburton Regional Training

Today I had one booking prior to this session.

An ankle injury which occurred the other week. It was still painful on palpation around the lateral ankle, the athlete already have K-Tape on after being shown last week how to apply. After assessing ROM I decided to give 30 x 3 mobilisations in DF and DF/EV due to limited ROM in those movements and those movements being the most painful. I provided grade 2 mobilisations in order to reduce pain and increase ROM.

Throughout the rest of the evening I provided general first aid to a couple of the players of U14’s team due to slide tackling on the Astro causing cuts and grazes to their knee. I cleaned it up and ensured that it was not bleeding.

At the end of the session I provided a cool down session for U14s.

Overall today has been really productive as there was limited injuries occurring. I need to remember the less I do, the better for the teams as it means that there are less injuries occurring.

Newton Abbot Office

Today in the office I had a couple of phone calls from parents with regards of asking for advice of what they can do to help their child. One child had pulled their hamstring over the weekend whilst sprinting during their game, so they asked what they could do to help reduce their child’s pain. We went through details over the phone regarding what the injury looks like (if there’s any bruising, swelling or redness) and advised from there.

I then treated a coaches foot due to him playing football over the weekend and their opponent going in for a tackle and sliced his boot and sock causing a slice in the medial side of his heel. I provided general first aid by removing the steri-strips and cleaned the wound. I then redressed the wound with more steri-strips and applied a dressing over the top.

I then created a rehab plan for someone who has a shoulder dislocation. My supervisor asked if I could create one as a basic plan which can be adapted to suit individual needs shoulder dislocation rehab plan. Having a basic plan of what an athlete can do if they have these injuries will allow me to use less time in creating plans from scratch and instead it will allow me to be able to have more time in researching and analysing to progress and add more exercises where necessary.

I then discussed with the coaches to maybe adapt their warm up to add more dynamic exercises in order to help prevent future injuries. Discussing the timetable for strength and conditioning session every Monday with all age groups rotating. I suggested that I could possibly create a warm up plan for next week to help the S&C coach due to him being with his own team and runs over the S&C session by 10 minutes. If I was able to create a warm up relating to the session each week that the S&C coach has created it will be able to link in and tie together the whole session.

Cockington Primary School

Today due to the coach not being able to fully weight bear he had mentioned if I could possibly take lead for this after school club session. I felt a little nervous however after discussing with the coach what the plan was I felt a little more confident. Especially now that the children know who we are and trust us. Today we focussed on New Thinking from the SAINTS acronym. We mixed them up into mini groups, having to quickly think on the spot in changing directions and learning new skills on the spot. We then played a mini football game 4v4 game where we as coaches shouted out demands throughout the session so they needed to think on the spot.

Ashburton Regional Training

Today only three injuries occurred during the training session.

The first injury was a previous injury which has come back slightly. This athletes heel is starting to hurt again due to calf muscle tightness. The pain occurred due to an overstretch of his leg causing him to stretch his leg further than he could get which caused the pain to occur. We went through some stretches and he asked if I could apply K-Tape due to it helping in the past with this pain. His ROM was not limited, the pain was mainly coming from muscle tightness.

The second injury that occurred was a follow up injury from last week. His ankle injury has not affected the ROM. The athlete wanted me to check the ankle over to make sure he was able to play. I applied K-Tape (athletes request) and he carried on playing.

The third injury was another follow up injury, MCL injury from a few weeks ago. I wanted to find out how he’s been getting on with the exercises that was given to him last week, if he needed help with anything and how his pain has been. His pain is still slightly there feeling like a ‘pull’, he asked for some K-Tape to help support his knee as K-Tape seemed to have helped in the past and I personally think it is giving him the confidence to play again.

Over all I found these injuries to be easy for me to provide advice as these are the same injuries that occur pretty much every week. Due to being pitch side I was not able to do a lot unless injuries occur so I ensured that I provided the cool down at the end of the sessions for age groups U12, U13, U14, and U15. U12 and U13 were mixed together for the cool down (keeping them in their own age groups- Covid) and U14 and U15 were cooled down together, however again keeping them separate due to Covid guidelines.

Saturday Morning Pitch Side- Torquay Academy

Today I travelled to Torquay Academy for an U11’s game.

Prior to the game, I ensured one of the players were pain free due to an ongoing heel pain. He already had K-Tape on before arriving to the game, and has his gel heel insoles to provide a slight heel lift in order to reduce the pressure on his achilles.

Within the first 10 minutes of the game starting, one player came off the pitch injured due to physical contact from another player onto the top of his foot. I assessed his ROM and provided an ice pack to apply to his foot to help relieve the pain. He told me that his pain was a 5/10 on the NRPS (numerical rating pain scale). After 10 minutes of the ice pack being on, his pain had reduced to a 2/10, and was wanting to continue playing in the 2nd quarter.

The last quarter, the football hit a player in the face causing a small nose bleed. I provided general first aid by cleaning his face and getting the player to pinch his nose using a gauze to stop the bleeding.

Overall it was a quiet day being on pitch side however, giving everything that occurred I feel like I provided my skills in the correct manner with confidence and professionalism.

At the end of the game I took the players for a cool down ensuring they were stretched prior to heading home.

Today consisted of three locations; Newton Abbot Office (3 hours), Shaldon Primary School (1.5 hours) and Ashburton Regional Training (3.5 hours).

Office

Today I created a video regarding K-Tape with information on what the tape is with a video of applying K-Tape to heels (Heel pain k-tape information ).This will be used to send to parents of athletes who are suffering with the same heel pain due to growth in the hope for giving them some understanding of what K-Tape is and how it helps aid the recovery of an injury.

I then went through some emails with parents in regards to injuries that their children have and what advice I could give them. It was mainly growing pains so I advised to allow their children to continue playing football only if it is not causing the pain to reoccur. I also suggested to try heat and ice modalities to help ease pain where necessary.

Today I also created an MCL rehab plan for a player that was partially weight bearing last week to help strengthen the surrounding muscles ( MCL Rehab Plan )I will be discussing and demonstrating these exercises later at regional training session as well as assessing the player checking his ROM- active and resisted.

Shaldon Primary School

Today I was with the year 1 pupils in an after school club assisting coaching with another coach. We had prior discussed what the plan was today and we were focussing on Skills. We set up a ‘Traffic Light’ system with a race track and the kids learnt how to dribble the ball around a track along with a shooting drill and skills.

Today went really well, every child joined in and enjoyed themselves. At the end we had some time to do a mini fun cool down game by using the same exercises as a normal cool down however adapted them so they could understand how to perform these exercises correctly. We then needed to ensure that we had a staggered pick up times due to Covid situation and ensuring the parents were not all congregating at the gates waiting for the children to finish.

Whilst being at primary schools, we need to be aware to wear face masks when close contact, we also need to ensure that each age groups are kept separately as they are in their own ‘bubbles’, this helps reducing the risk of infection from the virus.

Ashburton Region Training

Today I had two athletes from the U10’s team both c/o heel pain. I discussed with both parents discovering that they have both recently had growth spurts which shows the clinical impression of severs disease (mild). ROM in both were not limited however their calf muscles were very tight. I suggested that I go through some stretches with them which they can do before and after training sessions/match days to relieve the tension in their calves. I then applied K-Tape to both heels on both athletes as they both have seen this tape help other athletes with similar issues.

I then had an injury near the end of the training session due to ankle instability. They had limited ROM in eversion when comparing to their non-injured side. Due to this I performed grade 2-3 mobilisations in Ankle eversion to help reduce the pain and increase the ROM in their ankle. I then applied k-tape to help give support whilst finishing the last 15 minutes of their training session.

At the end I went through stretches for teams U10’s, U14’s and U15’s due to the coaches asking if I could. I made sure to suggest to the U10’s coach that they would need to stretch due to a few of them struggling with growing pains and needing a good stretch after training.

Next time I would like to create a leaflet or information sheet for all parents so they understand what stretches their children can do, what exercises they could do in order to aid strength and prevent injuries, and also to give further information about common injuries for each age group.

U14’s and U15’s Games at Ashburton

Today there were two games held at South Dartmoor Community College in Ashburton.

U14’s played first 10am KO with U15’s Game KO at 12pm

U14’s Game

Prior to U14’s playing, there was a player c/o of calf tightness, so I gave him a quick 5 minute calf massage on both legs and helped him stretch prior to the game starting. I gave him a massage because I think it is the quickest way to get your muscles warm in order to help stretch them after.

During the 2nd quarter of the game a player had fallen on his elbow causing a very small bruise on the lateral epicondyle. After assessing the players range of movement I applied an ice pack to the area to help reduce the pain. Once the ice pack had been on for 10 minutes I reassessed the ROM of the elbow and the pain had reduced. The player wanted to continue playing which I was happy for him to do so due to the ROM is not limited and the pain had reduced. I advised that he should get some more ice on the elbow after the game had finished to help reduce any pain that occurs later.

The 3rd quarter there was one injury that required general first aid from the player sliding on the astroturf causing a graze on the lateral border of the athletes thigh. I cleaned the graze and due to it not bleeding I left it uncovered for the air to get to and help heal the wound.

After the game had finished, I took over with the cool down to ensure they were all stretched before heading home.

U15’s game

The first and second quarter had no injuries occur, however during the third quarter there was an ankle injury (a quick sudden twist) I checked his range of movement however it was limited due to pain so I applied an ice pack to help ease the pain. After 10 minutes of the ice pack being on I was able to reassess the athletes ROM and found the range was not limited. No bruising or swelling occurred. I advised the athlete to apply pressure onto the ankle by walking around otherwise the ankle would stiffen and cause more pain due to the muscles tightening because of the sudden injury.

At the end of the game I again took over the cool down ensuring that they were all correctly performing the exercises and making sure that they were fully stretched prior to heading home.

Due to being pitch side there is not really a lot I can do other than waiting for injuries to occur, obviously I do not want injuries to occur but when they do I make sure that I am ready, fully equipped and confident in my knowledge. Next time I want to ensure that I am giving the injured athletes exercises to do (rehab exercises) rather than just ROM to ensure that we are strengthening that limb in order to prevent the injury from reoccurring.

Today consisted of three locations- Newton Abbott Office (2.5 Hours), Shaldon Primary School (1.5 Hours), Regional Training Ashburton (4 Hours)

In the office today I set myself tasks to complete prior to attending.

• Reassess heel rehabilitation programme
• Email parents from last week- Cornwall and Taunton parents
• Learn admin work for the office

I reassessed the heel programme to progress the exercises due to pain reducing and wanting to focus on strengthening Heel Pain Programme 2

I find writing programmes quite easy as it is becoming a regular thing. I think it is a good thing that it is becoming more easier for me to put together a programme as it is challenging my knowledge of exercises that can help strengthen and reduce pain. Knowing how to regress and progress exercises is a very good skill to have when being a rehabilitator as I need to know how to make exercises easier and harder for my patients/clients.

The next hour in the office I had phone calls with two parents discussing how their child has been doing with the exercises provided to them last week and if they feel like the exercises are too easy or too hard. Both of the injured athletes have been recovering very well, and have both started to return to their training sessions to avoid missing out on anything. They are finding the exercises to be helpful and wanted to continue doing these same exercises for another week.

I then discussed with the coaches in the office about possibly starting strength and conditioning again at training on Monday’s for the old age groups, which they all agreed with. I then sat and discussed with the strength and conditioning coach on what the plans will be, what we could focus on each week and start to put a programme together for the next 6 weeks training sessions.

Today I think it was very productive in the office today, I got a lot of admin work done and replied to all of the emails which I needed to reply to. They have now added me onto the main Saints email account so I now have access to their main emails so I can go through them to see if there are any emails that I could respond too.

The next hour and half I was assisting coaching at Shaldon Primary School with the Year 1 age group with Coach Ryan. We earlier discussed in the office that we could work on Together in the SAINTS Acronym and allow the year 1s to work together as teams in gaining points. This session went really well considering their age group and not wanting to listen half the time which made it difficult to coach them, however we patiently waited and coached them ensuring they were all listening and learning. We give feedback and hand out a certificate to the participant who worked well. Each week we try to give someone new a certificate to try to make it fair.

At Ashburton Regional Training, I had an appointment booked with an athlete who has ongoing heel pain. We discussed the new heel pain programme (linked above) and I demonstrated how to perform the exercises correctly. This appointment went really well as the athlete and parent were both fully aware of what has changed, how to perform the exercises correctly and was comfortable in doing so.

Half way through training, a goal keeper had hit his finger and he was very limited in his range of movement. I applied general first aid by strapping his finger to his middle finger and explained that he could not continue playing in goal and insist that he carried on training just as an outfield player instead. He was very understanding as his finger was in a lot of pain.

Near the end of training an athlete from a couple of weeks ago came to see me. He had pulled his MCL and is now using crutches to partially weight bear, I asked him if he could possibly try to move to using just one crutch by the weekend and he explained that that was the plan anyway (which is excellent). His parents gave me great feedback in saying that the exercises that I had given him prior has helped massively and that they greatly appreciates everything I have done to aid this athletes recovery.

Overall at training session I felt super confident with every injury that occurred today, I got excellent feedback from parents and overall feel like I am apart of the Saints team!

Today involved travelling to three different locations; Office in Newton Abbott (2.5 hours), Cockington Primary School in Torquay (1.5 hours), and South Dartmoor Community College in Ashburton (3 hours).

I did not arrive to the office until 12pm due to having a practical exam in the morning at University.

Whilst I was at the office I had a phone call with a parent of an athlete who attends our Taunton Development Centre who is complaining of a hamstring strain/pull. Our phone call consisted of questions about the athlete, how old, when the injury happened, how it happened, what time of day did it happen, any swelling/redness/bruising. I then went on to ask if he’s able to walk on this leg without limping, if there is any obvious signs of reduced range of movement so then I could paint a picture and get a rough idea of what grading the hamstring strain falls under.

After reading a journal article it suggests that this athletes signs and symptoms fall under the Grade 2 category of a hamstring strain. Minor however causing the athlete to stop playing due to the pain.

I then created a rehabilitation programme to be emailed over to the athletes parent who was very appreciative about receiving.

Hamstring Rehab

Pollock, N., James, S. L., Lee, J. C., & Chakraverty, R. (2014). British Athletics Muscle Injury Classification: A New Grading System. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 48(18), 1347-1351.

At Cockington Primary School, I assisted coaching an afterschool club with another coach, teaching a year 5 class.

We discussed as a group of what SAINTS stood for (acronym) and at the end we asked them which one they wanted to learn for next week.

Standards

Aspiration

Integrity

New thinking

Together

Skills

Today we taught them Skills and how to put it into a game of football.

I think today went really well, they all learned something new and really enjoyed today’s session. I was a little nervous as it was my second time going to this primary school, however due to not being myself this helped me to stay focussed and confident.

Next Time

Next time I would like to be able to be confident enough to take part of the session even if its just 10 minutes. I would like to adapt and learn new coaching skills and to be able to put it into practice.

Today at Ashburton Regional Training Session.

I had a few athletes booked into see me prior to starting their training session from injuries occurring over the weekend.

My first injury was an U10’s player c/o foot pain. There was no pain on palpation and their ROM was not limited and pain free. They asked if I could apply K-Tape as they wanted extra support whilst training. After I had applied the K-Tape along the medial border of the foot (along the ankle) I reassessed his gait and he said the pain has now ‘moved’ to his heel and asked if K-Tape could also be applied to his heel. Once applying the K-Tape the pain had gone. I gave his parent some extra tape as it seems to ‘help relieve the pain’. I also advised stretching his calf muscles as they were very tight which may have been causing the pain.

Second injury to occur was an athlete c/o of pain in toes due to contact whilst training. I applied an ice pack to his toes to help relieve the pain and advised to keep on for a minimum of 5 minutes, I then checked his ROM and he was wanting to play football again.

Third injury U14’s player was complaining of hamstring tightness, I applied deep heat balm and gave a quick STM to relieve the tension then performed STR, I repeated this twice and his ROM had improved and pain had reduced. I then went through some stretches with him and suggested if he wanted to keep playing then ensure that his pain was no more than a 6 on the NRPS and I would make sure that I did a full cool down with this team at the end of their training session.

My last injury was an ongoing injury. This athlete is suffering with heel pain due to a growth spurt and find K-Tape to help relieve the pressure on his heel and to reduce pain. I also asked someone to video myself taping his heels so I could send to his parents so then they then have a guide on how to tape his heels if the pain reoccurs whilst being at home. K-Tape Application for Heel Pain this video was sped up in order for it to be a smaller size to upload on here, the original version was sent to the parent so it was in a slower speed.

At the end of the training, I then went through a Cool Down with U14’s and U15’s see below for the cool down:

Next Time

Next time I need to make sure that I provide a cool down for age groups especially the groups that are going through their growth spurts (U12’s, U13’s and U14’s). I also need to make sure I stock up my kit bag for next week due to starting to run low on K-Tape and Ice Packs.

Today U15’s Devon Team had a game at South Dartmoor Community College in Ashburton.

Prior to the game started I assisted another student with setting up the VEO camera in order for him to analyse the football game.

Veo | Soccer Camera– more information about the VEO Camera.

I then warmed the players up before the game started at 10am. Saints Southwest have a ‘Club Warmup’ so I just needed to oversee that they were performing the correct exercises and movements in order to prevent injuries occurring.

During the first quarter of the game a player can cut his knee whilst slide tackling so I provided general first aid to ensure there was no rubber crumb stuck to the knee and applied a plaster to cover the graze.

The second quarter had no injuries but at the end of the quarter one of the players were complaining of groin tightness so I applied K-Tape to the affected area to help relieve the tension and reduce the pain then went through some quad and groin stretches with him.

At the end of the match I took them for a cool down.

Being pitch side for games there is not really much I can do until an injury occurs. However I could next time discuss with the coach to see if they need any assistance with the coaching aspects, find out what they are working on today from their training session (main focus) and see if I could bring along some exercises that could help prevent injuries from occurring which they can perform in the warm up. Ensuring they are not just sitting/standing around between each quarter is another thing that I could assist with, making sure they are keeping warm during the breaks are essential as it will keep the blood flow circulating and allowing the athlete to prevent becoming injured.