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:
Gentle Jog |
Side of the pitch to centre of the pitch x 2 |
Walking knee hugs |
Side of pitch to centre (approx. 20 yards) x1 |
Walking lunges |
‘Shoo the chickens’ |
Static Stretches
-Hamstrings
-V sit
-Diamond stretch
-Groin/ hip flexor stretch
-Quadriceps
-Calves
-Bicep/triceps
-Chest |
Hold for 30-45 seconds each |
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.