The aim of my placement is to preform a pre performance baseline test on students before they have any competitive fixtures. This is to ensure that if a head injury does occur there are baseline measurements which can be referred to when inferring the level of ‘consciousness’ or ‘alertness’ in a performer. When conducing a SCAT test, I need to ensure that I do not aid the performers in any way as well as ensuring professionalism in keeping their answers confidential. One thing to be mindful about with a SCAT test is that there is no pass/fail element, and this being told to the participants may help them to relax and perform better at the test. The main skills that I will need to be effective at this job will be professionalism as people may feel uncomfortable about being tested. The only issue that may arise is a player coming in who is already suffered a head injury in which case I will put the player on a return to play protocol which when completed the player will then undergo a baseline SCAT and only then will they be able to compete for the BUCS teams.

During the placement I felt like I was growing in confidence the longer I was doing the testing. SCAT testing is repetitive, and the papers do not change therefore I was able to by the end explain things in a more concise way which meant that I was more efficient and was able to process more performers. During my placement there were no points where I felt overwhelmed and the Clinic staff were very helpful to me especially at going through the initial process.

On placement my role was in one of the clinic beds, I would go and get a player from the lobby and conduct a baseline SCAT test. Before the test was completed, I explained the point of the SCAT test and why the baseline is being conducted, Once the test was completed, I asked the client if they had any questions/ queries and tried to answer them as best as possible.

To begin with I would say that I was nervous because I had never conducted a SCAT test before, after I was briefed on the process, I was a bit eased but still apprehensive. The first test that I went through was slow, but it massively boosted my confidence, from here the process got quicker and I continued to grow in confidence.

I would say that the placement was a success, this is as there was nothing that went wrong and I was able to handle the situations accordingly and avoid any potential issues.

The main thing I have learnt is that its fine to be nervous but with enough repetition things will start to be remembered and confidence will grow.

Going forwards I will just remind myself to have confidence and this will male clients and others respond to me in a better way.

Today my main aim of placement is to introduce myself into the team and try and integrate myself within the team as much as possible from early on. This will make it easier for me to feel welcomed by the team themselves and will aid in the trust building with the players as some will be more introverted and if they have little niggles will be less likely to seek hep whereas if they feel like they know me better they will hopefully confide in me more and allow me to support their performance. I would consider myself as an outgoing person, but I will have to push my limits in order to get the impact that I want to have on the team early on. If the team see to be reluctant to talk then I will take more of a back seat and slowly integrate and build trust that way.

I found that all the team were very welcoming, and they all seemed to be interested in what I could bring to the team and perhaps add an extra dimension to their training. I even had a few of the more extroverted players approach me and request advice on little niggles and picking my brains on movements to focus on in the gym to make them better performers. The session gave me good confidence for the future.

Today at placement, the main activity I did was immerse myself within the team, I explained to all the players what I can provide to the team and offered some advice on training programmes outside of coached sessions.

I was nervous upon arrival but due to everyone making me welcome I quickly was able to relax, and this increased my confidence.

The placement went well. There were no injuries that were reported so actual pitch side work was limited. Going forward I would have prepared a cooldown/ warmup for the team to use should they require it. This is something that I can investigate to developing over the course of the placement.

When people talk about sports rehabilitators most of the time they only think about the sports side of the role. We play a massive psychological role in performers careers, especially if you are working with a team. This means that our players have to trust that we are making the best decision possible for them and this is why team integration is so important.

From today’s actions I have I feel like I have developed my communication skills with new people, and I think it went well. I think this session went really well because everyone responded really well to be becoming a member to the team.

Before my placement I had a message from one of the players saying that they had a hip problem that they wanted looking at. My aim of that placement was to analyse and see if I could diagnose the issue. I need to ensure that I am performing safe practice and keeping the client comfortable and reassured throughout the process.

The players were all very welcoming and I feel like I am already a member of the team. I helped a few players with some pre- training exercises to help in loosening their groins and ankle joints. After this when the rest of the group were doing a proper warm up with their coach, I took aside the player with the hip complaint and did an observation over the player. I performed some active, passive and resisted movements with the player followed by some special tests such as the FABER and FADIR tests for hip impingement and these tests along with other tests I did seemed to lead to a specific pathology.

Other than the tests that I conducted on the one player I just aided in some stretches for some of the other players using techniques such as Post Isometric Relaxation (PIR)

I was pleased with how the placement went as I felt like the players had already accepted me in the team and I was trusted by a few of them to take them through some stretches. However, I am disappointed that I was unable to pinpoint the pathology on the players hip I will have to revisit some more test and potentially get the player into be ultra-sounded.

Todays placement was a success despite being unable to diagnose the hip pathology. This is as it is still early stages for me in this team and the fact that they are trusting me with injury and issues is a great confidence boost for me as it being the first time working with a team as staff and not a performer.

From my placement today I am aiming to reassess the player with a hip impingement. I need to be mindful of the tests I have already tested for but potentially reassess some of the tests I have already done.

Everyone was in good spirits in the session and once again everyone was very welcoming, the team I feel have now fully accepted me due to how there was no big deal made of my attendance I was able to have a conversation with a few of the players regarding injury/previous injury and recommended some exercises that could help to prevent further injury.

The main activity that I undertook on placement today was the reassessment of the player with the hip pathology. The special tests I performed were Thomas test- rec fem, Glute med drop- glute med, FABER- hip impingement, FADIR- hip impingement, Hip Quadrant- circular motion for impingement, Elys test -rec fem, Glute kicking- muscle firing, Psis push in, Sij push, Slump test and the Straight leg raise. The results of these tests were again inconclusive, the clients pain was recreated in the top right portion of the hip quadrant test and the PSIS squeeze which leads me to believe that the problem is either an impingement or a problem with the SIJ.

I was confident with how the placement went and am pleased with the progress I made on the hip pathology even though I wasn’t able to advise too much on the treatment other than the RICE protocol but this is now something that I can work on for the next time I see the player.

I think that the placement went very well, the only thing that I would change would be the introduction of a cooldown after the sessions as the players go from playing game related scenarios to nothing and this can impede their recovery, especially since they train the night before their games and want to avoid soreness.

One thing that I am going to investigate is a warmup/cooldown routine for the team just to help them prepare better for the next days game. A cooldown may help them to feel fresher when waking up on game days.

The aim of my placement today is to further analyse and aim to provide some relief to the player with the hip pathology, as well as this I will aim to treat any other players who may present with injuries being mindful to always maintain my professionalism while pitch side and while treating.

The plans that I had for placement changed due to the lack of numbers, the player with the hip pathology wanted to take part in training instead of having further work done. For this I gave the athlete the stretches I was going to work through it with them but instead I told the player to do the stretches in their own time and if their pain was reproduced or got worse then they were to stop.

The main activity that I was involved in at placement today was a potential tendinopathy in the Achilles tendon. This occurred through an overstretch on the serve. The treatment that I administered was an icepack to the affected area and the player sat out for the rest of the session. I told the player to rest the area for up to three days just to ensure that all the inflammation was present when seeing me again this is as the inflammatory stage of tissue healing lasts up to 72 hours. after this I recommended the player did some isometric exercises on the area through plantar and dorsi flexion in order to try and strengthen the Achilles in an attempted prehab of a more severe Achilles tendinopathy.

I was at ease throughout placement today as there wasn’t a challenging time. I have found that with dealing with more injuries over time my assessments have been a lot calmer as I am able to distance myself temporarily and allow myself time to think whilst also carrying out assessment.

I believe that the placement went well due to the fact I was able to eliminate the pain that the client was feeling in the Achilles and although it is frustrating that I wasn’t able to work with the other injured individual with the hip pathology the stretches that I recommended should have a good outcome to the player.

The main aim of my placement today was to ensure that all the players were fit after the Christmas break. I need to take an active role in finding out if they are carrying any injuries that they picked up over the Christmas period. As well as this I need to catch up with the players with the Achilles and hip problems and see how they are.

Everyone was slow to get back into the session after the Christmas period and many of them seemed to be stiff. I conferred with the coach and I took the team through some stretching within tolerance to make sure that they were as prepared as possible for the session. Although I didn’t have a stretching session planned I was able to improvise and the players responded well to the delivery due to the nature at which it was presented.

Upon catching up with the players I found that none of them had developed any injuries whilst being away for Christmas. However, they were all very tight and restricted when it cam to activity. Furthermore, the player with the Achilles tendinopathy seemed to of made a recovery to 100% after the isometric exercises. The player with the hip pathology is still reporting soreness but at a decreased level to what it was.

I was slightly nervous going into placement today as I was unsure if I was going to get bombarded with multiple injuries that were sustained over the Christmas break. But after I got there, and everyone seems to be fine I quickly relaxed.

I think that today’s placement went well as there were no issues that were serious and the stretching that I did with the squad was a success

Before my placement I had developed a more well-rounded stretching phase for both warming up and cooling down after a session, this is as the previous time I had been at placement all the squad seemed to be tense and stiff so if this happened again I was in a better position to treat them than the last time.

Today a player came to me with a pain on their elbow. I suspected this to be a tendinopathy, the pain was in the lateral side of the elbow and this immediately made me think of tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis). To help the client I Kinesiology taped the elbow to allow more blood flow to the area due to the lifting effect that KT provides and as well as this a placebo effect can be seen to take place.

Today at placement I was just monitoring a few injuries, such as the lateral epicondylitis injury as well as the hip pathology to ensure that the conditioned weren’t aggravated by a specific movement and if they were I was able to see this occur and use it in my diagnosis and treatment of the conditions.

I was feeling confident throughout my placement today as I felt like I had everything under control and any symptoms that the players had I was able to deal with confidently and efficiently.

Before my placement today I looked at ways that you can treat tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) as one of the players presented with the condition in the previous weeks session. I found that isometric work focusing on the wrist movements was a good method to relieve the painful sensations.

https://www.ahealthblog.com/how-to-get-rid-of-tennis-elbow.html

I was feeling okay about the placement but the work with the client with tennis elbow was difficult. I had planned to use resistance bands on the tennis racket in order to promote an isometric contraction along the wrist extensors in order to work on the affected area but there was nowhere to attach the resistance band that was at an adequate height so instead I had to hold the other end which meant my focus was shifted from ensuring quality movement and now onto the stability of the resistance band.

Today at placement I worked with a player with tennis elbow, I took them through some stretches/ exercises that they can do at home as well as doing some isometric holding with them in the session to work on the affected wrist extensors.

I felt okay about placement today but I find it stressful when you’re working with a player and the coach is repeatedly coming over and checking to see if the player can take part in drills or not, I feel like it puts unnecessary pressure on a player to say that they are fine when they may in fact be struggling with injury.

From my placement today I am aiming to support all the players in their build up to their first competitive game since the Christmas break. This will entail providing treatment to any injuries, stretching out any tight areas and aiding the coach with overall preparations.

Today I noticed a slight atmosphere change in all the players, they were more focused, and training was much more intense. The players were much more concerned about picking up injuries and would come and see me about very minor complaints.

Whilst on placement today I mostly did assessments on players who were concerned that they had injuries, the reason why I did the assessments was to show the players that they were actually not injured due to the negative outcome of the tests.

Today at placement I felt confident as there was nothing that I couldn’t handle.

Today from placement I want to improve my knowledge behind tennis injury’s and the mechanisms that cause more injuries. I feel like I have good background knowledge in injuries, but I would like to develop my understanding of specific common injuries in the sport of tennis.

Today I was mostly monitoring the players to see how they were coping after their game, I was told that no injuries were sustained at the match the week before, but I was still very closely monitoring the players who played to make sure that they were being truthful.

Today at placement my main activity was the maintain the rehab of the lateral epicondylitis. This was through more isometric loading through the wrist extensors.

Today at placement I felt very confident as I felt that I was in control of everything that happened and nothing that happened was out of my control.

Today from placement as it will be the first-time doing football pitch side so I want to ensure that I am aware of the normal injuries and am aware of the plans in place should there be a severe injury occur to either the home or away team.

Prior to this placement I hadn’t worked with any of the teams that I was pitch side for, but I found them very responsive and chatty towards me, making me feel welcome within the team environment. I feel like this is very common for the bigger team sports such as football and rugby due to the ever-changing personnel.

The main activities that I participated in at placement today were the treatment of injuries. To start with I performed a pre event massage on the calf’s’ persisting in effleurage and petrissage PIR and RI as the player was experiencing some soreness due to playing a game earlier in the week. After this I was assisting some players in an extended warmup to warm up some extra sore areas. The first injury that occurred in the game was ankle based as a player went over on their left ankle. After a few tests on the field I suspected it was peroneal as there was pain on active movement throughout the whole range of movement. This led to the player being removed from the game and ice being used to try and reduce the swelling. There were also a few knee injuries that needed strapping including an MCL strapping and patella femoral syndrome.

Today at placement I felt confident throughout as again there was nothing that I felt was out of my control.

Today from placement I want to run the cooldown that I developed for the boys to make sure that they don’t develop injuries too easily. Futsal is played on a hard surface and a lot of force is generated through ground contact putting a large force through the ankle and knees, this is why the primary muscles targeted in the cooldown will be the calf muscle made of the gastrocnemius and soleus, the tibias anterior, and the knee flexors such as the hamstring group.

During my placement today I was noticing the different movement styles of the different players. This is as I am still getting used to everyone as this is a new team that I am working with. I was involved with a few of the players who were talking to me about extra training outside of Futsal and I recommended some exercises such as glute bridges to help with glute firing.

On placement today I ran the cooldown to aid in the recovery of the players to try and reduce the onset of DOMS by flushing the lactic acid out of the muscles and into the blood stream which will be then taken to the lungs through gaseous exchange.

Today at placement I felt really confident as the players responded very well to my input and they reported that the session ran by myself was useful and they felt the benefits.

Today at placement aside from my normal responsibilities I was aiding a few players in their preparation for their game the next day. This could consist of pre massage, stretching or activation exercises.

During placement again I noticed an attitude change in some of the players, especially in those who have a game the next day. As I noticed before when the players know they’re about to go into competition they are much more concerned with how their bodies are feeling and come for treatment much more.

At placement today some of the things that I undertook were PIR and RI stretching, this was in order to stretch out muscles on the players which were tight. I did stretching on the glutes, quads, chest, hamstrings and the calf muscle group.

Today throughout placement I felt confident in everything that I did as I am familiar In all of the techniques that is used. The main thing that I am getting better at is giving the players a more concise answer when they are worried about things, this gives them more of a piece of mind and also allows their confidence in me as a practitioner to grow.

I felt that the boys all responded well to the circuit. They all put in a string effort and worked harder when I asked them too. I asked after how they felt I explained it and they said that they thought it was all said concisely but everyone had all the information they needed to perform the different movements without asking.

Today I ran a circuit designed by the club chairman and myself, he knew that he wanted to run a circuit based on core stability, we searched for exercises that recruited the full core such as the plank and incorporated it into a fun well balanced circuit.

Today I was nervous to run the circuit but once it had started and I saw how responsive all the boys were then I soon relaxed and my confidence grew.

Today from placement I want to improve my knowledge behind tennis injury’s and the mechanisms that cause more injuries. I feel like I have good background knowledge in injuries, but I would like to develop my understanding of specific common injuries in the sport of tennis.

Everyone seemed to be chilled out and not had time to be treated compared to when they were playing and were perhaps more hesitant to be assessed in case they were told that they couldn’t carry on.

Today at placement I helped in the rehab of tennis elbow. The main way that I did this was through frictions to the lateral epicondyle and used isometric muscle contraction in wrist flexion and extension.

Today at placement I felt fine, due to the lack of numbers at the session I was able to manage everyone who was carrying injury well.

Being an academic break from university, I suspect a low numbers count at training, this means that I have more time to work with specific players and I will have more of an opportunity to speak to

During my placement today I noticed how relaxed everyone was, as a therapist I enjoy these sessions as you can get to know the players in greater depth because there focus isn’t on competition, it also allows me to talk to them about lifestyle and training outside of the timetabled sessions and how they would get the most out of doing some.

Today on placement I worked with three players all who were complaining of muscular soreness and tightness. After a ROM test on everyone I was able to see for myself that movement was limited due to muscular tightness especially in the hamstrings, this as a group was interesting as they were all presenting tightness in the same area, to help with the issue I performed RI of each of the players and they all reported that they felt better and a retest of ROM showed an improvement,

Today at placement I was pleased with what I was able to achieve with the players who were present, smaller session give me a change to get closer with the team and for me this is one of the most important things about being a therapist

Before my placement I was hoping to aid in the development of the players through assisting them in learning gym-based exercises. I need to be mindful of the experience levels of each player as some may have never been in a gym and not be aware what a ‘challenging’ weight for them is.

Today I noticed that a few of the players were very nervous of the session, these players were the ones who seemed to be less experienced in the gym environment. I was able to aid some of the boys in the development of their gym skills.

Today at placement I was involved in running a Strength and conditioning session focused on agility. I ran a dynamic warmup and cooldown. As well as this I was involved in the coaching some of the boys on their technique to ensure that they didn’t injure themselves.

Today at placement I was pleased with the level that I was able I was able to improve some of the boys techniques in exercises such as ladder runs and box jumps

Today from placement I want to be able to continue to develop my skills as a team-based therapist. I need to ensure that I am mindful of different players requirements and how they can differently respond to being injured.

Today I found myself in a few different situations all of which I felt comfortable in. there were a few injuries through jolting on the ground when playing a powerful shot, I then conveyed to the coach that its important to warm up individual shots as they put on different stressors.

On placement today my main responsibility was the care for one of the players who came over dizzy due to the lights in the gym, I ensured that the player was in no danger of fainting and requested that the player sit out of the rest of the session which he did.

Today at placement I was slightly anxious when the player came across as dizzy and lightheaded but reflecting back on the situation I did the correct thing in monitoring them and ensuring that they stayed safe

Today from placement I want to aid in the improvements of the boys throughout the session in terms of their lifting form. This needs that I need to be mindful of regressions if the players are not confident enough to perform the whole movement. My aim is to simply make every player more confident in lifting technique.

Today I found that a few of the players did not move well under when squatting with a barbell for this I added a bench so it turned into a box squat this meant that players did not have to go to the same depth but they can still refine their techniques

Today at placement my main role was to aid in spotting players while they performed movements such as the back squat. As well as this there was a player with a bad wrist, so I performed an assessment on and concluded a grade 1 sprain due the positive tests in active and passive movements

Today after placement I was pleased with the progress that all the players made with their lifting techniques. As well as this I am confident that the players could go away recreate the exercises and be safe.

Today at placement I want to be as helpful as I can be pitch side with the boys in order to make sure they are as fit as possible. I need to be mindful of players with existing injuries don’t aggravate them at all.

Today at placement I had to be mindful of the numbers of players there as it meant that I had to be even more observant of off the ball movement as players could sometimes come into contact with one another and this could be made worse as there are more players involved.

Today on placement I was working with a player complaining of knee pain, he is a new player but has been suffering with pain for the last few months. I was unable to decisively diagnose the issue so will have to go away and revaluate. As well as this I strapped a knee due to a light MCL injury.

Today at placement I felt disappointed that I cannot always help injuries but as I get more proficient as a therapist, I will learn to help injured people in other ways such as psychologically.

Today on placement I am aiding the team to prepare for varsity as this will be the last time, I will see them before the day. I need to be mindful of players who are already injured and the ones who are feeling niggles and ensuring that they are not over indulging in exercise as to not increase the severity of the symptoms that they are displaying.

Today I noticed how all the players were more cautious of getting injured due to the fact that they had a big game in a weeks’ time and they all wanted to ensure that they were fit for selection for what is easily this teams biggest game of the competitive season.

Today at placement I was involved with leading an extended warmup and cooldown in order to get the team prepared for the session taking extra care to make sure the body is prepared. The warmup involved a pulse raiser the stretching and warming up each individual muscle groups and finally sports specific drills to warm up proprioceptors. During the main session I was working one on one with players who were feeling tight in certain areas and using neuromuscular release to aid them to ensure they could carry on.

Today at placement I was nervous as I know how much it would mean to anyone of the players to play and if one of the players got injured they might be ruled out of selection and therefore I would feel bad but I know that it would be the best thing for the player to do in terms of rest and what’s best for the entire team in their not being a weak part of the team.

Today from placement I want to further my pitch side experience as the team I work with are playing their first friendly game. I need to be mindful of how nervous some of the players maybe and how this will affect their reaction to potential injuries.

Today at placement I saw how everyone was very nervous as this was a new experience for them. For me I found it less nerve racking because of my previous experience in pitch side with football and tennis teams. This means that I can be a calmer voice over all of people involved and ensure that everything goes to plan.

Today at placement I did some pre-game strapping massage and stretching on individual players before I lead a warmup for the entire group which included a pulse raiser, stretching specific muscle groups and finally sport specific drills. Through the game I had to strap a few ankles, but no injury required the player to sit out for the rest of the game. Finally, after the game I did a cooldown to aid with the removal of lactic acid.

Today at placement I felt confident in the fact that I could deal with any situation that arises with an injury and throughout the entire session I was pleased with how I conducted myself.

Today from placement I want to develop my understanding and importance of Prehab being integrated into a team’s yearlong sessions. This is as certain sports such as Futsal you are more likely to be subjected to more injuries such as ACL injuries due to the amount you plant and twist in Futsal to get the ball. Meaning that ACL prehab I very important for Futsal players.

Today I was thinking about additional ACL prehab exercises that could be used instead of the ones we were doing in the session such as VMO dips and Nordic curls to strengthen the areas. Everything went well and everything went according to plan, it is still important for the team leading the session to have backups for when situations and group size is different to normal.

Today at placement I was responsible for aiding in running a strength and conditioning session for the team that was based in agility. The main thing that I was responsible for was the spotting of players when they were doing exercises.

Today at placement I was pleased with how it went and this lead to me being more confident as I continue to strengthen my skills as a therapist.