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By admin News , , , ,

Cambodia Tour with the Joey’s – Recap

After settling back into work back in Melbourne, I thought I would take the opportunity to put together a quick blog post on my recent trip over to Cambodia for the AFF U/16 Football Tournament with the Joey’s.

Joey pre match team photo
Joey’s pre match team photo.

Overall I had a great time on the trip. Although it didn’t all go to plan, it was great to get some behind the scenes exposure into another high-performance program. I always find it interesting to see the different training approaches, methods for monitoring training loads, treatment protocols and group dynamics within the sports medicine team and team in general when working with different high-performance programs.

My role for the trip was to include treatment (with the majority of this being recovery-focused sports massage the day following games), setting up the hydration for training, post-training and recovery needs & helping set up ice baths for the boys.

The first couple of days of the trip was reasonably busy, with the whole team meeting in Sydney on Friday before flying out on Saturday to Ho Chi Minh before getting our connecting flight through to Pnom Penh, Cambodia.

Our first day of training was an eye-opener for everyone with a very interesting first training pitch (our first pitch at the navy base had 4-5 cows at the back of the pitch and had potholes and gravel in patches and was nowhere near the usual standards).

Training at Olympic Stadium Cambodia
Training at Olympic stadium, Pnom Penh.

The first couple of days were essentially morning weigh-ins and hydration testing, team breakfast, depart for training on the bus, active recovery session at the Olympic pool before heading back to the hotel for lunch. Then treatment’s throughout the afternoon before having tea and then setting up for the next day.

Unfortunately, I went down with some sickness after picking up a nasty infection, most likely from the food, which resulted in the next three days in Pnom Penh hospital. So after three days with some very average memory apart from being spoilt on the hospital food of bacon and eggs, it was back to the rice and chicken at the hotel x 3 meals per day.

One of the few things i remember from the hospital stay. The quality food on offer!
One of the few things i remember from the hospital stay. The quality food on offer!

As a result of the hospital admission, it meant that I had missed the first couple of our games. However, once getting the all-clear from our Doc it was good to get back amongst the team and pick up where I had left off before the stint in hospital.

The team was expected to do quite well on this tour. Unfortunately, in the semi’s, we went down to Thailand 3 – 2 after a late attempt to get back from 3 – 0 to get put in the 3rd/4th playoff against Laos. However, the team bounced back strong in the 3rd/4th playoff with a final score of 10 – 2 to pick up the Bronze medal.

Olympic pool which we utilised for post training and game active recovery sessions.
The Olympic pool which we utilised for post training and game active recovery sessions.

The final morning before leaving, the boys got some free time at the shop’s to have a look around with their families and pick up some more authentic rolex watches before getting on the bus for departure to the airport and making the journey home via Ho Chi Minh again back into Sydney.

All in all, it was still a great learning experience for me. If I take out the brief hospital stint, I will now go away and have some time to work out better tactics for the sports medicine team evening up and down the river card game championships, so I don’t disgrace myself as much next time!

Toby

By admin News , , , , ,

Online Bookings now available!

We now have an online booking system available at the clinic.

We hope that you find this a helpful way to make future appointments at the clinic. We have made this option available as it has become increasingly challenging to respond to appointment inquiries in a timely manner, with it being a busy time of year at the clinic.

You are more than welcome to book your appointment’s as you have previously via phone or email, and this is just an addition to the current booking process.

For online bookings, please go to the following link. 

If you have any questions, then please feel free to get in contact.

Toby

By admin Blog, News, Tour Support , , , ,

Germany 2014, Blog – 1.

I thought I would take some time out and do up a quick blog post about my work trip to Cologne with the Australia Athletics team to date.

I am at the end of my second week here now and feel the last week will go very quickly. However, I think the workload will ramp up a bit more as a few of the athletes here will be upping their training loads as they go through some high volume weeks and need additional soft tissue management, and the number of athletes is due to increase.

The first two weeks had gone relatively smoothly with a slowish start with only a couple of athletes here when I arrived and gradually building by the end of the first week. I mostly treated runners during the first week ranging from specialists in the 400m up to the 1500m. I always enjoy learning on the job. The different training backgrounds and rehab protocols from previous injuries etc., that these athletes have completed made for some good conversation in the treatment room (or hotel room in this case). I will definitely be heading home with some new corrective exercise progressions to implement at the clinic with my patients.

The treatments haven’t varied too much from the typical treatment sessions back home at the clinic at SportsMyo, but I would have to say that there has been a bit more focussed work on treatment through the abdominals and obliques than usual. This is because these muscles play such a huge role for the runners while stabilising their torso when running at speed and can cop a beating at the track, so management and controlling the muscle tone through this area is critical in preventing a couple of running specific injuries.

I have also managed to get out and look around the town here in Cologne on a few different morning’s. There are some very impressive buildings around, including the main cathedral in the city ‘The Dom’, which stands out from a long way away. I am yet to have a look inside, but I will definitely try to get back and have a look inside before I leave next Sunday. I also had the opportunity to have a short river cruise down the Rhine river and look through the Ludwig museum and Olympic museum. I have also been over the track for a few training sessions, seeing what the athletes are putting themselves through.

The second week was good, with a few more athletes and their coaches arriving in town. Mostly jumpers, so good to get some different body types and issues to work with on the treatment table. The good thing about working within athletics is that you get so many different sports within the ‘athletics’ umbrella and many different personalities. Most of the athletes will train in the morning’s at the local university nearby, so the treatments will usually start around 12ish and go through till dinner.

The soccer world cup is huge over here, so I managed to head into town last night with the rest of the Aussie’s to check out the 2nd Germany game. There was people everywhere and plenty of atmosphere. With most athletes completing training sessions the following day, we headed back to the hotel to watch the second half from the lobby downstairs. It was a crazy second half, with the game ending 2 – 2. Hopefully, not too booked up tomorrow night so we can watch the Aus vs Spain match.

For my last week here, I will be primarily treating from the hotel room and, hopefully, get out a couple of mornings where I can have a bit more of a look around at the remainder of the tourist sites and try to get to a few more training sessions.

I will leave my next post for once I touch back down in Australia.

Toby