Thailand tour with the VIS – Recap

I have recently got back into work at the clinic in South Melbourne after a 6.5-week stint in Thailand with the VIS Triathlon program working with the athletes to manage their bodies through a heavy training block leading into two crucial races that played a part in world champs qualification later in the year in Cozumel.

In addition to the triathletes from the VIS, we also had some athletes from the National Talent Academy (NTA) in Queensland visit for some training after their first race in Gamagori, Japan.

Not a bad training setting!
There could be worse views than poolside at Thanyapura!

Overall it was a fairly consistent routine for the group, with the training & treatment following a pretty typical routine for the athletes each week. In addition to the swim, bike & run training, there are typically three sessions a week in the gym focussing on various areas of weakness that have been determined to be of importance for that athlete back at home by their strength & conditioning screenings.

Getting some Dry Needling in on the Calf during treatment.
Dry needling on the lower legs following a tough days training.

My role in Thailand was to ensure the boys were recovering well and helping to prepare them for upcoming training. A combination of hands-on treatment including various massage techniques, joint mobilisation, assisted stretching & dry needling was typically used and depending on the athlete, the squad would normally get between 1 & 3 sessions of some type of treatment per week with variation in treatment lengths, sometimes requiring a more extended session while other times just focussing on some mobilisation of a specific joint / region before a training session.

Ra
Race pace efforts on the road in training.

As I knew the group quite well, having treated the squad for six months before leaving Melbourne, the injury management process was relatively straightforward compared to travelling abroad with a substantially larger number of unknown athletes like in 2014 & 2015.

Overall it was a great experience to assist the group in Thailand. It was awesome to see that all three qualification slots for Australia have since been filled from within the training group, a great effort from all athletes, coaches & support staff involved to seal all three spots for the U23 division.

Hopefully, some more big results to come from the group later in the year at Cozumel for the World Champs!

Group shot on departure with some of the regular staff from our time at the hotel.
Group shot on departure with some of the regular staff from our time at the hotel.

Upcoming Thailand Tour with Triathlon

I will be on tour with the VIS Triathlon program from 29/5/2016 through to 13/7/2016 providing tour support from their heat acclimatisation training base in Thailand.

Over this period, there will be no bookings taken at SportsMyo in South Melbourne.

If you require treatment for a specific injury or some maintenance work to coincide with a heavy training block or the lead into a race, I will still be contactable via email and can put you in touch with another suitable allied health professional from my network and will get in touch with them to bring them up to speed with your treatment at the clinic at SportsMyo.

Note: Picture above is highly unlikely to be actual accomodation for tour.
Note: The picture above is highly unlikely to be the actual accommodation for the tour.

Upon returning to Australia in July, I will be opening up the Monday afternoon at the clinic for the remainder of 2016.

Bookings are still available up till departure, so feel free to book online here for the coming weeks; otherwise, if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email at toby@sportsmyo.com.au

Cheers,

Toby