A great blog by physio Paul Westwood @triathlonphysio who support my squad over on Adam Meakins blog 'The Sports Physio":
A few highlights below that have guided how we work with our athletes and navigate the process of high performance training:
“We tend to try that extra bit harder with high performance athletes. We want to impress them, they deserve more, they need to get everything they want. If they’re complaining of pain we need to do something about it and do it now! They need ‘intensive physiotherapy’. If the pain doesn’t reslove they need even more intensive physiotherapy. MRI scans are done at the drop of the hat, steroid injections given instantly, arthroscopes quickly, as long as it makes them happy and gives them what they want.”
“Think about what you can actually do to make a difference. Often this is not a lot. Don’t throw everything and the kitchen sink at athletes, don’t pump them full of pain killers, perform endless manips, poke them full of needles and give relentless massages trying to release what isn’t stuck. Don’t fly them across the world to see one expert after the next. In life shit happens from time to time. Once we accept this we can quickly move on and get back on track rather than wasting energy on a fruitless searches and potentially harmful interventions. A calm and reassuring response is all that is often required.”
“When you work with your athletes, show them what they are capable of rather than showing them what YOU think is wrong with them, and sometimes they just need to train and race to find their belief.
Once you look beyond the smoke and mirrors of the wonder physio there usually is a great therapist in there. They just have to trust their knowledge, humanist skills and faith in what people are actually capable of. Find this out by knowing your athletes. My most successful outcomes are usually achieved by simply listening and talking.”