Congratulations to all sporting teams on their achievements this year.Particularly to CYMS I would like to extend my thanks to Kevin, and coaching and support staff, especially Blake and Luke,for the opportunity to work in a great team environment and for the many learning opportunities.
Continuing education and sports coverage have continued to be a high priority of the practice. Attendance to courses in Sydney for real time ultrasound training and performance arts have been great educational opportunities which we have been able to integrate in our assessment and treatment of injuries.
Our APA National Conference was held in October 2011 in Brisbane with the high quality programme content contributing to making it one of the best presentations.
Many national and international speakers presented current evidence based research and clinical findings in the sports and musculoskeletal area of physiotherapy to be utilised to assist patients in our practice.
New assessment and technologies are now used to manage overload for many professional players .Extrapolating some of the more simple and cost effective measures using i-phone apps will be helpful during the preseason for 2012.This information is available to patients through our practice.
Overuse injuries resulting from an increase workload is still an area of concern for researchers and clubs. Current evidence suggests that reducing overload by 10% can reduce injury levels of up to 40%,having a significant effect on players and team performance. Loading for more than four weeks during the season and for no more than four to six weeks off season will result in overload and injury to players.
Adequate sleep has also recently been shown to have a significant effect on the incidence and risk of injury. Were players have less than six hours of sleep at night the incidence of overuse injuries significantly increases. Reported poor sleep quality can also increase the incidence of injury by 61% in some professional sports.
Managing lower limb injuries with barefoot running or minimal rather than regular shoes has been receiving popular interest, but there is still no clear evidence available on outcomes for players or how to adequately make the transition other than ensuring it it slow and may take up to 12 months. Its suggested that running technique will still be the main focus in assessing lower limb injury. Avoiding landing with excessive heel impact or thumping, and overstriding are important factors to address. Interestingly bare foot runners from Kenya still hold all current international distance running records.
With the preseason already here for some players, minimising training downtime post season and over the christmas break is important. Not monitoring the gradual return to training peaks and any significant weight gain during training downtime has been shown to have a significantly increase the risk of lower limb injury.
The knee has continued to be a strong area of recent interest for researchers particularly in the high level of adolecent females patellofemoral pain and anterior cruciate injury. Screening patients in this age group for static and dynamic highly predictive risk factors is important, and commonly the problem is a lack of neuromuscular control. Overcoming hip and knee and more specifically hamstring muscle weakness issues is imperative to decrease the risk of injury and can be done through specific sports specific training.
Some interesting current research and treatment programmes have been developed in regard to groin and osteitis pubis .These have been a great addition to address what are often chronic presentations.
We will be continuing our education programme with two further sports workshops in Sydney in February 2012, and will be available for sports coverage during the year . Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and great 2112.
