Coaches

Coaches

Online Referral Form
We are all working to achieve the same thing – results.  There is nothing more frustrating that watching one of your athletes go through a cycle of injury and recovery only to return to training or competition and either re-injure themselves or sustain another related. If its not happening and you could use some fresh ideas let us help.

Too much conventional treatment effort is spent stretching or foam rolling the painful structures, attempting to strengthen the painful structures, injecting the painful structures and blanket prescription of core stability and flexibility exercises. When these do not achieve a result many patients and practitioners alike do not know where to turn. At Integrated Physiotherapy we do.

The diagnosis your athlete receives from a physio or sports physician is only the name of the result of the problem. In order to  not only fix the problem but allow the athlete to optimise their performance potential we need to understand the “why” of the diagnosis and the  underlying movement dysfunction.

Musculoskeletal screening, in conjunction with video analysis allows us to to differentiate coachable technique issues from those due to limitations of the human machine. and gain valuable insights into the interaction between equipment, technique and the body . We can learn where range of motion and movement limitations are present , what has caused them and the best way to address them,whether by improving technique awareness and control or through specifically targeting tissue restrictions and irritation with manual therapy and dry needling.

Video Analysis 

Video analysis is a common enough technique used by sports physiotherapists,coaches and participants in many sports every day. What video analysis provides is the ability to breakdown a particular activity and identify deviations from technique that may be affecting performance or leading to injury. When we observe inefficient movement  in any activity it is only an observation until we have further information in order to know the reason the are occurring. 

We have to specifically  test whether there is a limitation in awareness, movement control or whether there is a cumulative tissue irritation or restriction involved.

Awareness

Issues caused by a lack of movement awareness are  coachable and will respond well to coaching, prompts and drills.  This is relatively simple to  test for, the main challenge being to identify the inefficient component of the movement and to find the effective cue to allow the athlete the opportunity to correct the dysfunction. If the athlete is able to achieve the correction this can then be reinforced and challenged with drills and training. The athlete who is unable to correct the movement has either control or restriction issues or a combination of both.

Control

When control issues are present the person  either :

  • completely lacks movement/motor software
  • lacks the level of software required by the level of the activity
  • has specific or “apparent” weakness caused by tissue immobility or irritation resulting from movement dysfunction and overload. This apparent weakness or “inhibition” must be addressed or any attempts to retrain or strengthen movements will be slow or completely unsuccessful

Tissue Restriction

May be actual or apparent ie tissue behaving in a restricted way due to tissue irritation.
Overloaded tissues become  irritated  and may become inflamed or develop pathology such as tendinopathy or  other  degenerative processes. 

They:-

  • “Behave weak”
  • “Behave tight”
  • “Behave stiff”
    Tissue that “feels” tight to the patient usually feels that way because it moves too much and is irritated. Actual tight or stiff tissue rarely has any sensation associated with it because it DOESNT MOVE

Example:

A shoulder restriction on the left may be what is causes the hip on the right side to exhibit excessive lateral movement or a lack of thoracic spine rotation left may be what is causing excessive and  internal rotation of the right knee which in turn perhaps causes tissue sensitivity or pain in the knee or ankle.

An effective treatment process must identify where the movement is lacking and aim to restore and maintain it to unload the overloaded, painful structures. An integrated, head to toe screening process in conjunction with movement analysis allows accurate identification of this lacking movement.

With over 25 years clinical experience  at  the highest sports physiotherapy level using a multitude of manual therapy and manipulative treatment techniques , coaching and retraining, dry needling and traditional acupuncture we can often offer the breakthrough you are looking for. We share our assessments and observations with you and your athlete and only want to stay involved  until your athlete is able to  continue their progress  with you.
At Integrated Physiotherapy  we offer  an approach to physiotherapy  that  has many points  of difference and is, in some respects, unconventional. When added to more  conventional approaches  where progress may be slow or appear to have stalled, positive change is often seen. This may be for many reasons and some of them are as simple as our appointment time structure but includes:

  • Hour long consultations at Integrated Physiotherapy  allow  techniques to be applied to multiple, anatomically and neurologically related regions within one treatment session which allows a different level of neuro-integration following the treatment  to what might occur after treating separate regions on different days
  • Every session we go through  specific integrated neuro-myofascial screening process which  allow us to determine the presence of  an accumulation of tissue irritation or restriction-anywhere in the musculoskeletal system.  This is rarely if even that actual site of pain and these sites may produce abnormal impulses which load the neurological system and may contribute to “brain” sensitivity.  eg. a shoulder restriction on the left may be what is causing  the hip on the right side to exhibit excessive lateral movement or a lack of thoracic spine rotation to the  left may be what is causing excessive and perhaps painful internal rotation of the right knee.
  • We are able to spend considerable time teaching and retraining exercise, postures and work and sporting techniques using video feedback. In many cases people respond well to the longer teaching and feedback process than when these important aspects of treatment are, by necessity, squeezed into shorter consultations.
  • The use of Integrated Dry needling as part of the manual therapy used at our clinic provides another point of difference as there are many ways in which this style of needle stimulation affects the  systems tissues and neurology when compared to the trigger point dry needling techniques other practitioners commonly use.
  • Over 25 years assessing and coaching many sporting techniques in conjunction with  manual therapy directed by a head to toe, neuro-myofascial screening process
  • The use of traditional acupuncture alongside dry needling, manual therapy and exercise prescription may provide important , breakthrough systemic support , for a patient who has suboptimal inflammatory and healing responses due to:
    •  immune system compromise
    • autonomic nervous system imbalance
    • altered body chemistry or hormonal imbalance

We look forward to working with you.