It's been too long since we last made an entry into the blog, but for good reason, we have been inundated with interest about the injury prevention courses. Since we last did a blog entry we have run 2 courses, one Normalise Course in London (Lee Valley) and one Stabilise Course in East Midlands (Loughborough University). They both went down very well and the coaches and personal trainers who attended are keen to get on the next level of course now. We are also beginning to plan ways of keeping in touch with the participants of the courses by way of log books and web updates, so that we can continue to help their development between sessions.
We've also run 2 seminars in the north. One at the North West Regional Coaches Network and one at the Yorkshire and Humberside regional meeting. Both groups were very enthusiastic about the programmes and the interest via the web site has been great since.
Simon Grantham (UK Athletics) was presenting at the North West Regional Network speaking (amongst other things) about athletes funding, it was very interesting to see how the system has been developed. Actually this increased our resolve to press for more courses within the athletics arena.
Although the funding from UKA has increased over the years and is far better than it was, say 10 years ago, but out of all the thousands of athletes in the UK there are only 86 on full funding. In other words only 86 have access to the professional advice that they need to provide, amongst other things, injury prevention courses. At the top end this is catered for by the strength and conditioning coaches and physio's, but below that there is very limited access to top level advice. This makes us more determined to continue to provide coaches (and fitness instructors, strength and conditioning coaches, sports therapists) with the tools to be able to assess their athletes/clients and then enable them to prescribe the relevant exercises to prevent injury and improve performance.
Simon asked some interesting questions after he sat in on our presentation. One was about the difference between nerve stretching and nerve mobilizing. I explained that nerve stretching was for nerves that were inflexible or tight. Nerve mobilizing was for nerves that were bound down or adhered either within or between muscles. He also asked whether nerve issues could affect neuromuscular performance. To that I explained that it most certainly can. Nerve tension can inhibit how muscles fire and so can compromise neuromuscular firing patterns and compromise performance and most certainly increase the risk of injury. I'm sure Simon knew the answers to the questions, he was just throwing them out to the other coaches to show them how far reaching nerve biomechanics could go and how important it was that they understand these issues to fully prepare their athletes.
As well as this we have been to the Back Show Expo which was a great event. I was surprised at the number of people that attended and the number of people who were swarming around our stand! If you weren't aware, as well as being an education provider, we are part of the Mobilis Healthcare Group who provide medical products for a variety of issues, but one area we understand a lot about is back pain. So it was a double-whammy by both presenting and exhibiting at the show. We could help people by educating them how they can help their own backs and also provide them with products to do the same. In fact the interest was so great that we've started to look at running back courses for people with back pain, to help empower them to look after their backs using the latest biomechanical concepts, rather than the medical approach which is becoming recognised as less and less effective.
We have a great few weeks ahead of us with another Normalise Course in the South West this weekend and one up in the North East the following week. Perhaps the highlight will be that we have been nominated for the East Midlands Sports Personality of the Year - Enterprise in Sport Award. We'll know on 26th November if we've won it, but I must say it's an honour just to be nominated. We'll report back next week to let you know how we get on!
We've also run 2 seminars in the north. One at the North West Regional Coaches Network and one at the Yorkshire and Humberside regional meeting. Both groups were very enthusiastic about the programmes and the interest via the web site has been great since.Simon Grantham (UK Athletics) was presenting at the North West Regional Network speaking (amongst other things) about athletes funding, it was very interesting to see how the system has been developed. Actually this increased our resolve to press for more courses within the athletics arena.
Although the funding from UKA has increased over the years and is far better than it was, say 10 years ago, but out of all the thousands of athletes in the UK there are only 86 on full funding. In other words only 86 have access to the professional advice that they need to provide, amongst other things, injury prevention courses. At the top end this is catered for by the strength and conditioning coaches and physio's, but below that there is very limited access to top level advice. This makes us more determined to continue to provide coaches (and fitness instructors, strength and conditioning coaches, sports therapists) with the tools to be able to assess their athletes/clients and then enable them to prescribe the relevant exercises to prevent injury and improve performance.
Simon asked some interesting questions after he sat in on our presentation. One was about the difference between nerve stretching and nerve mobilizing. I explained that nerve stretching was for nerves that were inflexible or tight. Nerve mobilizing was for nerves that were bound down or adhered either within or between muscles. He also asked whether nerve issues could affect neuromuscular performance. To that I explained that it most certainly can. Nerve tension can inhibit how muscles fire and so can compromise neuromuscular firing patterns and compromise performance and most certainly increase the risk of injury. I'm sure Simon knew the answers to the questions, he was just throwing them out to the other coaches to show them how far reaching nerve biomechanics could go and how important it was that they understand these issues to fully prepare their athletes.
As well as this we have been to the Back Show Expo which was a great event. I was surprised at the number of people that attended and the number of people who were swarming around our stand! If you weren't aware, as well as being an education provider, we are part of the Mobilis Healthcare Group who provide medical products for a variety of issues, but one area we understand a lot about is back pain. So it was a double-whammy by both presenting and exhibiting at the show. We could help people by educating them how they can help their own backs and also provide them with products to do the same. In fact the interest was so great that we've started to look at running back courses for people with back pain, to help empower them to look after their backs using the latest biomechanical concepts, rather than the medical approach which is becoming recognised as less and less effective.
We have a great few weeks ahead of us with another Normalise Course in the South West this weekend and one up in the North East the following week. Perhaps the highlight will be that we have been nominated for the East Midlands Sports Personality of the Year - Enterprise in Sport Award. We'll know on 26th November if we've won it, but I must say it's an honour just to be nominated. We'll report back next week to let you know how we get on!
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