Rehabilitation

Here in Madrid I am working with 2 physiotherapists. They both specialise in different areas but complement eachother in order to speed up recovery.

1 of them concentrates on the internal nevous system, which after an injury such as mine, becomes affected and slow. This was very clear in my first session. I did a series of tests working first the right side of my body, then the left. It was as if the left hand side of my body was asleep and the tests became extremely frustrating. We are working mainly on Proprioception, which is very important for any athlete. Proprioception is the unconscious perception of movement and spacial orientation arising from stimuli within the body, i.e.. Balance. If you have poor proprioception then you are more likely to become injured and it also limits your performance.

The second physio concentrates on soft tissue; ligaments, tendons and muscles. For the moment we are concentrating on restoring balance throughout the body. When you are injured your brain automatically tries to protect the area, so often if the problem in the foot, it is not uncommon for your hip, neck and back to become affected. 

As my surgeon told me, the brakes in my ankle have healed completely, an as there was no soft tissue damage really there is no problem. Now it is a case of re educating the brain and body in order to return to normal function.



Madrid.

After 12 weeks in plaster and on crutches, I am finally back on my feet and working hard to get back to the water as soon as possible. According to the doctors it will be a few months of intense rehabilitation, so I am taking this opportunity to learn the other side of the events, organisation and promotional side of sports.

I am now in Madrid working for a Sports Marketing and Communications company.  For the time being it is a temporary thing, but it is something that has always interested me.

As the world of Kitesurfing and Extreme Sports continues to grow there is always a necessity for athlete representation and event organisation.  Although the company I am working at is not Extreme Sports specialists, we have just finished doing the NBA basketball Europe Live tour here in Madrid. It was fascinating to see exactly how much works goes into an international event of this scale; looking after the athletes, generating media interest, ticket sales, event promotion, the list is endless.

I am looking forward to see what next week has in store. Will keep you posted.
I hope you are enjoying epic kiting conditions somewhere in the world, hopefully it wont be too long before I am back out there.

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