About Me

I graduated from Salford University in 2008 with a 2:1 BSc (Hons) in Sports Rehabilitation. I am a registered member of BASRaT, the governing body for Sports Rehabilitators. BASRaT’s practitioner register is accredited by the Professional Standards Authority, which is the UK’s top medical regulator.

Sport Rehabilitators on the BASRaT register have to adhere to a strict code of ethics, conduct and professional practice. All registered Sport Rehabilitators have comprehensive insurance, a current first aid qualification and follow strict standards for the management of medical records and appropriate referral to other healthcare professionals.

I have worked with the Ministry of Defence for over 10 years as an Exercise Rehabilitation Instructor (ERI). I worked as part of a team, providing high quality targeted rehabilitation to injured service personnel with a view to a quick return to their optimal fitness in order to carry out their arduous roles. This meant, providing exercise-based rehabilitation including highly specialist work in musculoskeletal/sports and training injuries, while providing a positive caring environment. 

I also had the opportunity to work with a group of Sports Medicine Doctors, Physio’s and fellow ERI’s to produce a service wide Best Practice Guideline on the rehabilitation of an ACL injury. Having undergone an ACL repair myself, I have a keen interest in the rehab of this condition. I also understand how frustrating the rehab journey can be. 

Patients can expect a high-quality, personalised, professional service, that you would associate with the MoD.

Sport Rehabilitators help people suffering from pain, injury or illness involving the musculoskeletal system. Despite the title, you do not have to be a sports person to see a GSR, we help people of all occupations, fitness levels and ages, to maintain their health and fitness, recover from and prevent injury and reduce pain using exercise, movement and manual based therapeutic interventions.

 

Sport Rehabilitators use clinical reasoning to tailor a recovery plan to return you to your optimal function and physical activity. 

 

Sport Rehabilitators have a strong focus on biomechanics, exercise rehabilitation and returning patients to high levels of function. The overall skill set and focus is why the Ministry of Defence chooses BASRaT registrants for their most demanding exercise rehabilitation roles.

In some sense there is not a huge difference between a Sports Rehabilitator/Sports Therapist/Physiotherapist. All professions are trained and insured to assess & treat musculoskeletal disorders or injuries. 

 

As a Sports Rehabilitator I spent my undergraduate degree focusing on musculoskeletal, neurodynamics, injury assessment & diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation. Physiotherapy covers a wide spectrum of conditions including paediatrics, respiratory etc. Their broad knowledge of illness and diseases is often gained from their work in hospital settings.

 

This table taken from a blog post on the British Journal of Sports Medicine, shows the difference in the typical undergraduate training in the UK:
Content Physio S&C Sport Rehabilitation
Primary care in the NHS
Non MSK Clinical Practice
Pre-hospital immediate care in sport
400+ hours supervised clinical experience
Clinical Anatomy
Human Physiology
MSK Pathology
MSK Assessment and diagnosis
Manual Therapy
Clinical Reasoning
Principles of Exercise and Exercise Prescription
Exercise Physiology and Kinesiology
Bioenergetics and Nutrition
Principles of Training
Sports Injury Psychology
Introductory Biomechanics
Coaching and Training Athletic Populations
Biomechanics and Skill Acquisition
Principles of Rehabilitation
Pain Sciences
Behaviour Change and MI for Patient Populations
Evidence Based Rehabilitation
End Stage Rehab, Return to Running and Sprinting
Experimental Design Dissertation
Movement Screening and Injury Risk Profiling
Sports Science Testing and Evaluation
Sports Science Technology

The focus for physiotherapists is often to get patients back to coping with the demands of daily living. Sports Rehabilitators take this focus a step further, we consider the whole needs of the patient and guide them back to full functional fitness.

This will include meeting the demands of daily activities; their occupation and hobbies be it sport or spending time with family/friends.