England Touch Association - Annual Report 2014 England Touch Association - Annual Report 2014 | Page 12

ETA Annual Report

MEDICAL (Review)
Staffing
This year’s England Medical Team (EMT) has seen a loss of 3 of its members. With increased work commitments,
Nikki Pritchard, Nathan Wharton and Heidi Greenslade had to take a back step this season, we are sad to see
them go, but wish them all the best for their future endeavours. The remaining 5 members of the team have
continued in full force and we have also added a sport science department to our armoury, enabling the
continued GPS monitoring and introduction of fitness testing as a regular component to Team England All-Squad
training sessions.

Staff Development and Player Development
The team have continued to maintain their individual CPD and training. Cari Thorpe (Head of Medical Services)
has undertaken a diploma in Sports Massage as well as increasing her knowledge and understanding in anatomy
of functional lines. Emma Knott (Head Physiotherapist) has completed the first 2 components of her Pilates
training and Gareth Marlow has undertaken courses in the Approach to Orthopaedic Medicine. This training not
only enhances their knowledge but enables their continued development of rehab/prehab programmes to aid
player performance and fitness. Both Emma and Gareth were also involved in the 2014 Commonwealth Games
physiotherapy team, in Glasgow, learning both new skills and consolidating their prior knowledge in the sporting
arena. These skills will now be integrated into the team set up as we move forward to strength the medical team.
Whilst continuing with enhanced fitness, Cari and her team have begun to look more in-depth into injury
prevention. The aid of the GPS, fitness and functional performance monitoring has encouraged players to
increase their fitness levels more in-line with the demands of the game. This year specifically has seen the use of
GPS and heart rate monitoring to inform the certain squads about the intensity of their pre-game warm-up and
the possible impact this may have had on players in this year’s European Championships.
2014 has also seen the publication of the Medical Teams first paper discussing the demands of Touch at both
international and regional competition. The importance of this paper and the continued on-going research is to
aid our understanding of the game. To improve player
performance and assist coaches, trainers and
physiotherapists in the tailoring of strength and
conditioning programmes to the sports’ demands.
This is the first of many discussions and in-depth
investigation into this rapidly growing sport. Further
research into fatigue, recovery and injury prevention
is in the ‘pipeline’.
The medical team keeps moving forward and
ensuring that all protocols and procedures are in
place, up-to-date and in line with other major sports
within the UK, recent additions to the listing are indepth concussion protocols. EMT also gave
presentations on injury prevention and nutrition,
which were both very well received by the elite
players.

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England Touch Association