PhysioMonkey

BJC has come and gone.  Apologies to all who wanted to come to the second workshop.  My voice had gone and managing a workshop didn't seem like a great idea.  You wouldn't have learned a lot from a croaking man.  The basics I cover are on this site though so have a browse and if you have any questions then drop me an email (address in the "About me" section).

I'm hoping to run more sessions at more conventions so if you have any requests then drop me a line too.

Thanks to those who came and contributed.  Thanks to Lynne again for photos.  I'll try and re-do the site asap.

Have fun. 

Went to Crawley and had a great time.  For those I talked to who want more info then send me an email or coment here.

But to let you know I'm going on me hols from Tuesday 15th for 2 weeks so I'll not be commenting here 'til I'm back. 

Carla: I doubt I'll have time to deal with that referral before I disappear.  I will call them when I get back tho'.  If you want to try and get there earlier then have a chat with your physio and see if he/she will have a chat with them.  Sorry to be a pain but today's far busier than I was expecting.

Have fun.

Back from BJC and a wonderful time was had (apart from the nasty case of tonsilitis I have).

Workshops:

1 - Injury prevention and advice - I'm now quite sure that this workshop is probably not needed.  The advice can be offered as part of other workshops.  Too much talking from me and not enough to do practically.  Would work as part of a day long session.

2 - Control and stability - Ooh this was a good one.  I enjoyed it.  The Chocfest one lasted 90 minutes.  This one ended up at 2.5 hours.  The majority stayed for most of it too.  Some interesting shoulders (one in particular) and lots of time taken to show what's going wrong.  If you were at this then I'd love some feedback on how you felt it was for you.  The responses I had afterwards were all positive.  If you didn't find it useful or interesting then I'd like to know how to improve it further.

Clinic time: Met loads of folk and gave plenty of advice out to all.  One or two odd cases and some pretty basic stuff.  If you asked me anything and want more info then get in touch.

Have fun.

Ran my second ever juggling workshop on Saturday just gone.  After the previous session I decided it'd be best to stick to one area and the shoulder seems most likely to be of relevance to jugglers and others so that's what was picked.

I dropped the numbers to 12 max but only 9 showed up at the time.  This actually worked well and meant groups of 3 which I reckon worked out better than 2's would have.

One problem was that most of the attendees didn't see the ad's before the day so some didn't have suitable tops on but we worked around that pretty well.

Started with "normal" posture and how variances would change how the shoulder moved.  This was a good start and people could see what differences could come about from a minor alteration. I think this was the hook for most folk there. 

Following from this we looked at each other's shoulders to spot differences in the "normal".  So winging, pseudo-winging and poor scapular position were all noted.  Then moved onto control of the shoulder blade.  Many many thanks to all the attendees for letting us all look at them in such detail.  Particular thanks to Anwen and Hugh.

I'd allowed an hour but the session took 90 minutes and there was still plenty more to do.

Good feedback from some attendees and these were the ones most affected by the issues.  Enjoyable and I think it was useful.

I'm thinking of setting up a workshop / lecture for circussy types and parkour-ers at maybe the University in Leicester.  The plan would be for a day session of lectures on injury, warm-ups and prevention of problems.  To sweeten the pill I'd lay on a massage workshop too. 

In addition I'd try and get a parkour expert in as well as trainers to do some actual physical training.  But assume this bit won't happen at first.

Does this sound doable?

How much could I charge for a day chock full of professional teaching/workshops?  I had a look at the Circus Space website and they charge £95 per person (!) for a circus taster day.  I was thinking something more like £10-15 (as an initial offer) with handouts extra.  I think a max of 12 people would be about right too.

Would anybody want to come?

Suggested plan for the day (Jugglers only):

10.00 - 10.30 Intro and questions answered.

10.30 - 11.00 Sudden injury (lecture) - What to do and how to avoid.

11.00 - 12.00 Repetitive injury (lecture) - What to do and how to avoid.

12.00 - 12.30 Warm-ups (Myths and falsehoods) (Lecture)

12.30 - 1.00 Break

1.00 - 2.00 Neck and back control (Workshop)

2.00 - 2.30 Practice and questions answered

2.30 - 3.30 Shoulder control (Workshop)

3.30 - 4.00 Practice and questions answered.

4.00 - finish Break then massage (Workshop).

I thought I'd put the sit down stuff at the start when people are alert and then the workshops at the end to get people moving and working rather than sitting listening again. 

I ran the workshops for the first time yesterday at the Leeds Juggling Convention.

Thoughts about the workshop:

Goods:

• I finally got to run through both the lectures/workshops in front of people who haven't had to hear me wittering about it whilst they were being writ.
• People seemed interested and generally seemed to follow things.
• I got through it.
• Lap-top worked well.

Hmms:

• Complex stuff done too quickly. - Should this mean do less or be more specific?
• Too few of me- couldn't get round everyone to check things working as they should.
• Clurby suggests that the injuries stuff at the beginning wasn't desperately relevant to jugglers.  True but I had advertised it as such.  Will start on tendons and repetitious pain next time unless talking to trapezers and acro folk.

Bads:

• My voice died that afternoon and it still hurts.
• Nothing too heinous I don't think.  If you have any comments (and were there) please tell me what you thought.  If I don't know what was cack then I can't improve it.

Have fun.