twelve9teen sports physiotherapy

27/05/2026

Here's one for the physios out there. It's my case study about Bella* and her ankle injury experience. This is Bella's first injury, and she has a netball carnival in 2 weeks and she is the co-captain. She's scared...her coach is hysterical...her whole team is worried about her and wondering if she will be able to play.

In this case study, while I will present a seemingly routine ankle sprain, the focus is not the ligament injury itself. Instead, the focus is on Bella* and her experience of her injury and recovery, and the social environment in which it occurs — her team, her club, her family — and how this shapes her emerging identity as a patient, an athlete, and a person.

It about how a first injury experience can become a developmental event.

It's about how the way an adolescent experiences and interprets their first significant sporting injury may influence not only recovery from that injury, but also future injury behaviours, confidence, and resilience.

An ankle sprain is one of the most common injuries in youth sport and is often an athlete’s first experience of injury. While previous injury is well established as the strongest predictor of future injury, this first sporting injury may also represent a critical neurodevelopmental event.

I present a new model for physiotherapy management of the adolescent athlete - "Empowerful - A Developmentally Informed Physiotherapy Approach to the Adolescent Athlete".

Bella’s* ankle healed quickly. What will last far longer is what she learned from her first injury experience — about her body, her confidence, and her role in her own care.

It's launching on today. Here's the link to watch...and while your at it, consider signing up because they have a whole heap of really awesome professional development content... https://physio.network/ankle-sprain-case

*Not her real name, but her real story.

12/04/2026

Love this program - we started this almost a year ago now, the teens love it! https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AtPHyy9ah/?mibextid=wwXIfr

31/03/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/187JtJLMrm/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Three months.That is all it has taken for The Asutralian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant and her team to do what most governments have spent years talking about and never had the courage to actually pursue, to place some of the most powerful companies on earth on notice for something measurab...

15/03/2026

Love consulting at QSMC where I have access to this technology. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16UppzFTzM/?mibextid=wwXIfr

10/03/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/1ArfwEV2Fm/?mibextid=wwXIfr

𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐈𝐎𝐂 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐣𝐮𝐫𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐀𝐭𝐡𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐬

◻️ Female sports participation is on the rise, bringing incredible health and social benefits, but it also comes with a high burden of sports-related injuries.
◻️ To address this critical issue, the International Olympic Committee has released the 2025 Female, woman and/or girl Athlete Injury pRevention (FAIR) consensus statement.
◻️ Developed by 109 experts from six continents using seven comprehensive evidence reviews, the FAIR consensus outlines 56 practical recommendations designed to reduce the rate and severity of injuries.
◻️ These guidelines are intended for implementation by everyone involved in the sports ecosystem—including athletes, coaches, parents, health practitioners, and administrators.

🟦 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬

🛡️ 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 & 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

◻️ The consensus recommends implementing strict policies like penalizing unlawful head contact or limiting contact practice.
◻️ Utilizing personal protective equipment such as appropriately fitted and supportive bras, helmets, and mouthguards.
◻️ Mandating exercise-based neuromuscular training warm-ups.

⚠️ 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬

◻️ The guidelines highlight the need to address specific risk factors such as problematic low energy availability.
◻️ Sudden spikes in training loads.
◻️ Early sport specialization.

📚 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

◻️ Successful injury prevention requires tailoring strategies to an athlete's specific context, sport, and resources.
◻️ Building motivation and capability through ongoing education for coaches and sports partners.

🤝 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

◻️ Strategies cannot work without an environment that supports them.
◻️ Sports organizations must create safe spaces free from body shaming.
◻️ Provide equitable funding for female-specific needs.
◻️ Adopt policies to address unconscious biases.

🟦 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲

◻️ Every person at all levels of sport can, and should, take responsibility for actions that positively influence the health and safety of female, woman, and girl athletes.

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⚠️Disclaimer: Sharing a study or a part of it is NOT an endorsement. Please read the original article and evaluate critically.⚠️

Link to Article 👇

10/03/2026

“Sometimes empowering a girl in sport doesn’t require changing the injury — it requires changing the environment around it.”

Over the past few days I’ve been sharing a series of comic strips based on a real clinical case study.

The first showed what injury care in youth sport often looks like.

Concerned adults rushing in.
Lots of instructions.
A moment that quickly becomes overwhelming for the injured athlete.

In the second post, I shared what happened when we paused and reflected.

Together, this young athlete and I explored the moment her injury shifted from “this isn’t too bad” to worry.

She realised something important.

It wasn’t the injury itself.

It was the social environment surrounding the injury — the voices, the urgency, the reactions of others.

From that insight, she helped develop a simple change for her team:

Clear roles.
Trust in those roles.
Space for teammates to step back and focus on the game while medical staff supported the injured player.

This final comic shows what happened next.

The same athlete, now leading her rehabilitation.
Setting goals.
Working towards returning to the court.

But perhaps the most important outcome wasn’t the recovery.

It was the shift in how she saw herself.

Not as a passive recipient of care.

But as an athlete who could understand her body, participate in decisions, and shape the environment around her.

Because adolescence is not just a time when injuries happen.

It is a time when identities are forming.

And sometimes the most powerful intervention we can offer young athletes is this:

Rewrite the context.
Rewrite the story.
Empower the girl.

08/03/2026

“What if the moment a girl becomes worried about an injury isn’t the injury itself?”

Yesterday I shared a comic showing what injury care for adolescent athletes often looks like.
A player goes down.
Adults rush in.
Instructions come quickly.
Decisions are made around her.
It’s familiar.
It’s well-intentioned.
And it happens in sport every day.
But in this real-life case study, something different happened.
After the initial injury — but before she was taken to hospital, like happens to so many young girls after an ankle injury — the director of coaching called me, and via that telephone call, I was able to calm the moment, help the young sports trainer exclude a fracture and prevent the cascade of events.
In the clinic the following day, when everything was calm, she reflected on something…the injury did start as scary.
At first she had thought, “This isn’t too bad.”
But then something changed.
With a little guidance, she realised that the moment worry appeared wasn’t because of the injury itself.
It was the social environment around her.
The voices.
The urgency.
The reactions of the adults and players nearby.
That realisation opened a deeper conversation.
One of the things she reflected on was the pressure the other players felt to rush in and help.
In that moment, coming in close was how teammates showed they cared.
If they didn’t help, they worried they might look uncaring or mean.
But the unintended effect was that the moment became overwhelming for the injured player.
So together we started thinking about how that environment could change.
With guidance, she helped shape a simple plan for the team:
Clear roles and responsibilities when an injury occurred.
Trust that the manager and medical staff would look after the injured player.
Space for the other players to step back, form a huddle, and focus on the game.
It wasn’t about removing care or concern.
It was about creating a team environment where everyone knew their role — and respected each other’s role.

This comic shows the intervention — an adolescent-led, clinician-guided shift in the story.
And it didn’t end there.
What happened next changed the injury experience for players across the carnival — and shaped how this athlete experienced injuries for years afterwards.
I’ll share that part of the story in the next post.
Because sometimes empowering girls in sport starts with something very simple:
Helping them see the moment — and then giving them the tools to change it.

07/03/2026

Every first injury 'experience' writes a story.

This is what that first injury 'experience' often looks like for girls in sport — and why we may need to rethink it.

07/03/2026

Tomorrow is International Women’s Day, and I’ve been thinking about the girls I meet in clinic.

The 13-year-old who limps in after rolling her ankle in a netball game.
The 15-year-old who is terrified that an injury means she might lose her place in the team.
The 16-year-old who quietly asks, “Is it normal that my body feels different now?”

Adolescence is a remarkable time.

Girls are not just growing physically —
they are developing confidence, identity, independence, and their sense of belonging in sport.

But when injury happens during this time, the focus often becomes very narrow:
diagnose, treat, return to play.

Yet the moment is much bigger than that.

Every interaction — with a coach, a physio, a teacher, a parent — quietly sends a message about who that girl is allowed to become.

Does she learn to trust her body?
Does she feel capable?
Does she feel heard?

Or does she learn to ignore pain, doubt herself, and feel replaceable?

This model is my attempt to capture something simple but powerful:

Injury care for adolescent athletes should not only protect healing tissue.

It should support the development of the young person inside that body.

Because when we get this right, we don’t just rehabilitate injuries.

We help girls grow into confident, self-aware and empowered athletes.

And that feels like a very good goal for International Women’s Day.

If we change the way we respond to injury in girls, we don’t just change recovery — we change the story they tell themselves about their bodies.

05/03/2026

Every first injury 'experience' writes a story