‘Take every opportunity and if they are not coming to you, go and find them,’ is the message to Graduate and Student Members of The Society of Sports Therapists, from University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) Graduate, Sara Gray, who is now Academy Sports Therapist at Swansea City AFC. And she herself has certainly done just that.
At a time when Sara’s final year was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, when her studies were crucially curtailed through lockdown, just days before completing her final trauma module, this dedicated and driven young woman has managed to forge a new career as a Sports Therapist in a sport that she loves.
Like many students at the time, the enforced delay in graduating due the pandemic seemed to Sara like ‘the worst thing in the world’ but it actually turned out to be the opposite. Sara said :
‘As a cohort, because we had to spend two or three months focusing on trauma, we knew it inside out. By the time we were examined in July we’d had so much time to read, to do research – we were writing on whiteboards, doing zoom calls with each other to make sure we were picking up the same things and on the same wavelength.’
When Sara and the group finally got back onto campus, it was a very different place to the one they had left in March. Eerily quiet with no other students present and everything closed, one very important thing stood out. Sara said:
‘We felt very safe with all the risk assessments and protocols that we had to follow. We did a symptom check before arriving, all at separate times, temperatures were checked on arrival and there were donning and doffing stations for PPE.
‘The way it was put together for us, none of us felt vulnerable, and this was at the point when people were very afraid of Covid. It was very well thought out. I think we were all just glad to be there and be given the opportunity to move forward.’
She continued:
‘It was good to be told in a university environment, seeing what is expected, this is now the standard. So when going into a professional club, I knew I would need to be in full PPE all of the time. It was a learning experience for us, for what we needed to be doing with our players. It was really learning what is the new normal.‘
The sports trauma training has clearly stood Sara in good stead as she completed her Level 5 Advanced Trauma Medical Management in Football (ATMMIF) run by the Football Association and she passed with flying colours. She said: ‘It came back like I had done it yesterday. It was ingrained in us so deeply.’
The cohort of tutors on the ATMMIF course which included Paramedics, Doctors and experienced Physiotherapists working in football, were so impressed with Sara’s underlying knowledge of trauma management and her methodical assessment approach and algorithms, that the Course leader said they would consider her for Level 4 Faculty. A serious compliment to her studying as well as the teaching she experienced.
Sara acknowledges that in certain ways she has been very fortunate in gaining her current role but it isn’t luck that has gifted it to her. Serious hard work, gritty determination and a willingness to consistently step outside of her comfort zone have all played a key part.
Sara joined UWTSD following a successful eight year career in the insurance industry. Before she embarked on a lifechanging move, she tested the water volunteering at an NHS hospital as a Physiotherapist’s Assistant but quickly realised that her destiny was to work with athletes.
Sara is refreshingly honest about her abilities when she started at UWTSD. She said:
‘I was clueless and petrified going in but took on as much as I could. I absorbed everything Kate (Williams her tutor) taught us and threw myself into as many situations that made me uncomfortable, as I could.’
Once pitch side first aid had been taught in Sara’s first week and the group were given the green light to go out and get some experience with a team, it was the just the incentive Sara needed.
Football provided Sara with some great early opportunities. Her road in had been to ask third year student Kerry Nicholas could she shadow him. It was a great way to introduce herself and provided a pathway to securing a number of roles in Welsh League football at Briton Ferry, Llansawel and Llanelli, together with a fortuitous introduction to Ritson Lloyd, first team physiotherapist to Swansea AFC
Sara said :
‘One of the players from Llanelli rang me to say the physio at Swansea City was looking for therapists to cover pitch side for Swansea University BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sports ) football team . I made the call. He asked me why did I want to do the job. I was quite blunt and said to be honest I want a placement at Swansea City next year. I ‘ve been given an opportunity to work with you first hand and I feel like that it’s an opportunity not to be passed. And he laughed. I think he was quite taken aback by how blunt I was. And said let’s see how it goes’.
Sara covered pitch side on a Wednesday afternoon for BUCS. It so happened that the BUCS team and Swansea City shared the same ground, Swansea City as a training facility and BUCS for matches. It also meant that Ritson Lloyd was close at hand to chat to Sara with helpful tips and insights into things he had learned over the years.
True to her word Sara got back in touch with Swansea City in her third year and, following her success with BUCS football, Ritson was able to offer her a 2 day a week placement with the U23s.
At same time Sara discovered Swansea City Academy was looking for casual staff for the 9-14s on match days. She seized the opportunity, gaining the chance to experience travelling with the teams on a Sunday.
Covid-19 brought a premature end to her work at the club but like the dedicated person she is, Sara wrote to all who helped her on her journey thanking them, as she had learned so much and asking them to let her know if they needed help with anything.
The call came in September with a vacancy at Swansea City Academy.
Sara is working with the Academy U9s – U16s but she is also gaining experience with the U18s – 23s under the watchful guidance of Bethany Chaddock, Head of Academy Medical.
Sara said: I worked with Bethany on my placement; she has been brilliant and given me incredible support. If I have a question, she is there ready to help. Asking for help and not being afraid has also been a big learning point.
‘I have felt overwhelmed at times which I think is natural going into any new role, let alone one which is in such a high-pressure environment, but I have never felt out of my depth nor ever felt I couldn’t turn to someone for help.’
Sara’s role is broad and varied from pitch side management on training and match days, to Injury assessment and diagnosis, to designing rehab frameworks, programming and carrying out pitch based and gym based rehabilitation, to working with Strength and Conditioning and other members of the medical and MDT, to attending surgery consultations and reviews and so much more.
And at the end of it all, she naturally still has to document everything. It’s a busy role but one which she is loving.
Sara managed to add another string to her bow while in her final year at university linking up with the Wales Futsal team for a second placement opportunity. Once again the work she had done in her early university years while working as a massage therapist at Swansea Physiotherapy Ltd with Physiotherapist Chris Miller, opened the door to the world of Futsal.
Reward for her hard work came with a one week trip to Macedonia and the UEFA European Championship qualifiers. Team doctor Matt Giles, Physiotherapist
Chris Miller and Sara made up the medical team and they worked a triage system with Chris and Sara sharing the therapy tasks. While the team didn’t progress to the final stages, there was a silver lining.
Never to waste an opportunity Sara explained: ‘I was able to work on my final year research project, looking at the impact of kinesiology tape on subjective and dynamic ankle stability. I was able to use the team to help with my research and my data collection.’
Sara is very clear in what has helped her reach her current position and had some real pearls of wisdom to pass on to current Sports Therapy students. She said:
‘I’ve got to where I am now and I have had the experiences I have had, by putting myself out there, by asking to shadow people, by not being afraid to ask. If someone approaches you and offers you a free placement, take it. You don’t know who you will meet on that placement and what that placement will open up for you.
‘It is your work ethic which really shines in this industry. Everyone comes out of university with the same degree. What people look for is what people have done outside of what was required of them as part of their degree.’
Sara is truly grateful for the support she has received from so many people, not least Sports Therapists and lecturers, Charley Keen and Kate Williams
‘Kate is brilliant, She has so much knowledge – the way she taught us prepared us for the real world. She makes you think, she challenges you.
‘Charley too, her teaching style was similar to Kate’s and she challenged us and supported us to be the best therapists we could be.
‘Kate once said, ‘If you hear hooves coming down a corridor what makes you think it’s a horse?’ We looked at her and she said, ‘How do you know it’s not a zebra?’. When treating people, you need to have your differential diagnosis in mind, you might think it’s a horse but don’t forget about your zebras, always think what it could be!
‘When students come into the Academy, I find myself saying certain things that Kate and Charley taught me. Actually, they now make sense to me and I know what I am talking about.’
Sara finished a fascinating conversation with a thank you to her University cohort.
She said: ‘They were such a big support academically and emotionally – we carried each other through the 3 years. We all came out with First Class Honours degrees and we all owe that as a credit to each other, as we helped each other along the way. They were brilliant and people who I will always hold in the highest regard.’
It’s no surprise to know that all past students on the Sports Therapy degree course are part of a WhatsApp group keeping in touch and Sara and her cohort also have a WhatsApp group keeping in touch with each other and helping current students, particularly with …….their sports trauma module!