Many sportspeople come to me with sports injuries from sports such as tennis, rowing, cricket and football (of all codes), and many times they are also seeking to improve their sports performance.
I’ve had very interesting conversations with a number of very eminent athletes in this regard. I worked for a number of years with the Brisbane Lions (Australian Football League) in the capacity of enhancing the sports performance of the players. It was a very exciting and wonderful time to be involved in the sports medicine side of things when the Brisbane Lions were winning their triple Premierships.
I’ve also discussed these sports performance issues with sporting luminaries like Serena Williams whilst I was treating her for an ankle injury in Brisbane in 2012. She was fascinated by the potential and possibilities of the use of Japanese Acupuncture to ethically and legally draw the most out of a human being for athletic, or intellectual, or creative performance.
To that end (enhanced sports performance), I worked with the eminent, and now fully retired, cricketer Matthew Hayden. I have worked with his family actually which is really quite a privilege and I take great pleasure in working with different generations of the same family simultaneously. I have discussed with Matthew Hayden also the role that Japanese Acupuncture can play in enhancing sporting performance in an ethical manner.
I did a lot of work with Olympic swimmer Daniel Kowalski in the lead up to the 2000 Olympic Games in maintaining the integrity of his immunity system. He was having a lot of problems with respiratory issues. He was subsequently able to become a member of the Australian swimming team for the 2000 Games, something that seemed beyond him when we started his acupuncture treatment.
Emma Snowsill, Olympic triathlete and World Champion, is another elite athlete that comes to mind in terms of providing acupuncture treatment for both sports injury and sports performance. I had treated her for recovery from hip surgery and at the same time helped her with a diabolical case of chronic fatigue syndrome. I was able to help her once again to become an elite triathlete at the highest level. She achieved some wonderful victories in the USA and Europe after her recovery form chronic fatigue syndrome. I was very proud and pleased to be a part of helping her to again achieve that level of sports performance.
Hence I have not only helped elite athletes overcome sports injury and chronic fatigue but also helped enhance their sports performance.
One gentleman who really stands out for his extraordinary sporting performance is someone who was going to row from New Zealand to Australia and back again. He came to me to see how I could educate him about what he could do to maintain performance on board – an interesting project.
So I have worked with elite tennis players, cricketers, footballers, basketball players, baseballers and rowers. I have done a lot of work with runners and other athletes and surfers including Mark Occhilupo, Australian Surfing Legend and 1999 World Champion.
I have a passion for helping people but I also have a passion for sport and bringing those two passions together in a service role is something special. It has given me an enormous amount of pleasure over the years to work with elite sportspeople to help them enhance their sports performance.
