Latest / The STA Clinician Podcast / Ep231 ‘Working With Athletes With Disabilities’ with R.Potter, R.Davies, S.May, G.Barnes, D.Metcalfe
Transcript
- 0:00You're listening to the Sports Therapy Association podcast, putting evidence
- 0:04back into soft tissue therapy.
- 0:07Music.
- 0:17And we are live. Welcome people to episode 231 of the Sports Therapy Association
- 0:24podcast. My name is Matt Phillips, creator of RunChatLive.com.
- 0:28And as always, this episode has been recorded live at eight o'clock on a Tuesday
- 0:31evening on the Sports Therapy Association YouTube channel and Facebook page.
- 0:37It's a new month on the Sports Therapy Association podcast. If you listen to
- 0:41this in the future, we're in March 2025.
- 0:44And we're therefore having a new focus this month. That focus is going to be
- 0:48working with athletes with disabilities.
- 0:51And tonight in part one i will be very shortly bringing
- 0:54up all five of our special guest athletes will be
- 0:57sharing their experiences with us over the next four weeks
- 1:00and also we're going to be joined by two therapists whose names i shall share
- 1:03with you very shortly but first of all thank you to people who are joining us
- 1:07live if you are listening to the podcast and you like the idea of joining us
- 1:10live in futures you can ask our guests directly questions and just hanging out
- 1:15with like-minded therapists and what i can do is i can bring up a question on
- 1:17the screen for example Tracy Marsh is with us and said, Cecily,
- 1:20I really must try harder.
- 1:21Now, I don't know what you're talking about, Tracy, because I can't see Cecily's
- 1:24comments, which is interesting.
- 1:25But thanks for joining us, Tracy and Cecily and other people who are coming
- 1:28to the door, especially tonight.
- 1:31But as always, please do put your comments into the section.
- 1:35And I've given all of our guests permission just to jump in while I'm talking
- 1:39and bring up your questions if they're relevant and interesting.
- 1:42I'm a bit worried that people have joined us live. I can't see all your comments.
- 1:46I can only see Tracy Garrett at the moment, so there might be something up there
- 1:48with the software. Who knows?
- 1:50But anyway, thanks very much for joining us.
- 1:52So my guest for tonight, this is going to take a little bit of time to sit back
- 1:55and enjoy yourselves, because tonight I've already been laughing about it. It's the pinnacle.
- 1:59It's the crest. It's the nirvana of my podcasting experience,
- 2:0414 years or so. We're going to have seven people on screen.
- 2:09We're going to start off in no particular order. We've got Rich Potter and Rich
- 2:12Dickie Davis, who regularly listens to podcasts and people who came to therapy last year will know.
- 2:16And they're both armed forces veterans and single below leg amputees who set
- 2:20world records at the end of last year on their limitless expedition,
- 2:24conquering the Himalayas.
- 2:25That's the first ever amputees to achieve the half and full length of the snowman
- 2:28trek in Bhutan, the toughest trek
- 2:30in the world with 11 mountain passes at altitudes of over 5,500 metres.
- 2:35So they're going to be with us very shortly. Also joining us are Samantha May
- 2:38and Gemma Barnes, both Team UK athletes, recently returned from Invictus Games to 2025 in Vancouver.
- 2:45As I said last week, it's obviously not just about the medals,
- 2:48but Team UK did do very well this year, bringing 38 medals home.
- 2:52Shining particularly in the rowing and swimming in which both Sam and Gemma won medals.
- 2:56Also joining us will be Dan Wilsdown-Metcalf, who, despite being left paralysed
- 3:00from the waist down after a motorcycle accident in 2014, 2014,
- 3:04has since achieved three scuba diving world records, first disability category.
- 3:09Including fastest one-mile scuba diving, with and without swimming band,
- 3:12and greatest distance scuba diving, all in fresh open water.
- 3:16So an absolutely incredible group of athletes who are privileged to have,
- 3:20we are privileged to have on the show.
- 3:22And like I say, this is it. I've decided in April, I'm not going to have any more guests.
- 3:27I can't do any better. Sorry. But what we are doing we're starting probably
- 3:31a few months of reflection where we're inviting therapists to come in and just
- 3:35reflect on any of the past episodes, 230, well, it'll be 235 episodes.
- 3:40I've already got April booked out with guests. So if you are a therapist,
- 3:43a clinician, and you've got the technical know-how, which is basically just
- 3:47a decent Wi-Fi connection and a webcam and might to come on the show,
- 3:50and you'd like to talk with me,
- 3:52just chilled out in front of a few people,
- 3:56just talk about how a particular episode has affected your clinical practice,
- 3:59then send me an email matt at the sta.co.uk or
- 4:02matt at budgetlife.com and i'll interview you
- 4:05go through a little selection procedure if you're fit and you'll come on the
- 4:07show and it'll be really cool it's we're really going to have a reflection
- 4:10on the last 235 episodes i think it's time to pause and look at what we've got
- 4:16out there so i'm saying i thank all of our guests for making me reach that moment
- 4:20after yeah 231 weeks um so here we go like i say we've also got the wonderful
- 4:26sports therapist Carla Bickerstaff and also massage therapist Jenny Lane.
- 4:29Both of whom have experience working with athletes with disabilities people
- 4:33listening to the podcast will be aware of them and other shows they've been
- 4:37on Jenny Lane recently returned from her position as soft tissue therapist for
- 4:41Team UK at this year at Victor's Games so we're really looking forward to their
- 4:44insight as well and like I say.
- 4:48Tonight, this is going to make me or break me. It's everyone together on one screen.
- 4:52And then we're going to delve into having either one guest or two guests together
- 4:56talking about different topics to do with working with athletes with disabilities.
- 5:01Right, Matt Breath. I was purposely talking quite fast then because I just don't
- 5:06want to leave my guest down in the lobby for any longer.
- 5:09People have joined us live. Thank you so much.
- 5:12Nikki Mansfield says, all you missed was pancake talk matt
- 5:15don't worry matt people still do that's like i mean yeah pancake is
- 5:19lucky is happy shrove is shrove isn't it shrove tuesday
- 5:22gary benson founded the stas in the house
- 5:25as well which is great hey gary how are you doing if
- 5:28you do have any stas questions or anything industry related then now's your
- 5:31chance to nab gary benson i'm in the chat right enough talking let's bring up
- 5:36these amazing seven people as we start episode 231 of the sports therapy association
- 5:43podcast working with athletes with disabilities part one of four.
- 5:55I'm going to give you a chance to just speak so
- 5:59people can link up with your voices so people
- 6:02can tell who you are i'm hoping there's a few regional dialects
- 6:05and differences here so people can work it out but thank
- 6:08you first of all for making this happen and i
- 6:11really mean it this sincerely is the pinnacle
- 6:14of 15 years of podcasting so the fact you've all
- 6:17given up your time for free to come together half of
- 6:20you don't even know each other and just to help basically well
- 6:23i'm not surprised and we'll talk about that too long because obviously you're doing this
- 6:26to raise awareness for not just athletes with
- 6:29disability but anybody with disability and you've all achieved so
- 6:32so much which is what we're going to be talking about and you're
- 6:35an inspiration so thank you so much for that i thought
- 6:37what we'll do is first of all we'll just let people know what your voices alike for
- 6:41the people who are listening on the podcast so in no
- 6:44particular order i've got a list here i don't know how i organized it but rich
- 6:47potter you somehow at the top of the list i don't know how that is but maybe
- 6:51rich can you say hi and and where you're from hi matt good evening listeners
- 6:56thanks very much for having us on matt i am from the west of ireland originally
- 6:59as you can probably tell by my draw irish accent kind of merged somewhat with
- 7:04posh english accent from Santos.
- 7:07But yeah, there's still a bit of Irish in there. So I should be quite unique
- 7:09to listen to, hopefully.
- 7:10That's really distinctive. I wasn't lying with the dialect. That's fantastic.
- 7:14Thanks, Peter Potter. Rich Dickey Davis, next.
- 7:17Hello again, everyone. How are we doing? Yeah, well, I'm from Cardiff originally.
- 7:21So yeah, got the Celtic in me.
- 7:24And yeah, good to be back. Thanks for having us again. No, amazing to see you back.
- 7:28And you graciously came to Therapy Expert last year, which was amazing as well.
- 7:33And you let people feel your stump, which was even more special.
- 7:36And people still talk about it. So thank you for that moment.
- 7:38Yeah, it was a great opportunity. Great.
- 7:40Samantha May, thank you for joining us. hi everyone
- 7:44i'm sam one of the invictus athletes and unfortunately
- 7:47i don't have a particularly strong regional accent unless you're going to tell
- 7:49me otherwise yeah i'm currently living in birmingham but as you can hear i don't
- 7:54sound like a brummie i hope not what not not yet yeah no no not yet thanks so
- 7:59much for joining us sam sam really cool jemma jemma barnes how are you yeah
- 8:04hi matt again thanks for having me i'm never one of the invictus athletes like
- 8:07sam we probably sound a little bit similar.
- 8:09I currently live in Oxfordshire, Cornwall originally, so a little bit of a,
- 8:13occasionally I just have finished a bit of a West Country job,
- 8:16but mostly, again, a bit like Rich, I've got that slightly Spanish-esque.
- 8:20Amazing. Thank you, Gemma. Amazing. Dan, wheels down, Metcalfe.
- 8:23How are you? Thanks for joining us.
- 8:25Hi, Matt. Thanks for having me. I'm from Grantham, Lincolnshire.
- 8:28I don't know whether that sticks out at all.
- 8:30Thanks for having me on here. I've not met any of these guys yet.
- 8:34You're sounding very smooth there, Dan. You had to get to be the smooth, sultry one.
- 8:38People who listen to podcasts, you can't see the setup he's got there.
- 8:40It's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. So yeah, that's a good one.
- 8:44That's a doubt. And that looks like it's either you're in a,
- 8:46some kind of an asylum or it's a purpose-built studio. I'm not sure which it
- 8:49is. The wife's in an asylum.
- 8:52Brilliant. So that's Dan Wilsdown-Metcalf. And then sports therapist,
- 8:55Carla Bickerstaff. Welcome back. Thank you very much for joining us. Hi, good evening.
- 8:59Thanks for having me again. I mean, I don't think I really have an accent,
- 9:03but apparently I do have a good one.
- 9:04I don't think I really have an accent, but. but I'm Sheffield based so yeah
- 9:09no one thinks they've got an addict to do that brilliant thank you Carla really
- 9:11good to see you and again like last year people still talking about it Therapy Expo,
- 9:16you and Dickie were amazing and it was so good people still talk about it
- 9:21really was exceptional and something which so many I just saw jaws drop it was
- 9:25fantastic on so many levels and such good information so thank you and you just
- 9:28shone and I know it didn't come naturally to you and you were so nervous beforehand
- 9:32so you are you are in such an inspiration I mean we're It has a sea of inspiration
- 9:36here, but for other therapists,
- 9:38female therapists in particular, you're just such an inspiration. So thank you.
- 9:43And Jenny Lane hello oh hello,
- 9:48yeah I'm Jenny Lane and I'm originally from Birmingham but no accent either not at all not very well,
- 9:55represented at all to a good reason nothing at all there anyway thanks very
- 10:00much Jenny really cool and thank you so much as well for helping bring the eight
- 10:03of us together I really appreciate your time and also just test me the fact
- 10:07these people said yes without even knowing me or each other to many extent But
- 10:11they will just trust you and Carla.
- 10:13So you must have quite a strong hold of them. Well, a strong hold of them.
- 10:19I see what I did there. That was quite clear. Brilliant.
- 10:23Right. That's got through everybody. So if you listen to the podcast,
- 10:25then you can hopefully understand. We'll repeat names, to make it clear.
- 10:29People have joined us live. Obviously, you can see everyone.
- 10:31I'm hoping that we've got some comments in here. This is the kind of calibre of people have got.
- 10:36All those windows, it's like story time on PlaySchool. So the average age out
- 10:40there, you can automate.
- 10:41You can kind of estimate now they're talking about brian kant
- 10:44and and yeah yeah they've got cecily hissop
- 10:47says i'm thinking of the brady budget even older she is and
- 10:50then also i love it because we've gone from that level up to sir glenn murphy
- 10:54mbe i love when that happens and thank you for joining us sir glenn very much
- 10:58sounding great or thank you glenn that's amazing right let's get into the show
- 11:02itself there like i said people if you want to ask questions then please do
- 11:05because This is all about informing therapists,
- 11:09either who are currently working with athletes with disabilities or therapists
- 11:12who are thinking about it and
- 11:13maybe have got some fears or misconceptions which we can help clear up.
- 11:18Right. So in the next three episodes, obviously, we're going to delve into more
- 11:22details which affect you as individuals.
- 11:24Rules but tonight like i say is about kind of
- 11:28talking about common traits and themes of what it's like
- 11:31being an athlete with disabilities working with therapists and
- 11:34also what it's like being a therapist and working with an athlete with a disability so i
- 11:37thought i guess to start off if we
- 11:40go back around the table again and just have a little talk i guess we need to
- 11:44identify what the disability is because obviously that's going to affect everything
- 11:47whether it's making things similar or setting things apart and also what sport
- 11:52you're involved in that would be nice I know that'll probably be quite tricky
- 11:55in a few minutes, but we'll see how it goes.
- 11:58Rich Potter, back to you with your Irish totes.
- 12:02Thanks, Matt. I'll try to be as non-Irish as possible.
- 12:05I am a blow-the-knee amputee on the left side. I lost my leg to sepsis in 2019
- 12:10after a football injury, required surgery. I had an osteochondral defect.
- 12:16Conservative management did not work, so I had surgery and unfortunately contracted
- 12:19sepsis. I tried to fight it for about 18 months, but I was essentially carrying around a dead limb.
- 12:25And the easy decision was to take it off, especially considering I was still serving.
- 12:30Yeah, I think that's pretty much it. I am involved in sitting volleyball for
- 12:34Team GB. I am doing a lot of CrossFit at the moment.
- 12:37And just kind of anything that's physically active, I suppose.
- 12:41Anything that gets me off my bottom and onto my leg, I'm pretty happy doing.
- 12:44Fantastic. And it was football, wasn't it?
- 12:47I mean, people assume, don't they, when you're a veteran, you must have this
- 12:50so many times, they assume it was some kind of trauma caused by an explosion
- 12:54or something. But for you, it was during the football match?
- 12:56Yes it was a football match i'm a defensive midfielder i decided
- 12:59to have a little punt upfield and have a shot and unfortunately
- 13:02i got crunched at 50 50 tackle and actually your comment is
- 13:05quite pertinent because my wife and i have just spent a week in chicago
- 13:08and the entire time i was out there people come up to
- 13:11me and shake my hand and say thank you for your service they just assumed
- 13:14because i was a reasonably young man uh reasonably in
- 13:17inverted commas and i had one leg on show that i
- 13:19was a combat injury so that was nice to put them straight in
- 13:22that respect i could spend the whole hour I
- 13:25talked to you just about that because it intrigues me but how does that feel for you
- 13:28as an individual do you feel that there's a look in their eyes thinking oh I
- 13:32presume you've got serving for the country or something how do you feel do you
- 13:36see a disappointment or something in their eyes or is that just me eventually
- 13:39no not at all and I think it's a really good opportunity for education it's
- 13:42something at the beginning of my journey that really it really irked me,
- 13:46and made me quite frustrated and obsessed because I really get
- 13:49my ingredient now I'm so at peace with everything that's
- 13:52happened it's quite it's quite easy to do right and
- 13:56we go from that so let's bring up a picture to show some
- 13:59celebration of where that's got to and yeah
- 14:02talk to us about this picture this is about the end
- 14:05of the limitless expedition so it's the snowman truck those of you who aren't
- 14:09aware it is the most difficult track in the world or commonly referred to as
- 14:13the most difficult track in the world and we set out on that and 28 days later
- 14:17i somehow managed to stumble across the finish line and that is the crew who
- 14:20ably supported me on that.
- 14:22Expedition amazing if you if you're listening to the podcast now i
- 14:25would recommend that you kind of just leave spotify wherever you
- 14:28want to go along to youtube there's gonna be a few photos coming up now because a
- 14:31picture obviously paints a thousand words or something but yeah
- 14:34that was you and the crew and i've looked
- 14:37at instagram just to see to remind me
- 14:40what you said at the time and there was just a quote here from
- 14:43instagram that said when this photo was taken i'm not
- 14:45sure who wrote this but it was obviously not you you just shattered but their journey
- 14:48is a powerful reminder that with belief in yourself you can overcome any
- 14:51obstacle the team has not only traversed breathtaking and challenging
- 14:54landscapes but has also shattered stereotypes and redefined
- 14:57what's possible for amputees everywhere let this
- 15:00incredible achievement motivate us all to dream big embrace challenges and push
- 15:05beyond our limits who wrote that first of all because it's wonderful but it
- 15:10kind of sums everything up yeah that's me so obviously richard yeah yeah after
- 15:17about 30 different edits and,
- 15:19Brilliant. So that was Diki Anji speaking then. That was amazing words.
- 15:22But obviously, that sums it up, doesn't it? Why you do this?
- 15:26Yeah, absolutely. You know, to go off and do the track like that,
- 15:30you know, for me to unfortunately have to withdraw due to swelling in my stump
- 15:33and then to see Rich go off and absolutely annihilate it, you know.
- 15:38No disabled person has ever even done it.
- 15:41So for him to actually go off and achieve that is just out of
- 15:44this world you know and you know i'm just as proud of him
- 15:47as he is for himself if not more because i don't i still
- 15:50think sometimes he's like yeah i did it it's like right
- 15:53come on you said
- 15:56you've done the toughest track in the world no one else has done that
- 15:58yeah i think i think matt there's something really important that
- 16:01actually that i feel is important to say and you
- 16:04mentioned the the i word which i really hate and you didn't know this
- 16:07it's the inspiration and the reason
- 16:11i don't like it is because i'll explain when people say that
- 16:14i'm inspirational for what i've done they're almost putting me on a
- 16:16pedestal and i'm only being put on a pedestal because
- 16:19i'm disabled now what i want is for people to view me
- 16:22the exact same as everybody else that's how society should look at
- 16:25me i'm not special because i've got one leg so by calling me
- 16:28inspirational it's almost elevating me before they've even got a chance to
- 16:30figure out who i am so i much prefer the word empowerment so
- 16:34i love to think that i can empower people to achieve their goals and
- 16:36and reach their aims but uh i don't really like the
- 16:39i word and that's okay that's great that's such an
- 16:42interesting i think that's quite a theme as
- 16:45well from is it quite common i was going to ask everybody else and just open that
- 16:48up really oh yeah
- 16:51how you make me feel okay but
- 16:53that's fine it's not about me this is about therapists realizing take.
- 16:56Out the word inspirational from their little list when when people walk in so
- 17:00yeah i mean sam you had a smile there on your face what is that word again something
- 17:05which I hate it I really hate it I don't feel inspirational I feel like lots
- 17:10of us have been dealt a set of cards and we've just done our best with them.
- 17:15And people see the good bits but they don't see the bad bits
- 17:18and the days when you couldn't get out of bed and there's lots of stuff that's
- 17:20not inspirational and kind of what Rich said like I
- 17:24just want to be a normal person not just
- 17:27be inspirational for this thing that happened to
- 17:29me that I had no choice in okay Gemma you're
- 17:32nodding yeah absolutely I completely agree
- 17:35sometimes you're just trying to get through the day and like Sam said you
- 17:38don't feel very inspiring when you trip over in public oh god
- 17:41you're okay you're okay and you're like please don't look at me because
- 17:44I'm so embarrassed right now you know and you just want to
- 17:46be a normal person getting through the day getting on with your life and I
- 17:49think sometimes we push ourselves really hard to do these incredible things
- 17:52just so that we think yeah so I might trip over when I'm walking around the
- 17:56supermarket but you know I can do something really awesome there's this weird
- 17:59dichotomy you've got the basic everyday stuff that can be hard but you can push
- 18:03yourself to go do these incredible things but sometimes a bit in the middle
- 18:06is a bit murky and it's a bit tricky so you definitely don't always feel the inspiration or.
- 18:11So interesting and dan similar or yeah
- 18:16a little bit different for me obviously i'm in the chair but
- 18:19yeah people say you're in spray film you're not
- 18:22either you you are who you are and you
- 18:25might be doing something that nobody else in the world's done like
- 18:29we're doing the world records and stuff and that's just
- 18:32because you're doing it it's not because a disabled lad's doing
- 18:35it or a disabled maybe it's doing it because i'm doing
- 18:38it not it'll be seen for me rick put
- 18:41it really politely really cleanly it's pretty good i
- 18:44wouldn't be so polite and clean with it it's who
- 18:47i am i don't like that inspiration word but people have told and said it in
- 18:53scuba diving you are inspirational well that's because i'm inspirational as
- 18:57a diver not as a disabled diver okay that's brilliant okay Amazing point. Amazing. Right.
- 19:06Dickie, there's already been a segue to you and the sad, I mean,
- 19:09let's just, before we go on to the sad picture, as I call it,
- 19:12that was so heartbreaking when I saw that.
- 19:14I think how many people choked out, obviously not as much as you,
- 19:16but let's go just to this picture here. I'll just bring it up in the spring.
- 19:19Sorry, Carla, by the way, that I sent you down to the lobby,
- 19:22but yeah, this is a lovely picture.
- 19:24Like I said earlier on, it's actually, we found one with Potter with his top
- 19:27off, which should be ages, but yeah.
- 19:28Tell me what's going on in that picture. Was that when he just got halfway, wasn't it?
- 19:32I was almost halfway to the halfway point.
- 19:36Yeah, halfway to the halfway point. Ah, I was in the question.
- 19:39Yeah, about day five, and that became our sort of daily wash.
- 19:43It was in the glacial waters, you know, about three degrees.
- 19:46Incredible. Those of you who can't see the photos, it just gives an example
- 19:51of what the terrain is like out there, which...
- 19:54Yeah, talk me through the terrain of managing to do that. You were wearing blades, weren't you?
- 19:59We had three different legs with us. We had a specialist leg created by Doss
- 20:04Alphapedic with the blade of Cervanto foot, which personally I think is a phenomenal foot.
- 20:09The blade, just because it's really forgiving under different terrain when your
- 20:14leg is aching, because it's designed for running, it's quite springy,
- 20:17so it does take a lot of shock out.
- 20:19We just had a spare leg just on the chance, you know, something a bit older, might be a bit bigger.
- 20:23So yeah we we had a selection of legs and
- 20:27it was down to personal preference to what we were comfortable in
- 20:29on any given day and on any surface amazing incredible
- 20:33um image and pictures again if it's the podcast it
- 20:36really is worth heading over youtube or maybe the fca.co.uk if you want to see
- 20:40the video links for it but then unfortunately as rich has already mentioned
- 20:46we had this video which was basically you saying what what happened without
- 20:50putting you all through it Again, I'm feeling guilty already. Yeah, no.
- 20:54So we got to the halfway. We'd done the half snowman. We had a rest day.
- 20:59We did a push on. It was a day off our legs.
- 21:02Unfortunately for me, my stump severely swelled up to the point that I couldn't
- 21:06fit in any of my prosthetics.
- 21:08This was the final day where it was only a short six kilometers,
- 21:12sort of a bit of a downhill day.
- 21:15And yeah, the swelling, I managed to get to squeeze my leg in.
- 21:19And I managed to get to the resupply point where it was the only other road
- 21:23between the start and the finish where we could get our supply for the rest of the track.
- 21:28And yeah, Rich was ahead of me. He had a lot stronger pace because of the pain
- 21:32I was in. And he saw me wincing in agony.
- 21:34And at that point, you know, after, I don't know, what were we talking for?
- 21:37About two, three hours, Rich?
- 21:39And I think he told me I had to speak to my wife, phone home,
- 21:42speak to my wife and see what she says and speaking to our guide about planning
- 21:46ahead what was to be next.
- 21:48I had to make the tough decision to withdraw from the track,
- 21:52which was agonizing to do because it's a mission.
- 21:56You know, it was a target me and Rich strongly believed in doing.
- 22:00You know, what we were doing was to empower, motivate and encourage other people
- 22:04whilst raising money for charity.
- 22:06And unfortunately for me to go any further was risking further injury to myself risking,
- 22:13rich and support crew and at day
- 22:1615 they've had fatalities so to
- 22:19push on in agony it could
- 22:21have yeah could have been it could have resulted in a fatality so for safety
- 22:24reasons and my own health I had to withdraw which makes
- 22:28you want to ask the question this kind of I suppose opens up to all of you
- 22:31i mean for any athlete not being able to do
- 22:34what you want to do even just having to reel back the intensity
- 22:37a little bit if you've been told by a therapist and we'll hear from
- 22:41jenny and carla's in a second but um is it double as hard if you're an athlete
- 22:48with a disability because the impetus and drive to be able to succeed and prove
- 22:53to yourself i can do this does it make it tougher when that kind of is taken
- 22:56away from you or again am i digging myself just deep water here and going down the inspiration.
- 23:02I am the token able-bodied person here in the sense that I know very little.
- 23:06So tell me if I'm talking rubbish.
- 23:09So I'm kind of in this situation at the moment, having come back from the games,
- 23:12I had planned in a whole load of swimming races and things to look forward to
- 23:16because everyone talks about the post-games lol.
- 23:18And I came back and my physio was like, you can't swim. You can't use your leg. You can't swim.
- 23:24So I had to pull out all of those galas. And I think.
- 23:27It's not doubly disappointing, but it's just maybe our options are slightly
- 23:31more limited than they would be before we were injured or fully able-bodied.
- 23:35So instead of the full spectrum of things that, you know, you could just go
- 23:39for a run or I can't just go for a run.
- 23:41And so there's slightly fewer options. And losing one of those things that I
- 23:46now have come to love is a bit sad.
- 23:48And it's just kind of adjusting to, OK, well, what should I focus on now instead?
- 23:52That's kind of my take on it, I think. have you
- 23:55found because this is something we talk about on many
- 23:59episodes of how important communication is between the therapist
- 24:02whether a physio or sports therapist and and the athlete
- 24:05being able to communicate that behavior change
- 24:08as in pull back or stop doing something has anybody
- 24:12managed to talk to you or such a
- 24:14way that you've been able to take the advice and go with
- 24:17it or is it always just a massive disappointment you just kind of like don't
- 24:21even to talk to me be honest but jemma's
- 24:24laughing because she knows she's been my roommate and she's listened
- 24:27to me rant so many times yeah it's
- 24:30i think it's really important that you trust your soft tissue
- 24:34therapist or physio and if you trust them then i will
- 24:36listen to what they're saying and if you've built a relationship and
- 24:39if they if you know that they know how
- 24:42important it is to you and yet they're still saying don't do it then
- 24:46fine i'll go with it you know i want to
- 24:49be in the best shape I can be for as long as possible but
- 24:52I've equally had physios who have only met me once and
- 24:55or doctors and just be like no you can't do any of these things and I'm like
- 24:59well that's very closed-minded so I think it depends on the relationship you
- 25:02have with that therapist it's interesting because we don't say the modern so
- 25:08yeah the modern therapist has to realize and take on board what it is to tell an athlete 8.
- 25:15That they can't do their sport anymore it's being compared in
- 25:18studies to almost like a bereavement or something sometimes you
- 25:21really are taking away that person's identity especially if
- 25:23they spend their time mixing in that circle or putting
- 25:26their results on straw or something so it really is something that therapists need
- 25:29to be aware of and they need to find alternatives i
- 25:33mean i work with runners so for me it's it's like
- 25:36telling a runner not to run is just crazy but i'm sure it's the
- 25:38same with many sports you've got to try and keep them as
- 25:41running as much as possible if they can that might be tweaking their running form
- 25:44or just behavior change of some form but often there
- 25:48are opportunities where you don't have to tell them to stop it and there is something
- 25:50else you can do or talk in a certain way where they can maybe
- 25:54do another sport but in the same kind of way like do i
- 25:57don't know tempo cycles instead
- 26:00of tempo runs so they kind of feel like they're still getting that same buzz but
- 26:03yeah it's a really tricky one so yeah i appreciate your honesty jemmy you're
- 26:08laughing though sam a bit of a handful then if she's told yeah i i'm a physio
- 26:12as well so i'm very much used to being on the other side of the treatment table
- 26:16i'm not used to being the person that receives the help so for jenny you know
- 26:19thank goodness for jenny because.
- 26:21It's very tricky i think to go from being the therapist to being the patient but
- 26:25like sam said i think when we train as therapists sports
- 26:28therapists therapists physio anything we very much learn about the body and
- 26:32the tissues and the muscles and the tendons and the bones and we learn about
- 26:35that and we know you know the healing process and recovery times and things
- 26:39like that But we're not really taught so much about the psychological effects
- 26:42of injury on the athlete or on the person. You don't have to be an athlete.
- 26:47You can be, you know, a person who just likes to be able to go for a walk every
- 26:50day or wants to walk your dog. You know, and that can be your sport.
- 26:53But I think having been in practice and having now been on the opposite side,
- 26:58I really appreciate the words that we use a bit more, the language that we use
- 27:02and how we think, you know, from a clinical perspective, you need to stop running.
- 27:06You know, if I said that to Sam, she'd give me a death stare and I'd be terrified, quite frankly.
- 27:10You know, you can't be so black and white, I think, when you're,
- 27:15you know, you've got to stop running because it will protect your tendon and you'll heal faster.
- 27:19I think we need to adapt more to, OK, running at your current rate will damage your tendon more.
- 27:25But what can we do to keep you mentally strong in that time and also help you
- 27:30rehab your tendon through other sports?
- 27:32Or, you know, can you swim, can you cycle, can you do low impact stuff?
- 27:36And I think more and more now, we need to work together more in an MGT to get around that.
- 27:42What can we do to keep you going, not stop for six weeks?
- 27:45Because that's really negative psychologically, you know, and probably physically.
- 27:49So I think we need to just look more at adapting what we can do so that people
- 27:53keep going, keep mentally strong, keep mentally remilliant, and they can get
- 27:56back to doing everything they want to do, whether that's walking their dolls or climbing up.
- 28:00That's so interesting hearing it coming from you because that message doesn't
- 28:04seem... How come you've got...
- 28:06All that happening and saying that where so many therapists aren't aware of that.
- 28:10I think it's because I've been on the other side of it I mean I reflected
- 28:13a lot after I got injured and I got really mad
- 28:17with a lot of videos who would just say to me well yeah you can't
- 28:19do this what are your hobbies oh no you can't do any of them anymore do you
- 28:22like swimming no I hate swimming I think swimming
- 28:25is not my thing they're like well that's all you can do sorry and then
- 28:28it'd be like right anyway stretch them off and you were
- 28:31just left feeling really shocked and
- 28:34a real sense of loss and lots of identity and that kind of
- 28:37thing so I think I was always a bit more I always
- 28:40tried been understanding because I was sporty beforehand so
- 28:43I understood what sport meant to people so I always tried to be a bit more compassionate
- 28:47as a therapist but having actually lived in the shoes you know been on the opposite
- 28:51side and had discussions with people like Jenny you know and Carla and seen
- 28:56it and experienced it from the other side you do develop a much better understanding
- 28:59of what it means to be able to continue doing stuff.
- 29:03Amazing that's such a useful insight and it's
- 29:06almost like i often say the best thing can happen
- 29:08to a therapist is they get injured themselves and then they realize what it's like
- 29:11to actually catastrophize and you think that i've got a stress stress
- 29:15fracture metatarsal really it's just a corn or something or just a bit
- 29:17of dry skin because you know what it's like for a patient and you
- 29:20know how difficult it is to do the exercises you're
- 29:24supposed to because as therapists we typically go oh they didn't
- 29:26do their exercises what do they expect of course they're not going to get better then
- 29:29you don't actually think maybe the exercises you gave them were
- 29:32never going to be done because instead of coaching them and actually finding a
- 29:35suitable plan you just told them what to do not take
- 29:38into account yeah and that so yeah and
- 29:41it's really dull but it's an incredibly boring
- 29:44thing to do if someone you know someone gave me a cheap exercise and i
- 29:47think i used them as a bookmark for a while i didn't actually do them because
- 29:51they were boring and that felt irrelevant and that's me as a professional i
- 29:55probably should say that as a professional but also it does highlight the point
- 29:57unless they're interesting and stimulating and relevant you just don't see them
- 30:01i'm really excited i'm not i'm not I'm going to rush and go ahead because of a plan here.
- 30:05I really want to get to Dan and have an example of what happens when you don't listen to your people.
- 30:09But we'll save that. I'm going to save that as a hook there.
- 30:11I'm not your dad going, yeah, not your mind. Yeah, it's very sensitive.
- 30:15We'll save that as a little hook. Because I want to just, as this introduction,
- 30:19I want to continue going around and let our listeners know about the circumstances
- 30:24and who we've got here today.
- 30:25So thank you both, Rich Potter and Dickie Davis, for that.
- 30:28Let's go to Sam, if we can. so Sam could you tell us a little bit about your
- 30:34disability and what sport you involved in and I'll bring up some photos while
- 30:38you do it Jenny I think it's your turn to leave the screen sorry.
- 30:43So I was competing in the military in pole vault and had an accident and dislocated
- 30:49my knee and tore lots of ligaments cartilage and nerves in my knee and have
- 30:55been left with well initially quite reduced range of motion.
- 30:59It's improved with subsequent surgeries, but basically ongoing chronic pain
- 31:02and kind of nerve pain. So,
- 31:06Yeah, that's my thing. And now from Invictus, I started doing wheelchair basketball,
- 31:14which I kind of fell in love with and got back into swimming.
- 31:18And my son, Small Miracle, Disability Snow Sport UK, got me back skiing again,
- 31:23which is super exciting because I love skiing, unlike Gemma, who is her nemesis.
- 31:27So those are kind of the sports that I've been doing and we'll see what happens next.
- 31:33You mentioned Invictus Games, which we're going to talk about in in
- 31:36great detail next week next week we're going to have carla and
- 31:39jenny and sam and jemma talking all about victor's games
- 31:42and how their experiences from both sides um i've
- 31:45just put on the screen this is a collage i think produced by victor
- 31:48games but it's again just talking about the numbers and like this this was this
- 31:52year and with 35 veterans 27 serving personnel one proposal what was the time
- 31:59difference between getting involved in victor games and not being able to do your normal sport?
- 32:05So for me, I got injured in July 2023, and then I came to the Invictus process quite late.
- 32:12So I joined basically just before the team announcement in July 2024.
- 32:18I think lots of the other competitors had actually started kind of at the beginning
- 32:21of 2024, but for various reasons, I hadn't been involved until a bit later.
- 32:27So, I mean, my timeline is actually comparatively quite short compared to lots
- 32:30of the other competitors on the team who've you know been struggling possibly for.
- 32:36Years decades as opposed to just a couple of years for me amazing and still
- 32:41and you still managed to I know it's not about the medals in fact I want to
- 32:45talk about the medals in a sec how that feels,
- 32:48in terms of people just going oh well that's inspirational but you did
- 32:51manage to walk away with what bronze two bronzes was
- 32:53it yeah I got a bronze in the skiing and a bronze in
- 32:56the swimming and then silver for the wheelchair
- 32:59rugby i didn't do wheelchair rugby so i
- 33:02did the basketball when we became 13th strong 30th so
- 33:06was that a surprise for you or was it something i
- 33:10want to know about the medals is it how does it work because it's something you're
- 33:13working for you're already an athlete and obviously
- 33:18competitive but when you get to something like the invictus games just
- 33:21the medals take second place or how does it work for you yeah i
- 33:24think so everyone's recovery journey is different and we
- 33:27like to talk a lot about kind of gold medal moments on the team so you know
- 33:30what for you is gonna feel like a success or feel positive and that isn't necessarily
- 33:34for everyone a medal you know for skiing for me actually I just wanted to be
- 33:39able to be on the slopes with my friends in the mountains and enjoy it and not
- 33:42be scared and not be in lots of pain,
- 33:44and actually the medal was a bonus but I had a conversation with our swimming
- 33:48coach you're right I am competitive I have been an athlete everyone's recovery
- 33:52journey is different and for me I wanted a medal to be part of that journey
- 33:55and to feel like I could compete again and feel like myself again.
- 33:58So for swimming, I was targeting a medal.
- 34:01And I was very relieved to have got one in the end.
- 34:05It was hard work. And I was working towards it, but knew that there was always
- 34:09a chance that you don't get a medal. You can't control who else turns up.
- 34:12But it's very different for each competitor, what they want to get out of the games.
- 34:16I'm interested. Thank you for that. I'm interested in because other people here
- 34:20who have been in Invictus Games, what is the medal situation like?
- 34:23Is it similar where you're not really going for the medals? You just want to
- 34:25prove something to yourself and get that satisfaction?
- 34:28Or what's it like for other people? Gemma, what's it like for you with regards to medals?
- 34:32Yeah same as Sam really I think I had a lot of self-doubt before I went knowing
- 34:36that a lot of countries would bring actual athletes to them and I didn't necessarily
- 34:40feel like I was an athlete I felt like I was somebody who was venturing back
- 34:44into sport but it was adaptive sport so.
- 34:48For me I think getting onto the team and being
- 34:52able to find new sports I could actually do that was the biggest
- 34:55thing for me I think obviously inside you
- 34:58do hope that you can get a medal because you want to be good and
- 35:01I think in terms of being ex-military as well there's something
- 35:03inside us that makes us really competitive we want to be the best at everything
- 35:06and you know we can send AV into a competition it's a real
- 35:09military feel you know we get really competitive about all sorts
- 35:12of different things so I think if you put us in a competitive environment you
- 35:15do we did you do want to medal but also
- 35:18I think if you don't medal it's not as
- 35:22hard in that situation because you
- 35:25still achieve so much just getting to that point having said
- 35:28that when I did medal it made me feel incredible and
- 35:31I felt so whole and so seen and I felt like all the hard work
- 35:34that the teachers had been to us and that I'd put into the rowing
- 35:37then paid off and never had something that I could actually show something
- 35:40that's tangible and I think with a lot of people back
- 35:43home that's the first thing they ask is oh did you get
- 35:46a medal you know not did you have an amazing time did you get
- 35:49any personal best did you make friends for life you know did you discover sports
- 35:52you never thought you'd do again they don't ask that they ask you to get a medal
- 35:55so I think it was great to get a medal to say to other people I did but I also
- 36:00did blah blah blah so yeah I think the medal is a tricky situation I was very
- 36:04pleased I got one because it.
- 36:07It did make me feel well rewarded for the effort that everyone had put in but
- 36:12also if I hadn't got a medal I think I still would have been really proud of
- 36:15all the achievements I had and I think the rest of the team were proud of their
- 36:18achievements that they've got and we do have gold medal moments you know just
- 36:21individually because they don't necessarily result in a physical medal but that's okay.
- 36:26This is really I'm hoping such
- 36:29an interesting insight for exactly what I was
- 36:32hoping this episode was going to achieve it's obviously common traits and
- 36:35just the way that not just therapists but the general public kind of see you
- 36:39and talk about you and refer to you and yes it's brilliant people i'm i'm losing
- 36:44track of the questions here we'll have a second i've just invested dickie and
- 36:47rich what's it because you've been involved in victor games as well obviously
- 36:49what was it like for you are you nodding your heads the whole medal thing or.
- 36:53So we dickie and i kind of went through the process together and
- 36:56that we roomed pretty much every camp together we were
- 36:59like 15 minutes away from each other in terms of where we lived our
- 37:02families got very close and when we got to the games we
- 37:05had this amazing moment at the opening ceremony where our children were
- 37:08passed down to us at the end we passed our kids back
- 37:11up to our wives we gave each other a massive hug and we said right
- 37:14it's game time because we had trained so hard not just
- 37:16at the camps but also in our own time as well and
- 37:19we knew exactly why we were there now this is very double-edged because
- 37:22dickie and i we took on seven medals between us we had a great haul
- 37:25i was told for a very long time i would never run again i
- 37:28got a gold in the 100 meters amazing everyone's happy but the
- 37:31problem with that is Matt you spend so long focusing
- 37:34on the medals and the success that you
- 37:37kind of forget to enjoy the journey and it
- 37:40was only when I got back from Dusseldorf I was like man it's over I don't really
- 37:44have that many memories apart from the shiny you know medal in a box to show
- 37:48people I don't have that many memories because I was so focused on winning so
- 37:51it is a double-edged sword I think it's important to be competitive it's important
- 37:54to have goals but at the same time for something like this you just have to enjoy the journey,
- 37:59Amazing. Yeah, really interesting. And did Keith, for yourself,
- 38:02I mean, I guess which is spoken?
- 38:05Yeah, he pretty much summed it up. Yeah, like I said, as he said,
- 38:09we live just around the corner from each other.
- 38:11We've built a great relationship from it, and we've got the same sort of drive.
- 38:14For me, going out there, it wasn't about the medals.
- 38:18Medals are always a nice thing to take home, obviously. You're training to try and get them as well.
- 38:23But if I went out and gave it my all, and actually set my all-time personal best in the pool,
- 38:2720 years after retirement one leg and
- 38:30a dad bod that is better than any gold medal i
- 38:33could have taken so just going out there and giving him my best
- 38:36to pb on everything i did was better than yeah
- 38:39any medal i could have taken amazing really interesting god time is just going
- 38:44crazy um i just wanted to check about jemmy yeah if you could just summarize
- 38:49what is the disability that you or the circumstance of disability and the sports
- 38:54are you involved in yeah that's what i'll say So like Sam said, skiing is my nemesis.
- 38:57I had a big skiing incident, which caused a lot of damage to my leg.
- 39:01I went through a lot of reconstructive surgery and sort of urgent surgery out
- 39:05in our street after I reconstruct it.
- 39:07I did ACL, MCL, medial lateral fractals, cartilage, all sorts.
- 39:12And then 18 months after that, I had a chibiopathic fracture on the same side,
- 39:16which was really bad luck.
- 39:18And it undid most of the reconstructive surgery and left me with a lot of nerve damage and slip drop.
- 39:24So foot jogging is probably the main disability that I have now so I wear a
- 39:27split for that I used to have a lot of nerve damage I've got a few corners removed,
- 39:31from that leg so I walk a bit like a penguin really, I have a bit of an odd gait,
- 39:37yeah and then I have a few bumps with my hips as well so I have a label tear
- 39:41on my hip as a result of the way I walk.
- 39:44Yes, so I'm limited in a lot of what I can do, I used to run and play netball,
- 39:48so I used to play sprints and do a lot of netball and I can't do either but
- 39:52I used to do things anymore.
- 39:54So, yeah, for me, trying to find the adaptive support has been incredible.
- 39:58I have a bit of weakness in my left shoulder as well, so the same side,
- 40:01just where I tore my shoulder quite significantly during the accident.
- 40:06So, yeah, I struggled to find a sport that would suit me.
- 40:11And also I was quite fearful of getting back on snow. So I've seen a lot of
- 40:15people get injured through skiing.
- 40:17And so I've treated a lot of people who got a big skiing accident.
- 40:21And then I went out with the RAF to learn to ski and I had on myself.
- 40:26So, yeah, I was quite fearful. I think I'd had a walks perspective in skiing.
- 40:30I'd seen a lot of bad, nasty injuries. And then some of the things I have on
- 40:33myself. So for me, going to the Winter Games and the prospect of returning to
- 40:37some form of skiing was pretty terrifying.
- 40:39But I did, because I could use a 60.
- 40:42So it was, yeah, it was an adaptive thing. So physically, it helped me.
- 40:47And mentally, it helped me as well get over that fear.
- 40:50Incredible. I guess that's, I mean, we'll talk about this in greater detail
- 40:53next week with the Invictus Games, but it comes up, there's so many different
- 40:56choices, isn't there, of adaptive sports, which you can experiment with and
- 40:59see what you can do and overcome fears and things like that.
- 41:02Yeah. And you went headfirst downhill sledging, which to me,
- 41:07first of all, kind of sounds a little bit fearsome, but I guess it's not as
- 41:09scary as it sounds. They even call it skeleton, don't they, or something?
- 41:12They call it skeleton, yeah. We'll be through that now, the fear turned into.
- 41:17Yeah, skeleton was amazing. So, yeah, we reached 97 kilometres an hour,
- 41:21which was phenomenal, really.
- 41:23And to be able to feel that speed again and feel the interrelin and do that
- 41:26kind of sport, which, you know, I'd always wanted to try Bosley when I,
- 41:31you know, back in the day and I got injured just before I went to Tiles.
- 41:34So it was an itch that I never got to stack really.
- 41:36So the thought of doing Skeleton at Invictus, yeah, I absolutely jumped at it. And it was incredible.
- 41:41It was such a rush and such an incredible experience.
- 41:44You know, when would I normally get to try Skeleton, adaptive or able-bodied?
- 41:49So, yeah, what an incredible experience that was.
- 41:51Amazing. And you got the bronze in the indoor rowing. I did,
- 41:56yes, the insurance varies which is amazing because.
- 41:59It's time it's so hard it's uh yeah
- 42:02rowing the military and it's horrendous and then you come out and think oh
- 42:05it's probably different you know when you just row first for fun
- 42:08but it's not it's always hard but it's kind of wonderful there's
- 42:11something okay it's quite deep fun it's awful
- 42:14at the time but actually it's quite 60 million so yes rowing
- 42:18is definitely a sport i think i'll carry on with thanks yeah
- 42:22incredible well i'd like to say we'll talk about that in more
- 42:26detail with carla and uh jenny next week
- 42:29dan sorry man left you all by yourself there no problem
- 42:32but i can see you nodding and and and
- 42:35and kind of gesticulate gesticulating that as a word isn't it gesticulating
- 42:39away as people were talking slightly different circumstances for you obviously
- 42:42yeah talk us through if you would and i'll bring up some photos as well of your
- 42:46disability and how that came about and and what sports you have found yourself
- 42:51in and exceeding That's quite a bit of a list, isn't they?
- 42:55Yeah. Yeah. So, paralyzed in 2014 to T8 paraplegic, complete,
- 43:01nothing from, just got the belly button down.
- 43:04Then went on to hand cycling and came up to the fifth in the UK,
- 43:09training for GB, hand cycle to go to Rio.
- 43:12Before selection of the team, a 600-mile challenge, went in a 600-mile charity
- 43:20bike ride, 14 miles left.
- 43:22And a car hit me. So I got smacked on top of the head by a car. Thanks very much.
- 43:29Compression of C4, which knocked out, rear delt on the left shoulder,
- 43:33which then told slow down, pack it in, stop doing stuff.
- 43:37So I went and did a London marathon and tore my shoulder apart.
- 43:41Just a little pause there for a second.
- 43:43We can just mention that point a little bit. I can see Carla laughing.
- 43:46I'm not going to let you. I'm a therapist.
- 43:47I'm going to let you get away with that. So you did all that to your shoulder.
- 43:50Uh, and you were told not to do too much. Yes. I had to do the London marathon. Yeah.
- 43:55So i was yeah four years in a row i deferred myself from the marathon but i've
- 44:01got ptsd from my first and second crash because they were very similar to each other.
- 44:06And i didn't always feel like you're failing
- 44:09feeling like you're just not good enough and all that sort
- 44:12of stuff so it's not a good place to be and.
- 44:15All the therapists i went to see which is just like
- 44:17jenna was saying earlier well just no you can't
- 44:20do that no you need to stop doing that well when you're
- 44:23paralyzed you pick yourself up a bed and transfer into a
- 44:26chair i mean the guy don't know what you all know when you know you
- 44:29can't use your leg you know you've got to transfer in and out
- 44:32of a chair and stuff like that so it's you've got
- 44:35to use your shoulders so the less training that you do the less
- 44:38physical you are the weaker you get and then the
- 44:41simple thing of just transferring from a bed to a wheelchair is actually
- 44:44the hardest strongest lift you've done in a week it's ridiculous
- 44:48so i've just said you know i've sold it if i
- 44:51break i break and i was training to do the three
- 44:54guinness world records at scuba diving i was training to
- 44:57do the london marathon because they said if you
- 45:00don't do it this year you're gonna have to you know
- 45:02forfeit it you're gonna have to give it up give your place up so i
- 45:05said i've sold it three months ago i'll do it so
- 45:09i didn't uh but yeah i 25 mil
- 45:12tail on my sucus spinatus it's all
- 45:15my bi-step tendon had both those operated on
- 45:18and re-anchored into the humus so fantastic and i'm now doing the far too little
- 45:24exercises the rotator cuff work to deal to deal with that problem which yeah
- 45:29like you said earlier generally nobody wants to go do i've done gym instructing
- 45:33level 3 pt disability and yeah, I know what I'm supposed to be doing.
- 45:39Which is going to be something which we're going to delve into in part three
- 45:44with yourself and with Carla and Jenny about how working with the team,
- 45:49the successes, the failures,
- 45:52the reasons why things didn't work and yeah, exactly what you're talking about.
- 45:55So that's going to be so interesting about hearing about that.
- 45:59And then you come back and get three world records of scuba diving and you're
- 46:02going for more, aren't you? You've got other things lined up.
- 46:05Yeah, yeah, we've got another two Guinness World Records that I want to smash.
- 46:09You know, we don't stop. That's the thing. I think we're all the same.
- 46:13Once we've gone through one goal, once we've completed one thing,
- 46:17like kind of like heading for the medals sort of thing, it's what's next.
- 46:21You can't just stop. If we just stop, we just fall apart. So the brain,
- 46:26for me, isn't built that way.
- 46:28It's like, what's my next goal? What's my next thing to attack?
- 46:31What's my next thing to beat?
- 46:32And yeah so the the next one that i
- 46:35want to go for is the fastest 10k in the
- 46:38sea for not in freshwater for this time but i want to bring it to the
- 46:40uk so disabled lad owns it which is
- 46:43just between six and eight meters down and swim for well stupid life for 10
- 46:47kilometers i've got to beat five hours 20 which is pretty fast and then they're
- 46:54worth of that these are all for charity i've got all my challenges for charity
- 46:58and the way after that will be the deepest i like diver so i oh,
- 47:01I want to take myself to 150 meters,
- 47:03which a lot of people are just going, yeah.
- 47:06Which is not going to stop me, obviously. And the motivation for this?
- 47:09I mean, other people have said the medals are not what people expect.
- 47:13It's not all about the medals and how many medals did you get is not what they
- 47:16want to hear. But for you, what's the main motivation?
- 47:18The main motivation for me really is to say I can. I can do it.
- 47:22I've proven the fact. When I was talking about doing the three Guinness World
- 47:26Records and we did them all in one day and people were saying,
- 47:30yeah okay yeah whatever you know i'm asking
- 47:33people to support me and help me and all that so somebody's going oh yeah
- 47:36he's just some crazy lad that hasn't got a clue what he's doing
- 47:38he's not a chance he's going to manage to do that and now
- 47:41we couldn't do it and all of a sudden people now actually sort
- 47:44of paying attention and they're saying oh oh fair enough yeah.
- 47:47Maybe you're not blowing smoke sort of thing and
- 47:51yeah so now now they pay attention a
- 47:53bit more hopefully we get a bit
- 47:56more support with the charitable side of stuff because that's
- 47:59what we're doing it for who knows to raise awareness of the
- 48:02disability that i am the disability of other
- 48:06people coming into diving it's it's for all
- 48:09dfa we call it's diving for all and so nothing
- 48:13can stop you really in a medical reason for not
- 48:16being the author of death so yeah that's that's
- 48:19really why i do it is to prove the next thing that yes
- 48:22we can do it we've got able-bodied divers going
- 48:25down at you know 330 meters which is
- 48:29that is yeah crazy death but there's no
- 48:32in paralyzed diving there hasn't been
- 48:35a record set nobody's done so why
- 48:38not let's just go do it and then let somebody else come and say
- 48:40well how have i done that because that just inspires no
- 48:44it's apparently yeah yeah it just
- 48:47it just make somebody else want to beat you that's the point
- 48:50it's not inspiring somebody it's giving them another target to
- 48:53attack another target to beat incredible there's so much here i think for not
- 48:59just therapists but everybody to unpack and pick up on and talk about but what
- 49:04we're going to do in the next three episodes is is see how all this information.
- 49:08Can help therapists help people like yourselves,
- 49:13by not suddenly going, oh, wow, you really inspired me. Did you get any medals
- 49:16in the first consultation? Which somehow I don't think would go down very well.
- 49:20But it's probably the icebreaker which most therapists would use.
- 49:24Apart from Carla, whose icebreaker was, what was it you said to Dickie when
- 49:28he came into your studio? Did you get it?
- 49:30But I've done it with... Just say the words. What did you say to him?
- 49:34Hop on the couch. Yeah, that was an icebreaker, wasn't it?
- 49:39Fortunately, Dickie, you saw the Friday side of it. Absolutely.
- 49:42I always say, if you can come up with something new and interesting,
- 49:46I haven't heard before about the leg, crack on. I'll fight you on the back for it.
- 49:51Amazing. And there's little things like this which we'll be talking about because
- 49:53it can be such a rollercoaster ride as it can be with any athlete.
- 49:58But I think it is intensified certain things when you're telling them that they
- 50:03need to dial down or something or maybe can't even do or have to change their challenge.
- 50:07It really is something we'll talk about. and it works both ways of the relationship
- 50:11for the athlete with the therapist with the athlete so we will go down those
- 50:15in the next three episodes but yeah thank you so much everybody for joining
- 50:20us what we will put in the show links for people who are listening,
- 50:24is obviously links for the next three episodes we will
- 50:26put um social media handles if you've listened to people tonight
- 50:29you want to follow i think most of you
- 50:32maybe bar one on instagram we'll put that all on there
- 50:35and also youtube channels where relevant so you
- 50:38can have a little do a bit of research listeners of the
- 50:41wonderful guests who are with us tonight and also carla and jenny you can follow
- 50:45them so we'll put them in the show now so i won't go through all the now because
- 50:47we'll take another five minutes what i want to do really is just let you know
- 50:51what's going to come up next week oh people in the live lounge i'm sorry i have
- 50:54been looking at questions but i just didn't want to interrupt the flow here
- 50:57it's been such a monumentous introduction
- 51:00and to let people know, I guess.
- 51:02So there were some great questions in here. There's a question about phantom
- 51:05limb pain, which we will address. I've made a note to that and we'll address next.
- 51:09No, we're not next week. We'll address that in the last week,
- 51:14I think, isn't it? The last week of the Rich Potter and Dickie Davis.
- 51:16That's something we're going to be talking a lot about. Obviously,
- 51:19everything amputee related, we will be talking about. So that will come up in there.
- 51:24And I think there was a couple of other things which we'll address in the next three weeks.
- 51:28Gary Benson, founder of the STA, has just mentioned here in the comments,
- 51:32for STA members who are currently planning an education, we are currently planning
- 51:35an education seminar with UK Sepsis Trust in the next few weeks via the SDH
- 51:38podcast platform in the members area of the websites.
- 51:41There you go. Just say that out loud so we're good to hear that.
- 51:43Download us. I've been joining us live.
- 51:45But yeah, for everybody who's joined me tonight, thank you so much for giving up your time.
- 51:50When we sign off, if you can hang around for a couple of minutes,
- 51:53just want to check that I haven't dropped any words apart from inspirational,
- 51:55which you don't want to use in the next three weeks.
- 51:57So if you can turn me off air this time, or I can just come and get me through a bag on the screen.
- 52:01But yeah, so hang around. But yeah, thanks everyone for joining us live. what
- 52:04i really like is the 2 000 or so people who download this episode
- 52:08if you can if you are free i know a lot of you work okay because
- 52:11like eight o'clock on a on a tuesday is probably you're in clinic but if you
- 52:14could dare i say rearrange patients a little bit it's going to be for your patients
- 52:18benefit so i've kind of you are kind of making their lives better by cancelling
- 52:23them and coming for another time but yeah try and make some time and come in
- 52:26because you're going to pick up so much in the next three weeks. It'll be the same time.
- 52:30Yeah, next week is Tuesday.
- 52:34And then the week after, I think it's going to be Wednesday with Dan.
- 52:37But follow the UK on UK...
- 52:40Underscore STA on social media. You'll get the exact times.
- 52:44But yeah, so let me just say thanks again to Rich Potter. Thank you very much.
- 52:48And Rich Dickie Davis. Thank you.
- 52:50Sam May, Gemma Barnes, Dan Willsdown Metcalf.
- 52:53I'm sorry Carla Bickerstaff and Jenny Lane. I mean all I've done tonight really
- 52:58is just take you off the screen and pick you up there again without saying anything.
- 53:01But we will change that in the next few episodes when you're going to be joining
- 53:04us. But thank you, Carla.
- 53:06You're welcome. Great. You did say something tonight. Just keep saying. Thank you, Jenny.
- 53:10No problem. There you go. You've got your paid kind of. You're not an extra.
- 53:15I'm just an extra. I didn't have a line. But yeah, but thank you.
- 53:18Because like I said at the beginning, none of these people would be here if it wasn't for you two.
- 53:21So thank you. Just want to make that clear, even though we didn't have any talking time tonight.
- 53:26Right. Join us next week, people. Episode 232. We're going to have Sam May.
- 53:30Gemma Barnes, Carla Bickerstaff and Jenny Lane will be back with us to talk
- 53:34all about the Invictus Games, everything it represents, the highs,
- 53:37the lows, the everythings, working with athletes.
- 53:40It's going to be a fantastic insight so do join us
- 53:43for that if you can if you listen to the podcast and do please leave a
- 53:46rating and a review just hit the five star make it
- 53:48simple and just leave a few great emotive words like
- 53:51excellent amazing couldn't live without that sort of stuff but
- 53:54it just helps the great words of our guests just reach google
- 53:57higher someone types in invictus then the wonderful words shared with our guest
- 54:02tonight will be there higher in google so that's what happens when you leave
- 54:05a rating and a review it's as simple as that and that's why we're doing it just
- 54:08to put great information out there so please do that 2 000 downloads about 100
- 54:12reviews so something's wrong with the math so please do that now now i'll wait here while you do,
- 54:18all right thanks everyone again for joining us i really appreciate it i'll see
- 54:22some of you again next week and then the others in the weeks that come we'll
- 54:25see some of you in the next episode take care people look after each other.
- 54:29Music.