On the 27th of August
2022, I and 3 of my course mates had the privilege to participate in an
on-field physiotherapy support activity for a tennis tournament in Penang under
the guidance of our Physiotherapy lecturer Mr. Muthukumaran.
This tournament was
organised by the Penang Sports Club (PSC) which is probably the largest private
tennis facility in Malaysia with 10 artificial grass courts and 9 natural grass
courts in the club grounds. On arriving there we were stationed near the court
of play and asked to set up and be on our feet for anything that followed. The
tournament was to begin at 10 am and continue until 5 pm that evening. One
would think that as a sports physiotherapist our clientele would predominantly
be from the young adult category. However, to our surprise, the majority of the
participants there were from the older adult category, all of whom had been
playing the sport for 30 years or longer, making this a particularly novel
experience for us all. We saw a plethora of cases, and played our role in
preventing injuries before the game, treating injuries during, and advising on
strategies for longer rehabilitation plans after. In the span of 7 hours, we
attended to multiple injuries, so much so that we were physically drained by
the end of the day, but so proud of ourselves.
From an academic point of view, it was an extremely
beneficial experience, as we learnt
about the various kinds of injuries that can occur in tennis and what should be
done for each. It was also a completely different
experience than in the typical clinical setting as the assessment and diagnosis
on the field has to be done rapidly. This helped enhance our assessment skills,
and taught us how to work efficiently under pressure.
All in all, it was
wonderful learning experience, and I would like to extend my deepest gratitude
to our lecturer, Mr Muthukumaran who accompanied us to this event and guided us
every step of the way, and also to our Dean and the Faculty of Health Sciences
at MAHSA University for and giving us this opportunity.
Last but not least we
thank Penang Sport Club for their trust in the MAHSA Physiotherapy team. We
hope that our efforts helped make their tournament more enjoyable for the
participants.
Words by:
Soumya Lakshmi Lakshmanan
Final
year Student, Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Hons)
Faculty
of Health Sciences
MAHSA
University