*THREAD* Some great observations/discussions from our L5 students on their real-world applications module, when debating #health and #performance in high-level sport. The group have consented to these being shared, so that practitioners can also share their views #RWASES2021

High performance #sport is as much about how you think about the pressures of sport and performing at that level, as it is your technical and tactical sport ability. How you think about it will impact on both #health and performance #RWASES2021

The quality of a young athlete’s support network should be judged on how well they manage the health more than performance, or at least in equal measures #RWASES2021

Unless an athlete is healthy, they won’t be able to perform well. Unless an athlete is performing well, it’s unlikely they’ll be truly healthy #RWASES2021

Nobody knows when their career will end; it can end at any time. It can end at any time, so we should start helping athletes prepare for that transition as early as possible #RWASES2021

Athletes are people first and foremost. Money doesn’t make them immune to the challenges of real-life and, in some ways, make those challenges harder (because of expectations). We need to help athletes understand and manage these challenges #RWASES2021

There are unique demands and expectations that come with being the “star player”. The multidisciplinary support should think about that uniqueness as part of the context we work within for that player and how we work should be informed by it #RWASES2021

When we work with injured athletes, we need to trust that they know their body (and mind) better than we do. We are responsible for educating each other, to create shared decisions around return to sport #RWASES2021

If there isn’t any data to support decisions, we need to trust robust theory and our experience to make decisions...then we should work to create data for and with others #RWASES2021