SPEAKER_02: Section 3.

You will hear two sports physiotherapy students called John

and Kath preparing a joint presentation on foot injuries in sports players. First,
you have some time to look at questions 21 to 26 on page 4. Now listen carefully
and answer questions 21 to 26.
SPEAKER_01: I've had a look at your draft presentation plan and compared it with
mine Kath and we seem to have the same basic structure. We've both included the
same three main sections that's the anatomy of the foot, the injuries and the
treatment and we've organized our presentations in the same way but the types of
sports we've chosen to illustrate the possible injuries aren't
SPEAKER_00: the same. I'll deal with the anatomy bit. I've got notes and a handout
on that
SPEAKER_01: from Professor Gilligan's lecture. Oh I was hoping to do that. I've
downloaded some useful stuff. I do think we should limit this section though. We
don't want to spend much time on anatomy when the main focus is on the treatment.
That's
SPEAKER_00: true but in the last section maybe the two of us could show how some
of these therapies actually work. I could be the patient and you could do the
treatment.
SPEAKER_01: Mmm good idea because it's hard to find pictures as injuries are
mostly internal. It would be good to hear some first-hand accounts from injured
athletes too. Yeah but we don't have time. No. Should we then discuss different
types of heel injury? It's worth pointing out that these vary enormously in how bad
they are. It might be just a pulled muscle or a bone injury which needs surgery.
Sometimes only an expert can tell the difference. Excellent. I'll do the slides on
that. Leave that one to me. Now what about causes of heel injuries?
SPEAKER_00: Well it's easy enough to list them over use in proper footwear. Yes.
Incorrect running style. They're all relevant but for simplicity let's just pick
one cause. Say stuff about changing your training habits suddenly. You mean like
SPEAKER_01: suddenly doing a lot of mountain training? Yes. That's a good idea.
And there was research on that in the latest edition of Physiogeneral. Wasn't
there?
SPEAKER_00: Professor Gilligan recommended it to us. Great. You can leave the bit
on stretching techniques to me. I really like all that stuff. So what's going to be
your approach there? Well I'll summarise all the various techniques with visual
support and then I'll make the point that the stretching should be carefully
managed. Obviously you have to be careful not to over stretch and to stretch only
when your muscles are warmed up. Otherwise you could do yourself more harm than
good. It's also important that on a supervised programme stretching is later on
combined with balance exercises which stretch and also strengthen the muscles. Okay
then.
SPEAKER_02: Before you hear the rest of the discussion you have some time to look
at questions 27 to 30 on page 5. Now listen and answer questions 27 to 30.
SPEAKER_01: It's always useful to have some information on case studies at the end
in case we're sure of a material. Did you manage to find anything? Yes. A female
SPEAKER_00: runner in her 30s talking about her treatment for a swollen heel.
Initially she rested the injury. This did help to reduce the swelling although it
was still a little bit uncomfortable. Then she applied an ice pack to the injury
twice a day. Did that work? Well she persisted with this treatment for the first
month but decided it wasn't helping. After this period she was shown how to use
deep tissue massage techniques and was surprised at how much freedom of movement
this created in her foot. Wasn't she having ultrasound treatment? Yes she was
having sessions at the hospital but she remained unconvinced about its value. She
felt the same about the balancing exercises she was prescribed.
SPEAKER_01: Okay that's interesting. I looked at the aftercare program of a male
sprinter who was allowed to do some sports activity as part of his rehabilitation.
After four months of treatment he did some light running on grass wearing shoes
that gave plenty of support to his injured heel. So it didn't hurt. Well he found
the heel was sore afterwards and the same happened with some jumping exercises he
was asked to try. Did he go to the gym and use weights? Yes after a few weeks and
if he used lightweight he could train without pain. He also tried cycling and found
this beneficial as his foot was not making contact with the ground. He expected a
similar result with swimming but found the repetitive kicking motion was actually
aggravating the injury.
SPEAKER_00: Well both these case studies have failed.
SPEAKER_02: That is the end of section three. You now have half a minute to check
your answers. Now turn to section four on page six.