Young and Emerging Athletes

Having a child playing competitive sport at a high level can place many additional demands on a family, especially in the build-up to a season or specific events in the sporting calendar. Besides all the everyday costs of family life, there are the additional costs of sports-specific clothing/equipment, coaching/training, injury treatment and all the costs associated with travel for training and competitions. Although there are some funding pathways for young and elite athletes, such funding is limited. Eligibility for such funding typically requires athletes to progress to set levels of competition in their sport, such as state, national or international. There are also high-time commitments for travel to training, school events/competitions and other obligations.

Playing competitive sports at a high level can place enormous demands on a young athlete, both physically and psychologically. Besides the high demands of training and competition schedules during the sporting season, there are demands from school, family, friends and personal interests. All of these factors are types of "stressors", and although stress can positively impact performance, too much or prolonged stress can have a negative impact. Equally,"stress" creates a psychological response within the body, which can affect muscle tension, among other things. The last thing a budding athlete needs to add to the mix is the additional stress of an injury. Luckily, there are strategies to help with injury prevention and combat stress levels.

In his 16 years of practice, Terry has developed an in-depth appreciation of the levels of commitment required and the costs involved in competitive sports, especially at the higher levels. His experience includes working with youth to veteran category athletes, from amateur to elite-level competitors. Besides being extremely qualified and trained in many assessment and soft tissue therapy techniques, he has personal high-performance-related experience. Terry's experience of pushing his body to the absolute limits of physical and mental endurance and the understanding gained has proven hugely beneficial. The insights he gained and his education, training, and clinical experience have shaped how he works. He is still highly active and "walks the walk" rather than "talks the talk" and enjoys sharing his knowledge and experience to assist athletes in achieving their goals and dreams. His qualifications, registrations, experience and professional memberships are accessible from the Massage and Myotherapy Registrations section below.

Terry understands the importance and benefits of regular soft tissue therapy and self-maintenance when training and competing at a high level. He also appreciates the costs associated with regular treatment and other associated costs with parenting a young athlete. Hence, Terry offers concessionary rates to young and emerging athletes to help ease the burden and play a small part in athletes achieving their dreams. Furthermore, he has been part Sports Massage Association's (SMA) Road2Success Athlete Sponsorship Programme for many years. The programme is designed to help unfunded/unsponsored Athletes who are training for Olympic type events. Concessionary rates are available via the booking link at the top of the page, along with clinic hours. Terry operates late clinic hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays and is open at weekends. He can also often accommodate treatments outside the standard online bookable hours if necessary. Please get in touch with Terry for further details or to answer any queries.

Much of Terry's work in the UK and Australia has relied on word-of-mouth, though some patients have chosen to write online reviews. Unfortunately, moving country and changing business names means losing many such reviews. However, one can access some of the reviews Terry gained while running TotalMSK in the UK via the UK Google Business ® listing. Although it was possible to change the UK listing address details to those in Australia, reviews and the Google geolocation of the business entry remain in the UK and do not appear on local Australian searches. (TotalMSK UK Google Business ® listing). Also, it is worth noting that Terry was a registered McTimoney Chiropractor and soft tissue therapist in the UK. He has never worked like a traditional Chiropractor, and most of his patients viewed him more like a Sports Physiotherapist due to the way he works. However, for clarity, Terry is not a physiotherapist and has never qualified as such.