Welcome back to regular readers, and a warm welcome to those who are new to the Prepared Athlete Training & Health project. The theme of our regular update this week is partnerships. As noted in the prologue we shared, the genesis of this project was built upon the ultimate partnership, in the sense that my wife Sian is the most important partner, enthusiastic supporter, de facto benefactor, and business coach behind this endeavour. Beyond that, this thread of partnerships runs through all aspects of how Prepared ATH operates and our work with athletes. And as luck would have it, each of these various facets have been evident over the past two weeks!

PARALLEL PROJECTS…

The partner organisation of Prepared ATH, or sister company if you will, is Informed Practitioner in Sport. The original iteration of informedinsport.com was created in 2012 as a platform for online learning modules I had devised for practitioners working in the field of sports injury. Since that time the site has served a platform for content aimed at practitioners and coaches, and my two most recent books were also released under the Informed in Sport publishing label.

Upon embarking on the Prepared ATH project earlier this year, Informed Practitioner in Sport was relaunched as a parallel project to offer workshops and seminars to support the professional development of practitioners, and to provide consulting services, both locally and further afield. To that end, last week I presented a workshop on the running mechanics and injury for a group of physiotherapy practitioners representing the several Myodetox manual therapy clinics within Vancouver. Over recent months I have similarly consulted with coaches and performance directors for professional and national sports organisations, and delivered seminars for commercial organisations, including Driveline Baseball in Seattle.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PRACTITIONERS…

As we spoke about in the prologue and a previous post on the theme of collaboration, the Prepared ATH initiative was borne out of a wish to work in partnership with the many practitioners across Vancouver who share a common purpose and genuine motivation to better serve athletes.

To date, all of our clients have come via referral or recommendation, and an ongoing focus is investing time and effort to connect in person, build relationships, and develop the local network. Over recent months this has included visits to sports injury clinics, training facilities, and regional training centres, as well as meetings with individual performance staff and practitioners across disciplines within the local region.

To date we have worked very closely with some notable individuals, including sports medicine physician Dr Sara Forsyth, physiotherapist Wendy Epp, chiropractor/performance therapist Dr Duriell Bernard, and mulisports/triathlon coach Christine Fletcher. Very soon I also hope to be able to announce a new collaboration and joint service offering, delivered in partnership with two extraordinary practitioners and hosted at their sports injury clinic in Vancouver. More to come on that new initiative soon..

PARTNER FACILITIES…

On the topic of partner facilities, we have likewise been fortunate to connect with some extraordinary individuals who have proved highly amenable to working together and sharing their space. Once again, Wendy and Nadine at Form Physiotherapy have been a strong partner from the outset, not only sharing clients, but also graciously allowing me to conduct initial assessments within the clinic.

More recently Matt Holtzman and the team at East Van Sports and Rehab clinic have similarly been very gracious hosts, and just last week I conducted an initial assessment at their beautiful new space in East Vancouver.

ATHLETES (AND PARENTS)…

The most important partner in the process is of course the athlete. In many instances, this partnership also extends to those around them - notably parents in the case of youth athletes, and also partners who lend their support.

I feel very fortunate that the Prepared ATH clientele across all three streams (Develop | Prepare | Return) exclusively comprises excellent humans, who are not only a pleasure to be around, but are also highly engaged and invested in doing the work to achieve their goals. I genuinely feel privileged to work with each of them and I thoroughly enjoy every session.

So there it is: Prepared ATH is an endeavour built upon a partnership, and partnerships are at the heart of all we do.

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Readers who are local to Vancouver can also enquire to find out more about the coaching provision on offer, and how to arrange an initial assessment via the ‘Enquire’ link at the top of the page, or email us direct at PreparedATH@gmail.com.