Lessons From Half Way Around the World (Literally)

By: Joel Luedke

The more I've progressed in my career the more I seem to find you can't stick to just one ideal.  While  I have found it beneficial to have some ground principles from which to operate on and using those principles to help build a system it has become very clear that you can't latch on to just one or two things*.

After having taken a trip back to India and for the first time for Sri Lanka I wanted to pay very close attention to how things are done half way around the world.  I had the opportunity to meet some physiotherapists from iPhysio and discuss with them on how they treated their athletes/patients and what I found was that it is so similar both in the problems that they encounter and also their approach to treating them.  What was the common thread, basic principles.

From there I had the great fortune to speak to a group of sports medicine physicians in Sri Lanka about taping techniques for athletic injury.  You may wonder why physicians wanted to know taping and how it could help out athletes, isn't that a job for someone else?  Well it turns out sports medicine in Sri Lanka has only been around for 5-10 years.  These professionals are at the front line of developing so many great things in that country and on how they asked questions you could tell it was all routed in principles that they could build off of.

Basic principles.  What am I talking about?  Well lets go over a couple of them that seem to hold true, even after a 14 hour flight.

• Patient Centered: It seems obvious but it is so easy to lose sight of this.  In the run around of many things that happen at the gym or clinic we can get frustrated or stray away.  Don't let it go too far.
• It Must Start with the Evaluation: It's happened to me when I've jumped immediately to "the fix".  Don't get too far ahead of yourself as if you set yourself up with a great evaluation and knowing what you're trying to help/fix you will be better off in the long run.
• Set the Body Up to Heal: It's hard to make the body heal and it isn't something that we can do for someone.  All we can do is set up the person's body to heal itself.  Make sure you are provide the best care and information you can to aid in that.
• Never Stop Learning: This was a common theme that I experienced.  All egos were checked at the door (I did my best to check mine).  I wanted to be open to questions and ideas that made sense even if it wasn't in direct agreement with mine.  That was reciprocated in how physicians (many way smarter than me) were open to trying something new and different.

It was an amazing experience and I can't wait to go back and learn more.  Don't stray too far away from what you feel to be correct and when all else fails, return back to the basics.

*Check out the CP Short released on Tuesday January 30th called "Why Do We Go to Extremes?"