A night with the experts for the 18U CAPS girls(PHOTOS) By Paul Edwards
October 16, 2008 — This Wednesday evening, the 18U CAPS girls were fortunate enough to spend a few hours with experts from the fields of chiropractic and massage therapy, and in skills analysis.
From 7-8pm, the girls listened to a presentation from Dr. Martin Zollinger and Dr. Carrie Johnston, from RE:FORM Body Clinic in Ottawa. Dr. Zollinger’s talk involved mainstay volleyball injuries and how soft tissue therapy is important in their prevention and treatment. Soft tissue injuries are best treated earlier rather than later and they have found that techniques such as Active Release and Graston can be quite effective with elite athletes, such as the uOttawa GeeGees, national team triathletes, Ironmen, etc. Sports therapy experts, they represent a possible first step in assuring the girls are at their biomechanical best. They have offered to support the team by diagnosing and treating all musculoskeletal injuries and conditions towards a successful season and a prolonged & pain-free volleyball career.
From 8-10pm they had the opportunity to work with Jason Trepanier, Head Coach of High Performance from the Ontario Volleyball Association, who employed 'Dartfish', a very sophisticated video software tool used with provincial teams, universities and our national team, to help show the girls strengths and weaknesses in their game. Dartfish is one of the applications used by the Provincial Team to analyze and assess skills. Each player was run through a specially-designed, six drill training session focussing on the six major volleyball skills. Each girl was able to observe herself seconds after performing each skill with the delayed video function, and to have her technique analyzed in slow motion. Instruction, demonstration and comparative analysis using Dartfish video of Canada's top National Team athletes performing the same skills and drills was used during the session to show the girls the technical expertise of our national team volleyball players. Jason will be back again later this year to help evaluate the girls as they progress through their 18U season.
Thanks very much to Martin, Carrie and Jason, and to coaches Jeremy and Michelle for organizing this interesting and informative volleyball event.
P.S. If you were expecting to see photos taken during the evening, don’t hold your breath. The digital card I used to take the images has vanished into thin air. I tried...
