An interview with an expert – Ajeeta (PT)
Physical therapy can help in strengthening muscles, reducing the strain on your joints, and improving the balance of the body and mobility. It is an effective treatment option for enhancing limited mobility.
Who did we Interview?
Ajeeta (PT) physiotherapy really like working and helping people with their pain. After completing her bachelor’s from GGSIPU. She worked for 2 years and then joined Amity University for her master’s specialising in Sports medicine & rehabilitation. Her experience with sports ranges from squash, boxing, football, badminton, judo & tennis. She now wishes to work with cricket & golf because she thinks every sport has different challenges and she needs a bigger and harder challenge one after another.
Getting to the Questionnaire
Question 1- How do you prioritize the overall health and well-being of the boxers, both in terms of injury prevention and overall physical and mental health?
Boxing is a reaction game and a maximum of our Indian boxers belong to rural areas. Because of this, they’re less concerned and educated about overall health and injury prevention.
Educating them about injury prevention is of utmost importance. In India athletes completely ignore the concept of PREHABILITATION, also they don’t seek professional help for their injuries until things go out of hand. They have a very casual approach to injuries. So we focus more on educating them on how they can prevent themselves from injuries and how and what measures they should follow for ‘Recovery’ to keep themselves away from injuries.
When it comes to mental health situation is even worst, the acceptance is not there that they need professional help for such issues. athlete parents and coaches just don’t believe in mental issues, so education and awareness start from there.
Question 2: What kinds of injuries or conditions do you commonly see among boxers, and what’s your approach?
Well, being a contact sport, injuries related to knuckles are very common, and also because of negligence in rehab “Instability & Muscular Imbalance” are of major concern. Ca rehab protocol and then returning to sport is very important to avoid such repetitive injuries.
We prefer doing a complete screening and looking into the hertory of previous injuries to take care of such issues.
Question 3: Would you like to share any tips for athletes who wish to recover quickly from injuries?
It is very important to focus on nutrition & recovery measures. Do not push your body off-limits. Work smart & not hard. Gaining 80% of muscle strength to the contralateral side is the benchmark for the return to sport.
Question 4: Please share about any physio-related conferences/events you are looking forward to.
I have a few international assignments coming up. The Billie Jean King Cup (formerly known as the fed cup) of tennis is coming up in April.
I am currently focusing more on tennis as I travel with Ankita Raina (Arjun awardee & currently India’s no 1 women’s tennis player). I am also looking forward to collab with a few international sports academies now.
Question 5: In your experience, what are the most common injuries that occur in badminton, and how do you approach managing them effectively?
Injuries related to shoulder complex and disrupted kinetic chains are too common with badminton. Well, instead of focusing just on the pain we prefer forcing on the root cause of the pain. There are many cases when the athlete complains of pain in and around the elbow joint. That is just the radiating pain coming from the shoulder complex, so by working over the shoulder we are done.
Summing up
Physiotherapy was never her choice but it just happened by chance & she is glad it happened. She likes working and helping people with their pain. After completing her bachelor’s from GGSIPU, she worked for 2 years and then joined Amity University for her master’s specialising in Sports medicine & rehabilitation.
During her master’s, she got a really good exposure at SAI working with national athletes and exploring a lot of options there. Her first assignment after’s masters were at Prakash Padukone Badminton academy and then after there was no looking back.
Worked back-to-back with national teams for various national & international assignments. Her experience with sports ranges from squash, boxing, football, badminton, judo & tennis.
Now she also wishes to work with cricket & golf. It is because every sport has different challenges and she likes bigger and harder challenges one after another.
