Something I have learned being in our industry for 25yrs is how small a world it is. One of the main reasons I LOVE what I do, and it doesn’t feel like work, is because of the people I am able to connect with and spend time with on a regular basis as part of my job.

Yesterday I was reminded of this over and over again and I am guessing that for those of you reading this Juicemail this will resonate with you too…

At 8am I drove over to the NEC Birmingham to speak at the <b>Sports Therapy Association’s </b>(STA) annual conference inside the Therapy Expo. STA founder, <b>Gary Benson</b>, had invited me to speak to his members.

Now I met Gary several years ago before he founded the STA and he has become a fantastic person to know. He is trust worthy, delivers on and keeps promises, he cares and shows it in the way he communicates with everyone  and he has a reputation for all of this, it is not just my opinion, just ask anyone who knows him.

Now the very core of the STA and its foundation was to advise manual therapy (and fitness) professionals on quality CPD’s, to offer members a huge amount of support, to keep the promises made and to have fun doing it. They are all REALLY nice genuine people who care about each other and their clients.

So this event was part of that support and gave STA members that chance to experience what CPD providers, like us, have to offer within our education programmes.

Upon my arrival Gary was there with his phone tweeting, texting and guided me to the private STA conference theatre. He introduced the first speaker and I watched Matt’s dynamic talk as I waited for my colleague and friend, <b>Harry Snell</b> to arrive. Harry was a former student and has become a friend over the course of time as we have had many geeky conversation about human movement and intrinsic biomechanics mainly. However he has also become a great source of help at events, for videos, photos and even advice on websites.

Anyway soon I was up and I saw <b>Stuart Farmer, Christine Buckley </b>and <b>Helen Stone</b>, 2 of my former students and one present one, also in the audience waving and smiling at me! Christine even came up for a hug.

My talk was titled <i>‘</i><b><i>Screening the Athlete’ - risk reduction &amp; optimising performance</i></b><i> </i>so with just 30 mins (and I always have a lot to say!) I began with a brief explanation about how our education programmes came about. From the 20+yrs of data collection from clients like Daley Thompson, Linford christie, Derek Redmond, Steve Redgrave, David Coulthard, Mica Hakjenan, Lenny Henry, Demi Moore, Will Carling, Robbie Coultrain, Anthony Ogogo and all varying sporting backgrounds and abilities of 4.5k client case studies in total.

Calling for a volunteer from the audience I was able to demonstrate on a gentleman called <b>Andy Fairbrother</b>, what a mini evidence based ‘field’ test type of screen might look like ‘pitch side’ on one of the audience.

As the audience watched I explained that as simple as it may look these 3 screens, that take in total around 5 mins to perform, correlated very highly during the research to what the very expensive isokinetic machinery told us about what was happening inside the body. My triathlete ‘client’ Andy, had both pelvic and shoulder dysfunction we could see.

So I then demonstrated on him (in 1 min 20 seconds) an anti spasm on his right pec minor muscle that actually changed his pelvis right side AND both of his shoulders! As I promised I had never met Andy before he proceeded to say he knew one of my other former students, <b>Libby Upton</b>, who had been helping him with his intrinsic biomechanics and training!!

Soon enough my 30 mins was up and with a whole bunch of people were giving me their business cards so I guessed it had been well received. What a wonderful feeling that people listen and care about what you have to say and then make it clear they want to hear more!

Also meeting really nice people like <b>Ed Clark</b> who came up to tell me he was gutted he had missed my session and could I still please send him the presentation!

Harry and I chatted about the session as we went for a wander into the main expo. We found my log time colleague <b>Mike Grice</b> (who had introduced Harry and I a couple of years ago), after his lecture with 2 of Jessica Ennis’ professional team. Mike is now working with and delivering education programmes with these 2 professionals, <b>Poora Singh</b> and <b>Derry Suta</b>.

How cool to meet those guys and chat about their work with an olympian like Jessica!

My phone went next and it was <b>Clair Minshull</b>, whom I had spoken to earlier in the year when she called to explore commercial connections.
We sat down for this exploratory chat and Claire said <b>Mel Berry</b> had said to say hello! I have know Mel (a marketing expert) for several years too and she and Claire had met a few weeks earlier.

As I sat there another former student, <b>James Tomkies</b>, said hello and so as I left Claire, James and I had a good old catch up. The conversation led me to re-connect James with my fabulous Biomechanics Coach business advisor, <b>Chris Wright.</b>

As I said good bye to James, I went to connect with long time friend in the industry (after she attended some of our workshops many years ago) <b>Sue Wilkie</b> who was with <b>Suzanne Bowen</b> (also a contact of Mike's) on their stand promoting their <b>Toropro Products</b>.

Sue and I had one of our usual event girlie catch up and giggles - sssshhhhh cant tell you that bit! Then I watched as she offered a few demonstrations of the new Toropro Foam roller, trigger point ball and of course the kinesiotape.

What a cool job eh!

As I stood there watching Sue, my present student, Christine, who had been in my session, came over for a chat. Now when Christine first came to one of our workshops we discovered we had been to the same comprehensive school!

We shared some of our thoughts on kinesiotape and diet amongst other things before I said goodbye.

On my way out I went to the STA exhibition stand and spoke to the very charming <b>Tom Sayer</b>, who said he has followed our work for some time now.

Finally I began to make my way back to the car and struck up a conversation with 2 people who ad been at my session earlier. The 3 of us walked and chatted about the industry, good people, clients and the thought provoking day we had all had.

THIS is a typical event day of work for me ad see how many connections and re-connections across the industry (and even back to my school days!) there were!!?

Also having conversations or even just a smile or nod with people you have never actually met before (like Ed, Trevor, Joe, Nikki, Janet, Marcus, Patrick, Lotti, Juli, Jamie, Andy, Erica, Leon, Sharon and all the other lovely people I spoke to on the day!) who all clearly feel a connection to each other in their work and enjoy what they do makes my working life so much fun.

THANK YOU all of you!

Ultimately you never ever know who you might meet, what might come from that and what could happen in the future because of that connection. It always reminds me of the responsibility we have as education providers to maintain integrity when we are influencing so many people from afar and many of whom we may never even meet.

Most of all I LOVE every day because THIS is one example of one of my ‘normal’ working day’s.

What About You?
Do you love every day?
Do you connect with people?
Could they be more important to you than you realise?
Maybe one day they COULD even be your next million £ cheque!!

HEY you never know!

But if you want to join into this world of connections we have already made.....

Email  me rachel@biomechanicseducation.com with ....

YOUR REASON WHY !