By GARY LEMKE in Swakopmund
In medical terms it’s called cold water immersion. In layman’s terms it’s an ice bath and in athletes terms it’s something you’d rather avoid. Yet, it’s all part and parcel of life in Team SA at the Region 5 Games and on Friday it was the turn of the swimmers to spend time among the ice blocks ahead of their competition starting on Saturday.
When asked by one of the swimmers “how cold is it sir,” Dr Salih Solomon put his hand in the water. “Less than 15 degrees,” he smiled.
Friday was the day before everything starts in earnest at these 11th Region 5 Games in Swakopmund, home for the Team SA swimmers and track and field athletes for a week.
The medical and physio personnel have been close at hand guiding the swimmers through their paces, and a special relation is being formed.
One of the physios is Lizahn Esterhuizen, who is a general physio with a special interest in orthopedics in sport, and based in Prieska. “That’s in the Northern Cape,” she says, adding, “I’m often asked why I don’t go to the big cities like Cape Town or Joburg, but for me it’s a strategic decision and there’s a need for the service in the area.”
Esterhuizen is sitting under a gazebo at Team SA headquarters at their base in Swakopmund, where she and her colleagues have been preparing their admin for the afternoon’s work with the swimmers. She admits to being in her element at these Games.
“There is something so rewarding about working with athletes of this age and level,” she says. “I suppose the main thing is that they can be moulded and educated properly about the physio and medical side of an athlete’s career. There’s a big difference between teenagers and adults, in that these athletes are in a phase where there’s so much to work with.
“There are so many differences between an athlete of this stature and those older and at a higher level. Doc was telling us today about the difference in medical prescriptions for under-18s and over-18s and the impact it has on athletes, as an example. “I have a passion for grassroots education in athletes and their responsibilities towards physiotherapies. We are not here to dish out massages, and I know that there is a perception amongst many athletes who haven’t been educated about physiotherapy that we’re massagists,” she says.
There is a lot to take on board when entering what is effectively a relationship between the medical team and athletes that is not often appreciated. “Communication is key. The care of the athlete is the main priority,” Esterhuizen continues.
“But we need consent to be able to treat them, we can’t just work on them. Pre-event documentation has to be done by the athlete, relating to treatment. We can’t force treatment on any athlete. There is the POPIA act to protect certain information as well. As professionals we want to get them to the point where we know exactly what we are dealing with and that comes with education of requirements. We need to know the intensity of injurues (on a scale of 1-10) and so on. It’s not just a case of having an athlete come in and we start working on them.”
Esterhuizen is fulsome in her praise for the code managers and coaches who are integral to ensuring there’s a healthy understanding of treatment and physio requirements, especially at this level where many athletes in these Region 5 Games will be experiencing professional physiotherapy for the first time.
There’s a light that dances in her eyes and when she says that she’s “privileged” to be “given the honour of working with young Team SA athletes at a Gams such as these” that light brightens even more. Esterhuizen forms part of the unsung heroes, the support team. Without the likes of her and the entire medical team, these athletes wouldn’t achieve the highs that they will be doing over the next week.
Photos: ROGER SEDRES
