A student has returned to Worcester after spending time working alongside professional footballers and basketballers at a club in Spain.
Sam Amos-Simpson, in his third year studying Sports Therapy at the University of Worcester, has returned from a three-and-a-half-week placement in Leon.
During his placement at Cultural Leonesa, Sam worked with the club’s football and basketball teams. He was one of four students on the Sports Therapy course who were offered the placement, double the usual number.
He said: “Lots of people applied for the placement, I was fortunate to be picked. I’m so grateful for the opportunity.”
As a sports therapist for Cultural Leonesa, Sam applied various treatments before and after the teams’ training sessions whether that was taping or massaging or whatever the players needed.
He said: “It was a great opportunity to put into practice the things we learnt on the course.”
He found that he gained skills and experience simply from observing the professional environment. He said: “It’s very different practicing treatments in lectures compared to doing it on expert athletes. It’s all on a time scale, on real people with actual injuries”.
Sam continued: “It’s so important to have confidence in your own knowledge and make the players feel comfortable.”
Sam said he was very appreciative of the team at Cultural Leonesa for offering the placement opportunity.
When Sam wasn’t working, he was able to explore the region and experience the culture. He said: “I made a lot of friends and contacts, which I think is going to be beneficial for my future.”
Sam continued: “I had such an incredible time. People in Leon were so friendly, it’s such a beautiful place to explore, all the players and physios we worked with were amazing, the locals didn’t owe us anything and yet people really made an effort to make us feel welcome.”
Leon is a similar size to Worcester with a Cathedral and river running through the centre. While he was there, Sam visited a local village and experienced mountain climbing.
Now that he has experience with the sports team, he wants to have an insight into more private clinical settings and has secured a role at a clinic in Worcestershire. Students on the Sports Therapy course at Worcester gain experience in a range of external and internal placements.
He’ll be balancing this with an internal placement at the University, working alongside the British University and College Sports (BUCS) Men’s Basketball First Team.
He said: “I think that’ll really help me to decide what direction I want to go in the future.”
For information on courses at University of Worcester visit www.worcester.ac.uk or for application enquiries telephone 01905 855111 or email [email protected]