In the latest instalment of Backroom Boys we check out the role of Alan Peacham, one of the members of the medical department who arrived at Wolves in 2006.

* * *

 

BACKGROUND

I qualified from Salford University with a degree in Sports Rehabilitation in 2003.

From there I did a little bit of work experience with Hull City after which I was fortunate enough to get a job as Head Academy Physiotherapist at West Bromwich Albion where I worked with some very good people such as Aidy Boothroyd and Dan Ashworth.

A job then came up at Crystal Palace which was working with the first team and having been at West Brom for two-and-a-half years I decided to move.

I loved the job but didn't really settle in the area.

Then an opportunity came here to work with Barry Holmes and Dr Matt Perry.

I worked with Barry until he left and then with Steve Kemp since he arrived and we've just progressed year on year.

 

 

THE ROLE

Technically Steve is the head of sports medicine and I'm almost like his assistant.

My role is similar to Steve's in trying to prevent and then diagnosing or treating injuries and trying to keep the players fit.

On top of that I do other sessions as well linked to what is called Functional Movement Screening.

The preventative rehabilitation work or prehab for short is one of my main responsibilities.

FMS is a fairly new initiative which has been developed in America and involves each individual player's functional movement being assessed.

Abnormal movement patterns are then highlighted and addressed with specific rehabilitation. 

The hope is that addressing these abnormal movements will decrease the risk of injury in the future.

The squad are screened on a regular basis and preventative rehab sessions led by myself are carried out on a weekly basis with the whole squad, running side by side with the conditioning sessions run by Tony Daley.

Such sessions are also staged with the Development squad and Academy scholars to ensure that all players are actively taking part in reducing their risk of injury throughout their careers at Wolves.

 

 

 

PLAYERS RECOVERING

I really enjoy getting back out there with the players when they are coming back from injury.

Before the recovering players go back to the serious fitness work with Tony, I often go outside with them and carry out a progression of exercises to get them back into the routine. This is an essential part of the rehabilitation process. 

All aspects of training must be meticulously planned into the rehab program to ensure once the players leave the physio room to start their hard conditioning work with Tony, we have done everything that we can to make the risk of re-injury as small as possible. 

It's an important job which can easily go wrong because if you put someone back into training too early then they will break down.

So far we've got a good ratio of people not getting re-injured after getting back into training.

 

MATCHDAYS

Matchdays if the team are at home I tend to come in with the injured players in the morning at Compton.

I'll get to the ground and help out with the strappings and any late rubs and am there if needed for any emergency situations after that.

I've done a few first team games as physio if Steve has not been available.

Normally I do the reserve games home and away with the doctor for medical provision.

 

DEVELOPMENT

The Development squad a very important area of the work that we do.

Players are trying to develop their skills but equally their bodies are also still growing.

It's all about trying to determine how much work they should do and how much rest they should have.

They go through all the FMS process and looking at the audit from this year, there have been no muscle injuries whatsoever sustained in members of the Development Squad and yet they are the ones more at risk.

As a medical team we link in with the work of Development Coach Steve Weaver and Exercise Physiologist John Iga in terms of training which can prove extremely important.

 

 

AUDIT TRAIL

We also now do an audit looking at the different types of injuries that we get, how players pick up injuries, how long they are out and the month in which they got injured.

That gives us a breakdown of whether the same things are happening too often which we can look at and evaluate whether there's anything we can do to prevent it.

Now can we get more detail and break it into three phases during the season.

As a Medical Department headed by Steve we are accountable for all our actions and decisions.

Every year we monitor all the injuries and look for patterns of injury, and how these can be improved.

This might be in how we train, how we recover, how we rehabilitate, or even to what boots players wear. 

By auditing all injuries we have a tool to monitor our progress and make judgments for future management. 

For example, since we introduced the Functional Movement Screening and preventative rehabilitation soft tissue  injuries in the middle third of the season have decreased by 75 per cent compared to this time last year and 92 per cent from the season before.

Such improvements is testament to the hard work of not just ourselves as physios and Tony Daley for putting the strategies in place but also the players for buying into the plan - which ultimately means more time in the gym!

We're always striving to get better and better.

We are also lucky as a department that the manager and coaching staff are very receptive and are always asking us our opinion about the players.

They listen to us and will act upon it when needed.

 

 

TEAMWORK

Steve has brought in a lot of great ideas and it's all very organised and structured while Dr Perry has got some great experience.

He's one of the best doctors in this industry.

Mark James has got plenty of experience and the other physios, Phil Hayward and Jazz Sodhi, also make important contributions.

The beauty is you'll never get two physios with the exact same opinion but we can all put ours forward before the collective decision taken which is to the benefit of the player.