FAQ
Here I hope to answer some common questions about sports therapy, online consultations, and the Parkour Clinic. Click a question to see the answer in a dropdown.
If your question is not answered here, please contact me!
Bookings:
I use a service called Setmore to manage bookings. When you click the 'book now' button, the Setmore booking process will open in a new window. If this is your first appointment, you'll need to register with Setmore and then pick your preferred appointment date and time from the available sessions. Once registered, you can also use this Setmore account to manage your booking, including things like cancelling or changing your appointment.
Once you've booked, you'll receive a confirmation email with your booking details, and a link to the video meeting. When it's time for your appointment, just click this link to join the video call, using another service called Teleport.
It's going to depend. Parkour Clinic is run in the free time I can give it; some weeks will be more, some less. The only way to know for sure is to check the upcoming appointment availability.
If for some reason you can't ever seem to catch a break and find availability using the online booking, or you need a time outside of regular booking slots online (such as an evening or weekend), just drop me a message and I'll see what I can do.
We'll just talk, mostly! The main thing we'll do is go through your injury history, and how you experience it. I'll ask you questions about your pain or discomfort, where it is, how it feels, and what makes it better or worse. We'll also talk about your current and past physical activity, and how your injury is affected by, or affecting, your training.
It may be useful to show me the injury site, so make sure you're in a safe and private environment where you can do so comfortably. You can refuse if you are uncomfortable showing the site of injury for any reason.
If I think it would be useful, I may ask you to perform some movements or exercises on camera so I can see them, or to just report on how they feel. For that reason, it might be useful to have some space around you during the video call, but it's not essential. You're in control at all times, and can stop any movement at any time for any reason.
Depending on how the conversation goes, we'll finish up with some sort of plan for how you can start your injury rehabilitation. You might just need a nudge in the right direction, or to be guided to some online resources that could help you. If really needed, I will send you a rehab plan you can follow, but this might take a little longer after the end of the appointment. I'll let you know if this is the case.
Appointments are scheduled for a maximum of 45-60 mins, but may take less time than that.
I'll work with what you've got. Many exercises can be performed with bodyweight alone, or a little inventiveness. If I think it would help, I might recommend picking up some resistance bands or other such equipment, which can be usually be easily and (relatively) cheaply obtained online or from a fitness retailer.
You may also consider a short term membership to a local gym, if convenient, as it may actually work out cheaper to pay for a month's membership than buy equipment yourself. Just be sure you check the gym's membership policy, and that you can cancel at any time, as some gyms lock you in to long membership contracts if you're not careful.
You can come back for more appointments at any time if you think they will help, although I would request you not book a whole bunch of sessions at the same time. Please book one appointment, see how you get on, and then come back for a progress report or further guidance if you need.
The Parkour Clinic is not designed to entirely replace regular rehabilitation, physiotherapy, or sports therapy sessions in person with a qualified professional, but rather as a free and easy way to gain access to sports therapy advice and guidance online. If you require regular treatments, hands-on treatments such as massage, or need/want to be supervised in some manner while performing rehabilitation exercises, I would advise you to seek in-person treatment. If necessary, I will advise you of this in our appointment if I believe it to be to your benefit.
No, parkour is a global community and I welcome appointments from other areas of the world. Although, you need to be sure that whatever local laws or governance you are subject to do not prohibit your use of this service nor contradict anything in the terms and conditions of use for Parkour Clinic.
Please also be aware that booking availability is set according to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and that I, unfortunately, only speak English. I'm happy to try communicating in other languages or non-verbally if you need, but it may be more of a challenge!
For full details, please see the Terms and Conditions / Privacy Policy page for Parkour Clinic, which you will need to agree to prior to booking an appointment. In short:
The Parkour Clinic is not designed to entirely replace regular rehabilitation, physiotherapy, or sports therapy sessions in person with a qualified professional, but rather as a free and easy way to gain access to sports therapy advice and guidance online. If you require a full physical assessment, regular treatments, hands-on treatments such as massage, or need/want to be supervised in some manner while performing rehabilitation exercises, I would advise you to seek in-person treatment. If necessary, I will advise you of this in our appointment if I believe it to be to your benefit.
You are in control of your treatment at all times and assume all responsibility for the safe execution of any exercise or physical activity carried out as a result of advice or guidance received from Parkour Clinic. Exercise and physical activity, particularly in relation to exercise intended for the rehabilitation of injuries, can cause some pain or discomfort. If any exercise or activity causes you pain or discomfort beyond a level that you deem acceptable, you must stop immediately and seek further advice.
For full details, please see the Terms and Conditions / Privacy Policy page for Parkour Clinic, which you will need to agree to prior to booking an appointment. In short:
When using the contact form on this website, your name and email address is required. This is solely used to respond to your message, and is not retained, passed on to another service, or used to send you marketing messages.
As part of the registration process with Setmore to provide online bookings, your full name and email address is required, as well as some other personal details such as your age. These are used to send you details and updates about your appointment, and may also be used to send you other updates about the Parkour Clinic service. These will not be used to send you any marketing emails nor passed on to any other party by me, but may be managed by Setmore differently. I suggest reading this support article at Setmore for more detail.
The actual video calls are conducted using a service called Teleport that integrates with Setmore. You will be sent a link to a meeting room for your consultation and shouldn't need to set up an account with Teleport directly. You can view Teleport's Privacy Policy here.
If I need to send you a rehab plan, I may generate these using another online tool. This service may also require your name and email address in order to actually send the created plan to you. I will confirm that you are happy for me to share your details with any other service I use before doing so and you can refuse for any reason.
Finally, in the course of our conversation, I may ask for other personal information from you. Any information given will solely be used for the purpose of assessing and providing any sports therapy services. It is always your choice to share any personal information with me and you may refuse at any time for any reason. As part of my responsibility as a sports therapist, I keep clinical notes of all my appointments, and any information you share with me that I deem relevant and appropriate to your assessment and treatment may be recorded in these notes. All clinical notes are stored digitally on a password protected encrypted hard drive. These notes will not be shared with anyone unless you expressly request it, for example, if you wish for me to share them with another therapist, or you may request a copy for yourself to share as you wish.
At any time, you can request full details on what information Parkour Clinic has about you, and request it be amended in any way or deleted entirely.
Yes, you must be an adult aged 18 or over to make use of Parkour Clinic. If you are under 18, a parent or legal guardian may make an appointment on your behalf, but must attend the online appointment with you, and confirm responsibility for supervising you during any and all exercise or activity relating to any recommended rehabilitation plan.
I would advise any parent or guardian to seek in-person sports therapy, physiotherapy, or medical advice for their child if they are at all seriously concerned about any injury their child is experiencing.
Online Sports Therapy:
Aches, pains, and injuries are common in sport, particularly the demanding sport of parkour. Sports therapy in general is aimed at helping you recover from, and rehabilitate, injuries you receive during sport, exercise, or other physical activity, to allow you to return first to function, then to performance.
Generally, this will cover physical injuries to muscle, tendon, ligament, or bone. These can be acute or traumatic, as a result of a single incident such as a fall or impact, or chronic, for those aches and pains that build up over time, sometimes without a clear cause. Common injuries may be sprains, muscle strains ('pulled' muscles), joint pain, or even non-painful issues such as a restricted range of motion.
Often (but not exclusively) these problems do not require hospitalisation or serious interventions such as surgery, but may still have large impacts on your health, well being, and ability to take part in activity. Sports therapy aims to provide treatment and rehabilitation through interventions such as massage, manual therapy, and mainly exercise programs. Different sports therapists may focus on or use different combinations of these techniques.
For more information, you can also see this page on the Society of Sports Therapists.
There's a lot of overlap, in terms of the knowledge and skills of therapists from both professions. Physiotherapists might be more involved in therapy following medical events such as a stroke, or a serious traumatic event like a car crash. As the name might indicate, sports therapists tend to focus on injuries and treatments arising from taking part in sports, exercise, and general fitness training. Many also have experience with things like personal training or sports coaching, allowing you to continue beyond rehabilitation into returning to peak performance in your sport. But, these are not mutually exclusive, and many physiotherapists are involved with sports and many sports therapists have treated athletes following serious medical events.
It is important to note that, currently, 'physiotherapist' is a regulated profession (by the CSP in the UK, and by other bodies worldwide) while 'sports therapist' is not. In theory, anyone can do a weekend massage course and name themselves a sports therapist. A process to change this is underway (see here for more detail).
The important thing is that any therapist you choose, regardless of background, makes you feel comfortable, safe, well informed, and secure in their intent to treat you to the best of their ability. If at any point your therapist does not meet these criteria, find a new one.
Oh, and if you're American, you might be more familiar with the term 'Athletic Trainer'. That's basically the UK equivalent of a sports therapist.
Whenever you see a sports therapist, in person or otherwise, they should always start with a 'subjective assessment', asking you a series of questions designed to discover details about your injury before ever touching you. By the end of the subjective assessment, the therapist should already have a very clear idea of your probable diagnosis. Any follow up hands-on testing is usually to either confirm or rule out this probable diagnosis.
By delivering a subjective assessment online, even in situations where the usual follow up tests can't be administered, I should have enough information to at least provide you some guidance regarding your injury. If this isn't possible, or I feel you would benefit from further tests conducted by a therapist or other professional in person, I will advise you of this.
When it comes to treatment, people generally believe that therapists perform some magic hands-on techniques to treat them. In reality these techniques (such as massage) may provide some benefit but, increasingly, patient education, awareness, and a well managed exercise program are being used to effectively treat musculoskeletal injuries. Advice and guidance on these can be delivered remotely. If you are not sure about any aspect of the advice I may give you, you can also seek further guidance from me at any time.
Yes! In fact, the sooner you sort out any little aches or pains, the less likely they are to become more serious problems years down the line. There's no minimum criteria for seriousness of injury you need to meet to book an appointment. Deal with it now.
Maybe, maybe not. I know what traceurs are like; they do their research. You may know more about your own injury than I ever will. But, if never hurts to get a second opinion, especially when it's free, right?
I've said it elsewhere on the site, but I'll say it again - you might just need a nudge in the right direction, or someone to confirm what you might already be thinking. That's fine. I'm not here to impress anyone with my super-secret therapy knowledge. If we jump on a call, you tell me what you think it is, and I agree with you, I'll say so. And that might be all you need.
Ooh. Cheeky. Go on then - if you can get a booking, I'll see what I can help you with. Just don't tell the others.
Currently, 'sports therapist' is not a regulated profession in the same way that, for example, 'physiotherapist' is a regulated profession (by the CSP in the UK, and by other bodies worldwide). In theory, anyone can do a weekend massage course and name themselves a sports therapist. A process to change this is underway (see here for more detail).
However, there are still some membership organisations in the UK that aim to provide standards of practice and act as professional bodies to represent the profession nationwide. The main organisation I am aware of is the Society of Sports Therapists, although others exist (and for other related, but technically different professions such as BASRaT for Sport Rehabilitators). For now, there is not one single source for the regulation of sports therapists or rehabilitators. It would generally be advised to ask any therapist what qualifications they hold and which professional bodies they are a member of, do your research, and make your own informed decision. The important thing is that any therapist you choose, regardless of background, makes you feel comfortable, safe, well informed, and secure in their intent to treat you to the best of their ability. If at any point your therapist does not meet these criteria, find a new one.
As for myself, I have a Sports Therapy BSc (First Class Hons) and a Sport and Exercise Science MRes (Distinction) from London Metropolitan University.
Parkour Clinic:
When I graduated as a sports therapist, it was bang in the middle of the covid-19 / coronavirus pandemic. I also planned to continue studying with a Masters degree the following academic year. This left me with a few summer months where I didn't have anything to occupy my time, and little chance of finding a job or anything similar to fill the void. I was looking for something to do, that used my hard-won therapy skills, but more importantly was also useful.
Parkour has played a big role in my life, changing my career, social circle, and health. It did all this, basically, for free. Starting a free online sports therapy service for the parkour community seemed a good way to give back to something that has given me so much. Once I had the idea, I couldn't at least try it. So here we are.
Short answer: no idea! I'm currently running Parkour Clinic on the back of a few carefully chosen services that offer generous free tiers, allowing me to operate for not much more than the cost of a domain name. But, of course, those free tiers might run out or change. If they do, I'll try and replace them, but we'll just have to see. I do have a tip jar in the form of Buy Me A Coffee so I may also be able to make use of any funds generated through that.
There's also the larger issue of my own free time. My education and career will eventually have to take priority - I'll keep Parkour Clinic going in whatever spare time I have, but I might hit a point where that's not realistic.
Will I want to try and find a way to make a living on Parkour Clinic if that happens? Maybe. My plan is to always have at least something free available through Parkour Clinic. But I might offer paid extras, or something, in the future. I'll be sure to be clear about it if so, along with any changes I'll have to make.
Think of it like a tip jar. If you like what I'm doing and want to support the Parkour Clinic, you can contribute a small amount using the service Buy Me A Coffee.
It's entirely optional, and will probably just go towards the cost of running the site. But I do also love a coffee, so I'll try and use it for that if I can. Either way, I'll be very grateful for any support shown!