Gladesville, We Have a New Physio: Meet Seth

Gladesville, we have a new physio

Seth has joined the SportsFit Health & Rehab team at Gladesville, in clinic Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. He's a physiotherapist and strength coach who has spent most of his working life around court and field sport, and he still plays at international level himself.

If you've been putting off getting a shoulder, knee or ankle looked at, here's what he does and what an appointment with him actually looks like.

Background

Seth completed his Bachelor of Physiotherapy in Canberra and has since worked inside high-performance programs around Australia, including the NBA Academy, Brumbies ACT Rugby and Manly United Football Club. Those roles covered day-to-day injury management, rehab progressions, recovery planning and strength and conditioning programming — the unglamorous work of getting athletes through a season and back onto the court or field after something goes wrong.

He also coaches at Sydney Grammar School, working with the volleyball program as both a volleyball and strength and conditioning coach. A lot of that is teaching teenagers how to jump and land properly before they start adding volume.

Seth is a current member of the Australian National Volleyball Team, the Volleyroos. Playing at that level means he knows first-hand what a heavy block of jump training does to knees and ankles, what a mid-season shoulder niggle feels like when you still have to serve, and how frustrating it is to be told to rest with no plan attached.

Who tends to see him

Seth sees a broad mix at Gladesville:

• Court and jumping athletes — volleyball, basketball, netball — with patellar tendon pain, ankle sprains, shoulder pain from overhead loading, and lower back irritation.

• Field sport players from rugby, football and AFL dealing with hamstring, groin, calf and knee problems, and anyone working through a return-to-play progression.

• Runners and gym-based lifters with load-related pain that flares when training volume jumps.

• People who aren't athletes at all: neck and back pain from desk work, shoulder pain that's been grumbling for months, post-surgical rehab, and anyone who wants a structured strength plan rather than a vague instruction to keep active.

You don't need a referral, and you don't need to be competitive to book. Plenty of appointments are people who simply want to know what's going on and what to do about it.

What a first appointment involves

Expect a conversation before anything else. Seth will ask what happened, when it started, what makes it worse and better, and what your week actually looks like: training sessions, game load, gym work, shift patterns, sleep. Load history explains a lot of pain that appears without an obvious injury, and it's usually where the useful information sits.

From there, the assessment is hands-on and movement-based. Depending on the area, that might include:

• Range of motion testing and joint assessment

• Strength testing, often with a handheld dynamometer or measured against your other side

• Watching you move in ways that matter to your sport — squatting, hopping, landing, single-leg control, overhead reach

• Specific tests to narrow down which structures are involved and rule out things that need imaging or a medical opinion

Treatment in the same session may include manual therapy, soft tissue work, dry needling, taping or bracing, and specific exercise prescription. These are approaches used to help manage symptoms and support loading, and Seth will explain what he's using and why rather than doing something to you without context.

You should leave with a working explanation of the problem, two or three things to do between now and the next appointment, and clear guidance on what to keep doing in training and what to modify.

Rehab and return to sport

Seth's rehab plans are criteria-based rather than calendar-based. Instead of "six weeks and you're right", the plan sets out what you need to demonstrate before the next step: full range, strength within a certain percentage of the other limb, tolerating a certain hop or landing volume without symptom flare, then contact or match exposure.

For jumping and running athletes, that usually means gym work under real load, plyometric progressions built up in stages, and a graded return to sport-specific volume. Reducing the risk of the same thing happening again is part of the plan, not an afterthought.

Recovery timelines vary a lot between people and injuries, and anyone who tells you an exact date on day one is guessing. What Seth can do is reassess at regular intervals, show you the numbers he's tracking, and adjust the plan when progress is faster or slower than expected. If your response isn't what he'd expect, he'll say so and consider imaging or referral to a GP or sports doctor.

When to get something looked at

Worth booking if:

• Pain has hung around for more than a week or two without clearly improving

• You're modifying training, dropping sessions or changing technique to cope

• Something swelled, gave way, locked or you couldn't weight-bear after an incident

• Pain wakes you at night, or you have pins and needles, numbness or weakness

• You've had the same injury before and want a plan rather than another cycle of rest and relapse

• You're heading into a season or an event and want your strength and movement checked while things are calm

Anything involving a significant head knock, an obvious deformity, chest pain or rapidly worsening neurological symptoms needs urgent medical assessment first.

Booking at Gladesville

Seth is at the Gladesville clinic on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Saturday appointments suit people who play weekend sport and want something looked at close to when it happened, or early in the week when a Sunday game has left its mark.

Bring or wear clothing you can move in. If you've had scans, reports or a surgeon's rehab protocol, bring those too. If your issue is running or gym-related, bring your usual shoes and a rough record of your recent training volume.

If you would like it assessed, you can book a free injury assessment.