This week’s episode is with Kevin Feely of Kildare Senior Football team.
Kevin finds himself in a unique position given that he also has experience playing professional soccer in England with Charlton Athletic and Newport County.
Kevin pursued a career in Athletic Training and Therapy and now runs his own therapy clinic in Tallaght, Kevin Feely Athletic Therapy. Kevin also has a Masters in S&C which gave us a lot to talk about.
Kevin is currently rehabbing a serious injury, as he unfortunately suffered an Achilles rupture earlier this year. He spoke about his rehab from his full reconstruction and the unique position he finds himself in as both a sports medicine practitioner and patient.
We talked about Achilles rehab and the communication aspect of therapy and rehabilitation. We spoke about the importance of goals, metrics and reaching out to other therapists for help.
We also touched on the power of self-talk and visualisation in sports therapy and sports performance.
We discussed his confidence on the field of play and how he gets himself in the best mental position to perform come game-day.
Before we finished up Kevin also spoke about the interesting differences between the atmosphere in GAA dressing rooms and professional soccer dressing rooms, along with why he finds himself to be entirely more comfortable in the former.
You can find out all necessary information about Kevin Feely Athletic Therapy over on kevinfeelyathletictherapy.ie or on Instagram via @kevinfeelyat
Time-stamps
5:25 - Kevin’s achilles rehab
7:45 - Having an injury as an Athletic Therapist
17:30 - Learning from injury
21:40 - Controlling return to play with ease
27:10 - Collaborative planning with clients
31:20 - Empathising with clients
33:30 - Kevin’s client and follower demographic
38:00 - Setting up his business outside his local area
42:30 - Visualisation
48:10 - Kevin’s rehab goals
52:00 - Confidence
1:00:35 - GAA VS professional soccer environment
