The Club’s Youth Academy has a wide variety of departments with the goal of helping advance and streamline the development of young players. One of those is the Medical Department headed by Snir Konik, who we will get to know a bit more in the article below. On the agenda: the structure of the department, its activities and programs, the importance of the staff’s work along with tips from the head of the department on how to maintain a healthy body and prevent injuries.
There are 2 physiotherapists, a masseuse and paramedic that work alongside Snir Konik so that the department can give optimal attention to each and every player that requires it, whether they are in the South or North Branches or if they are players on the Under-19 or Under-10 or any team at Maccabi. As far as the staff is concerned there is no difference between players and they will do their utmost to get them back on the pitch. The Club has given the coaches and players a mandate that training sessions must be as close as possible to match conditions as the role of the department is to make sure that injured or ill players return to action as strong and as healthy as possible in order to minimize the risk of future injuries.
The medical department provides every player in any age group support whether they are ill or injured and will guide them through proper rehabilitation in order to return to training and game action. The department’s role is also to make sure that a player doesn’t return to soon so that the injury won’t reoccur and ensure that they return to their teams stronger than before and ready to train at a level of intensity that is demanded at every training session. When a player is injured, they are not in their routine training sessions and can only return once they will be able to handle the demands that are expected of them.
Players that are in rehabilitation do so in conjunction with the Sports Science Department headed by Dr. Antonio Dello Iacono and use anthropometric monitoring that gives the following player information including, height, weight and other information that help indicate the injury or stress in order to help find the best possible treatment.
In addition, the Club also puts an emphasis on educating the younger generation as one of the roles of the Medical Department is Medical-Sport education. The goal is to change the players’ approach to injuries and pain (from passive to active), taking care of oneself, preparing the body for training or a match, keeping fit and maintaining a healthy body for the next training session.
The department works in full cooperation with the Senior Team’s Medical Department and when necessary can seek medical advice through the Club in order to give the best and most complete treatment as possible.
The Medical Department for the most part operates behind the scenes. Players and parents are only aware of the department when a player is injured or ill. In reality, there are many issues that need to be solved every day, week and month so that the Club’s medical Department operates to its full potential. Snir Konik, who is in charge of the Medical Department described the tasks at hand: “I go home exhausted every day, but completely satisfied by reaching both my personal and departmental goals with every player as they take another step towards getting back on the pitch.”
Konik also shared information about injury prevention: “You can’t completely prevent injuries. You can divide them into two categories, injuries via contact (trauma) and without contact. A traumatic injury can be from a tackle and it’s very difficult to control and avoid such an injury as it’s part of the match. However, a non-contact injury is a totally different story and these are the types that we want to minimize as much as possible. My advice is that if a player has a doubt about his physical fitness, he should go to the physiotherapist or another medical staff member and openly consult with them. In addition, if you are aware of a certain sensitivity in the body it’s very important to consult the medical staff so that they know how to deal with it and prevent the injury from happening again. Keep your body in the best possible shape because if this is the profession you have chosen you need to respect and care for your body and sleep properly as well.”
Konik continued, “Our body has no spare parts. Take good care of it, appreciate what you do, stay focused and most importantly always be positive. Being positive doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is always perfect but it’s the ability to see the goodness in every situation even though it may not be perfect.”
