By SEPNZ President Blair JarrattEDITORIAL

Welcome to our last bulletin for 2019.

We are keeping with tradition and making this edition our Student Special. Over the last number of weeks, our physiotherapy schools and employers have been preparing to welcome the newcomers to our profession. Congratulations to our 2019 graduates from AUT and Otago, we hope you have a great time and come back in 2020 refreshed and eager to start your career. Congratulations to our SEPNZ winners Kirsty Burrows from AUT and Sophie Maxtone from Otago.

Kirsty was a member of the NZ U24 Women’s Underwater Hockey Team who won gold at the Age Group World Championships earlier this year. In addition to her sporting success, Kirsty achieved excellent grades throughout her physiotherapy degree. Well done Kirsty.

Sophie completed a national surveyon how physiotherapists are involved in the recognition, assessment and management of concussion in New Zealand. This topic continues to grow, and now more than ever it is important that as physiotherapists we are part of the team helping with recognition, treatment medically and with key funders. Great topic Sophie!

As this issue is all about celebrating our students, we have two excellent articles submitted from Otago University. Budi Pranjoto has provided an excellent article as part of his post graduate Sports Physiotherapy paper exploring function and strength and the interplay between these variables post ACL reconstruction. This essay is a great read and will really get you thinking about strength and functional testing of clearance for sport and or the risk of ACL re-rupture. Thomas Warburgh completed a literature review for his Otago Sports Physiotherapy paper on patellofemoral pain in runners. This is a common problem seen clinically and Thomas's review explores potential risk factors and strategies targeted at reducing these - including a handy diagram.

This bulletin the executive focus is on Emma Lattey who is the newcomer to our team, and she has also provided the recent app reviews. This month Emma has picked out a clinical gem with an APP review on the Ottawa rules. This APP looks highly useful for all clinicians and is again free so head over to the app store and download this one straight away!

Earlier this year we, as part of our SEPNZ –ASICS prize, sent Lee-Anne Taylor to the Sunshine Coast. Thanks Lee-Anne for the excellent round up of your time away at the ASICS Sports Medicine Australia conference on “Exercise is Medicine”. We are glad you found the content and destination an amazing experience. Members keep your eyes out for next year’s prize trip and applications for the ASICS grants which are part of our ongoing sponsorship arrangement. All you runners out there (or those of you that treat runners) should read Chris Bishops article on page 14 - courtesy of ASICS. There are some interesting points on dual density shoes and every runner likes a performance benefit with no extra effort. recommend looking at our SEPNZ courses, particularly the Sideline Management course. A very hot course for 2020 we will be running a pilot Australian Physiotherapy Association level 1 course which is part of the pathway to an APA titled Sports Physiotherapist. We have dates for a Lower Limb in Sport and are looking to run our Injury Prevention and Sports Enhancement early in 2020, there are plenty of options. More information on these courses and dates can be found on page 40 of this bulletin.

The Executive and Education Subcommittee would like to extend a huge thank you to our departing Education Subcommittee members Angela Cadogan and Chris Whatman. Their contribution and commitment to developing and providing fantastic Sports Physiotherapy education to our members over the years had been instrumental in our ability to deliver quality Sports Physiotherapy content to members. A special thank you must go to Angela who steered the ship for several years as chairperson. We will miss them both but wish them well with their future endeavors.

So, when all is said and done - kick back and relax with some light reading from SEPNZ. From all of us here at the SEPNZ Executive - Merry Christmas, enjoy your holidays with family and friends, stay safe and we will see you back in 2020. Over and out.

Kind Regards BlairJarratt SEPNZ President