Football Australia physiotherapist Dr Stella Veith said that the key to growth as a physio is hard work, reflection, and overcoming a fear of the unknown.
Her advice was offered to CommBank Junior Matilda Talia Younis as part of the OUR GAME x LEGO Mentorship Series, where Younis spoke to professionals from across the football industry.
Veith has worked with the CommBank Junior Matildas for the past four years while completing her PhD focusing on injury prevention in youth elite football.
Originally from Germany, she has also worked in the A-League Women with Sydney FC, and loves helping players to perform at their best.
Read her full conversation with Talia below!
Talia: What’s your role, and what do you do?
Stella: I mainly assess and treat injuries. We also try to help keep players available, so preventing injuries and making sure they can perform.
T: How did you get into the football industry, and why do you love it?
S: Initially, it was because I played myself and loved the game. Now I think it’s a great way to be involved in the game, and help fantastic athletes in a team environment.
T: What do you love about what you do, and why do you do it?
S: I love helping people. As a physio, it’s a great way to help people get rid of pain or perform at their best without medication or surgery.
T: What is one of the main challenges that you face?
S: Uncertainty. We can’t look into people’s bodies, so we have to be comfortable with the unknown.
T: How did you get to where you are today?
S: I like to think hard work, which is easy because I’m so passionate about it. The other part would be taking on opportunities. Very often, I say ‘no’ in my head first, if I know there is something scary coming up, something new. But then, knowing it will help me grow, I say yes.
T: What was the lowest point in your career, and how did you overcome it?
S: As a physio, and just generally, we make mistakes. Maybe we diagnose injuries or treat them in a way that, when we reflect later, we could have done better. With every single injury where you think afterwards ‘I could have done that better,’ that’s a very good reflection point for the future. The other low point is when I was trying to become a physio here in Australia. Getting through that accreditation process was hard.
T: What are the key areas of your role in general, on a day-to-day basis?
S: Monitoring wellbeing, and then dealing with the injuries that are in front of us. There’s lots of communication with athletes and the coaching staff and the other staff that are within a team environment, like sports scientists and doctors.
T: Who got you into physio?
S: My first football coach got me into physio when I was 10. She was actually a physiotherapist, so that got me interested in it.
T: If I wanted to be like you, what would I need to do? I think you have to be very educated and smart.
S: Smart is always one way to go, but you can always study and learn. It should never come down to how ‘smart’ you are, or aren’t. If you want to be it, you can. It’s really important being able to communicate and being empathetic, because you’re dealing with people that you know have pain, or can’t play football, and it’s really hard. Whenever you’re in a place where you feel passionate about something, like football, it makes it easy. Whenever you think you might not have a certain knowledge, just look it up, and you learn.
T: Who was your mentor growing up, and how did they inspire you?
S: That first football coach that got me into physio in the first place, she helped us – from a young age – manage those little niggles. Now it’s just great when you’re watching the CommBank Matildas or other national teams, and you see those female physios and doctors running onto the pitch. I think that’s awesome.
T: Tell us about your physio philosophy.
S: Number one would be education. I would like to think that I’m educating athletes and my patients that they can self-manage their injuries as much as possible, and always looking at the positive side of an injury. It’s about looking at what they can do, instead of what they can’t do.
T: What does it take to be a physio?
S: Hard work, being empathetic, and communicating well.
T: What are some words of advice?
S: I think we can always learn from challenges. Any injury, for example, is just a challenge. We can learn from that and do other things that maybe we wouldn’t get the chance to do if that injury wasn’t there. Always look at the positive side of things while working through that challenge.
T: What traits does a physio or someone in sports science need to have?
S: Being detail oriented. We want to always figure out – especially when we’re talking about professional athletes, or developing athletes – the little things that we can change for the better and to improve. We also need to work really well within a team. It’s similar to you being on a football field - you have 10 players around you. We also work in a team with the coaches and the other sports science and medicine professionals.
T: How important is sports science in the development and growth of the sport, particularly for women?
S: Super important. If we don’t measure or monitor what women are doing, then we can’t see the growth of it. There is a saying out there that women aren’t just small men. We need to find out what specifically we can monitor, or need to find out about women athletes that can help grow the game, but also help increase the performance of that individual. So we don’t just take everything that we know from men, for example how we recover., Instead, we actually build that knowledge base through research and sports science.
T: What does ‘Play Unstoppable’ mean to you?
S: Trying to follow your passion, whatever that might be. That can sometimes be hard if you feel like what you’re passionate about is not your strong suit. But you can still find an area where you can excel!
This discussion was from Episode 3 of the OUR GAME x LEGO Mentorship series. Make sure you check in at ourgameaus.com.au to keep up to date with the episodes as they are released!