Davis Cup Victory
In my previous incarnation as Major Mead RAMC, I was posted to RAF Akrotiri as the clinical and professional lead for British Forces Cyprus’ physiotherapy and rehabilitation team from 2008-10. With Victory Health & Performance in mind, I had already decided that this was to be my last tour and wanted to make it a memorable one.
On arrival, I joined the Limassol Sporting Club where I played tennis. I was made very welcome, and trained regularly with Romanian-born Rares Cuzdriorean, now a naturalised Cypriot, and head coach Jean Dobrescu, who used to coach Marcos Baghdatis.
During my tour, I got to know various members of the Cyprus Tennis Federation – a small world – and they learned that I was a physiotherapist, specialising in sports medicine. However, being British and especially being in the Army (our presence there is not universally popular) I was surprised to receive a call from team captain Yiannos Hadjigeorgeou asking me to provide physiotherapy cover for the Cyprus Davis Cup team for their training camp and match against Egypt in March 2010.
It was amusing, when I turned up on the first day of the camp, to be introduced to Marcos Baghdatis (“Hi, I’m Marcos”) as if I might not recognise him. Throughout my week with the team, he was unfailingly polite, speaking to me and Rares in fluent English and translating when he thought we might not understand the constant hubbub of cheerful Greek. I had been a fan of Marcos’ for some years and was delighted to have the chance to watch him train at close quarters. In common with other top players, awesome anticipation gives him an incredible amount of time on the ball; and perfect timing allows him to use his opponent’s power against him. For a professional athlete he is also unusually relaxed, both on and off court, which led to a superb atmosphere in the changing rooms. One of Marcos’ greatest strengths though is his ability to recover quickly after a match, which he attributes partly to genetics and partly to his attention to staying well hydrated.
The other players in the team were Photos Kallias, Rares, and Christopher Koutrouza. Also working hard were Yiannos and head coach Hugo Fonseca, plus a host of volunteers from the Cyprus Tennis Federation. The match was held at the Spyros Kyprianou Stadium, just outside Limassol, on a specially-laid indoor court, so the players trained at the venue for the three days preceding the match to get a feel for the court and conditions.
As team physio, or φυσιοθεραπέυτρια, I had an access-all-areas pass and sat courtside with the official doctor throughout the matches. On the first day, Friday, the volume of noise in the tunnel was tremendous. Sporting Club’s junior players, supporting their fellow club members Marcos and Rares, had brought their drums and whistles. I felt incredibly proud to watch my hitting partner Rares contest his debut Davis Cup match, and he rose to the occasion. Although he lost narrowly to the Egyptian No 1 Karim Maamoun, he never looked outclassed. Marcos obliterated Sherif Sabry, and on Saturday Marcos and birthday boy Photos won their match to give Cyprus a 2-1 lead. After the doubles, Marcos led the crowd in a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday”. Marcos crushed Mohamed Safwat in the reverse singles on Sunday to give Cyprus the win, leaving Christopher to play the final dead rubber.
Fortunately, I was only required to come on court once, to treat a blister, but as with any sports team, there was plenty of pre- and post-match manual therapy required behind the scenes to get the players properly prepared and recovered.
All in all, it was a fantastic week. To end with a win was a real bonus, and to cap it all, the Cyprus Tennis Federation kindly agreed to donate my fee to the Sirius Dog Sanctuary, a marvellous charity that rehomes stray dogs.
If you would like an appointment with me, please e-mail me.
If you have any other comments or questions, I would love to hear them so please feel free to comment below (I will respond!) or to e-mail me.
Welcome to Victory
Hello, I’m Nell Mead, the clinical director of Victory Health & Performance. Welcome to my blog!
I am a clinical specialist physiotherapist, and specialise in sports medicine and back pain. I have just left the Army after 10 years in the Royal Army Medical Corps. During that time, I did an operational tour in Iraq and travelled all over the world with Army sports teams including rugby, football and tennis. I finished my time in the Army as a Major, in charge of the physiotherapy and rehabilitation team for British Forces Cyprus, where I spent a fantastic two years culminating in becoming the physiotherapist for the Cyprus Davis Cup team. (I was very excited when, the following week, Marcos Baghdatis beat Roger Federer for the first time – obviously all down to my treatment!)
Victory Health & Performance is a new venture. It is an interdisciplinary medical rehabilitation centre, which we will be setting up in London as soon as my team and I can find the right premises. I want to have a team of health and performance professionals (doctors, physiotherapists, psychologists, nutritionists, podiatrists, massage therapists, rehabilitation therapists etc) working together to help our clients achieve their goals, and surpass their expectations with regard to performance in sports and work.
I am setting up the clinical team at the moment, and will introduce the team members gradually. Most of them have a military background, and we plan to maintain our links with the armed forces by treating former service personnel on a not-for-profit basis. Help for Heroes have agreed in principle to subsidise their treatment, so if you meet their criteria then please e-mail me for more information.
The aim of this blog is to introduce you to the Victory concept (of which more, later) and to keep you up-to-date with our latest news. We will be launching the full website soon, which is very exciting, and opening for business as soon as we have proper premises.
In the mean time, I am busy seeing private clients. I consult for Back in Action on Fridays and may also be able to visit you at home if you live in the London area. I am also going to be involved in the next series of School of Hard Knocks plus Sarah Key’s next Back in a Week and the Back Show. My operations director, Sacha Macey is hard at work finding premises and then getting them set up so that we can put our plans fully into action - I’ll introduce her tomorrow.
I will be posting further on these events – watch this space!
If you would like an appointment with me, please e-mail me
If you have any other comments or questions, I would love to hear them so please feel free to comment below (I will respond!) or to e-mail me.
Blog for Victory
Hi, I'm Nell Mead. I'm a former Army physiotherapist and I specialise in sports medicine and back pain. This is my blog, where I write about issues that are on my mind. Some of these are about issues that are specific to particular injuries or medical conditions but I will also be updating you on events occurring inside Victory and in the wider world of medical rehabilitation. I also publish guest posts by Victory's other therapists whenever I can persuade them to sit still for long enough to write something!
When we're not writing, we're offering appointments at The Foundry in Liverpool Street. We'd love to see your comments on our posts - and we'd love to meet you even more, so do pop by and meet the team.