Becky Mayo

This episode packs a punch with the brilliant Becky Mayo, who joins us from the Sports Rehabilitation program!

Becky, a former University of Nottingham student, excelled during her time on the Sports Rehabilitation course and now brings her expertise full circle by teaching on the program. Tune in as Becky shares her journey from her experiences as a student, to navigating the transition into the world of work, and ultimately returning to teach.

This is a must-listen episode that offers valuable insights into the student experience, the realities of starting a career, and the rewarding path of giving back through teaching.

Transcript

UNKNOWN: 0:00

So,

SPEAKER_00: 0:10

Hello, welcome back to It's Not Just Physio podcast with me, James Coghlan. We're on episode nine, I believe now. Listeners may well know now that this podcast is designed for its listeners to get to know our wonderful staff and students within the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham. We are now on Spotify and on Apple. So it'd be great if any of you wanted to leave us a review. Hopefully you're enjoying it. And yeah, keep a lookout on the Instagram page as well. You can search for It's Not Just Physio. Now onto the important stuff. Becky, welcome. You've had a busy morning, I believe. Yes, lots of exams. Lots of exams. Well, for those of you who, well, for those of you who don't know Becky, I'm going to let Becky actually introduce herself. Becky, take it away. Tell our listeners who you are, what you do here at the school, and we'll take things on from there.

SPEAKER_02: 0:58

Yeah, so thanks for having me, first of all. So I'm Becky. I'm a sports rehabilitator by trade. Did my university degree in that. And I'm now a teaching associate both in physiotherapy and sports rehabilitation. I'm the year one lead and year two lead at the moment for both courses and also assessment lead at the moment as well. So lots of jobs for me.

SPEAKER_00: 1:21

Quite a busy set of jobs that you got to do. And Becky, where did you do your degree? Was that at Nottingham? Yeah, so

SPEAKER_02: 1:29

I started my degree here in 2015. I was the second ever sports rehab cohort so we were the guinea pigs on the scene. So I did my degree here over the three years and then I also did my masters here over two years part-time. So I basically came to Nottingham and never left, is the summary. And where are you

SPEAKER_00: 1:48

from originally?

SPEAKER_02: 1:49

So I'm from Staffordshire originally, a little place called Cannock. If you ride bikes, Cannock Chase is very popular. So it's only 40 minutes down the road, but it fills quite far sometimes.

SPEAKER_00: 2:01

Service station as well, Cannock services. Yeah, yeah. I always noticed that sort of on the way. Anyway, I digress. So from there, but as you say, actually you significant period of time now in Nottingham, would you sort of classify this as your home now? Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_02: 2:16

I mean, I now live more towards Derby Way, so I'm kind of in the midst of it. I spend a lot of my life in Ilkeston, or Ilsen, as we said earlier. So yeah, I do find every time I go home, I feel like I'm, or home being Canuck, I find I'm moving away from home when I leave Nottingham, so it's definitely become my home.

SPEAKER_00: 2:36

What got you into sports rehab in the first place, Becky?

SPEAKER_02: 2:40

So, I suppose as a lot of people do, I got injured when I was younger. I got thrown off a horse when I was 16, tore my ACL, my MCL and my meniscus. So that was really fun. triad there and I worked with a really incredible physio at the time kind of got put through physio really quickly did it quite intensely because I was just adamant I wanted back to sport rapid and that kind of got me interested in the MSK side of stuff whether that physio or rehab and then when it came to kind of looking at courses and that kind of thing I personally didn't I wasn't interested I wasn't kind of motivated by the other aspects of physio so the rest of the card now I'm a graduate I appreciate it far more for what it is and my interest has grown but as an undergrad or before I started it was very much I want to do just muscle and joints and that's all I want to look at ever and then I suppose from that being exposed to the world I've actually gone actually no neuro is really interesting and cardio is really interesting but that's kind of why I leant towards sports rehab to start with rather than going for the kind of physio degree that was available

SPEAKER_00: 3:50

I'm sorry to hear about that injury, but seeing how your career flourished as well as other things as well you might argue it was kind of a key point in your life

SPEAKER_02: 4:02

yeah absolutely and i think also um i feel like that point in time was really beneficial for me to now look at patients the way i was a patient so um you know i was 16 i was really into my sport and it just felt like the absolute end of the world to be told that i couldn't run i couldn't play netball i couldn't ride my horses um so actually it meant that when i went into sports rehab and I started treating patients I just had this huge empathy and kind of compassion for what they were going through and I'm a big believer that most things happen for a reason and I do think that that was kind of to push me in this direction and make me the kind of therapist that I became.

SPEAKER_00: 4:42

It's interesting you said about that experience you had as a patient and maybe seeing traits in your healthcare professional who helped you. You mentioned sort of care and compassion were there any other things that stood out to you which you thought oh I like that

SPEAKER_02: 5:02

yeah I mean it was just really how the physio at the time kind of got me interested in it so he kind of clocked that I was this really high energy like probably some you know ADHD going on he's like right how do I get this 16 year old to actually listen to what I'm saying and he just did like all like really fun activities the rehab whilst it was kind of key rehab was really engaged engaging um kind of really focused towards my goals um and I just used to go into the sessions I really enjoyed that I did all my I was like the perfect patient I did all my exercises at home probably too much um and I just loved how he'd made that what kind of seemed really scary and really daunting actually something I looked forward to and got excited to tell people I was doing and kind of I'd get up in the morning I've got physio today kind of thing um and I really liked that kind of engagement side of it how do you think he did that I think a lot of it was reading me as a person and my goals I think when I was the patient I didn't really see it but now I'm older and I'm graduated and I've worked in that I can see a bit more but we spent a lot of time talking around like right what do you want to get out of this and as a 16 year old I was like what do you mean I just want to get better like I don't understand why you're asking these questions but now I'm like oh okay he's trying to get where do I want to take this and that kind of thing and I just I really felt kind of treated as an individual individual and someone who for him it wasn't just a yeah let's just tick the box she's stronger now it was like right how strong can we get her and how functional can we get her and um kind of what stages do we need to do to get her back running to get her back riding that kind of thing

SPEAKER_00: 6:42

was horse riding the the key thing you did at the time was that your main event or yeah you did lots of sports

SPEAKER_02: 6:49

so i did lots i did a lot of long distance running um horse riding i actually worked with horses at the time so i took people out trekking so i was kind for my part-time job I had to be able to do it again and then I also played netball I'd started playing for Solihull at a decent level and it was literally like a month after I'd started with them so that was kind of my three key areas horse riding was just the one that we got back to sooner through I will caveat and not get him into trouble he didn't say I was cleared to horse ride I got on on my own accord but my theory was oh my legs aren't on the ground I'm fine so

SPEAKER_00: 7:26

I mean... It's interesting now because I actually think that's probably a real good testament to the quality of care you've got, that you worked that bit out yourself and that you were given maybe perhaps the opportunity and the confidence within your rehab to take that on. Now, we've all been in those situations with patients where they haven't quite read that situation right, but considering it sounds like you obviously look where you went with that now, do you think now looking back on that there was perhaps some layering in there and it enabled you to perhaps understand what was going on. Was that important to you?

SPEAKER_02: 8:03

Yeah, and I think he worked a lot on kind of, he'd always, explain stuff to me not just go do these exercises he did a lot to kind of explain actually the strength around your knee will kind of take off the pressure on the ligaments and actually it means that there's less stress on them so if we can get them really strong so I suppose from my point of view a that's what got me engaged in my rehab because I was like cool I'll do this I'll get better but also it meant that as time went on I was actually I do feel really strong and I think a lot of the fear avoidance that we experience with patients that was never really there for me like I literally hopped straight on a horse the second my leg would straighten and so I suppose from me buying enough it's strong you said it needs to be strong and now it's strong that kind of led me into that a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00: 8:46

We often encourage our students to be able to communicate in what we say layman's terms and actually being a typical 16 year old I think it really emphasises that point doesn't it so how important was that for you to get that understanding it seemed to give you confidence from that.

SPEAKER_02: 9:06

Yeah huge I mean Especially, like you say, being 16, my mum came with me to every appointment. Oh, fair, she probably would still at the Grand Audition of 27 if I asked her. But everything was aimed at me. It was never at my mum. Obviously, he answered questions if she got them, but it was always, right, let's talk to you, get you to understand it. And again, now I'm older and I look back, it was very much he had a respect of it was my body and it was my rehab. And so he could say all the technical terms he wanted, but I needed to understand what was happening to me and I think that was just huge for my rehab

SPEAKER_00: 9:40

yeah So you rehabbed successfully, which must have been nice. So what then happened after that? Is that then after that experience you'd said, oh, you know what, I think I might like to go into this more, or what happened at that point?

SPEAKER_02: 9:59

Yeah, so I think that kind of drew my attention towards it, and I then went on, when I did my PEA level, we had to do, it was like a project, kind of similar at the time, I thought it was like a dissertation now I look back and read it it was absolute garbage but we had to kind of follow a aspect of fitness so I chose aerobic fitness and we had to follow that through a six-week plan and it was not long after I'd done my knee so I still wasn't fully fitness running wise so actually I put a load of like I put my MRIs in there I put my like specialist write-ups everything was in there and that kind of just drove that kind of knowledge a little bit more and I wanted to know more about this knee I wanted to know more about what was going on what had torn what did that mean like what was the so I'm there like on like physio docs or whatever or the Mayo Clinic trying to find it out and I think that kind of spurred that quite a lot for me so then actually when it came to right what do you want to do in your career I was like actually I want to do for someone else what he did for me that's kind of where that spurred it and this idea of kind of wanting to be physically active with my job I've always wanted that kind of activity there's a film and I can never remember what it's called but part one of the characters in it is like a rehabilitation instructor in the military and it's she basically goes for like runs with her patients I was like that's I want to go for runs with my patients and that was kind of what again like those things of what I wanted my life to look like but also what I wanted to get out of a job that kind of all amalgamated towards that kind of career path.

SPEAKER_00: 11:45

So from that, you then saw that, as you say, quite a new course at Nottingham, the Sports Rehab course. So you got onto that. And how did you then find your experience of then sort of studying and doing this full time?

SPEAKER_02: 12:01

I mean, it was a big jump for me. I'd never lived away from home. I'd never really spent much more than like a weekend away from home. And I very much at sixth form was a leave revision to the last second kind of person which is fine because I did all right at sixth form I then came to university and found out it doesn't really transcribe across um so I found it a little bit difficult to kind of get in the swing of actually right how do I learn now um how do I learn while I've got all these distractions because we've got sport and social life and meeting new people and I've got to what do you mean I haven't got my car to get everywhere I've got to walk what's for this public transport um so I found that quite overwhelming to start with I was really lucky the kind of friend group I'd got and then also the support from lecturers this was when we were over at City Hospital so the commute was not very fun at all but I think actually the support system that the university kind of offered by being in the situation I was in kind of helped pull me to the right side of that to actually go yeah I understand how I learn now let's get cracking and go from there

SPEAKER_00: 13:14

I'd don't think there's anything that can really prepare you for university until you're in it yeah and interestingly there are there are some people who sort of they get into that university environment and they it's sort of really they sort of fly they sort of just go through it it's sort of the learning styles they like it's the it's the freedom it's the you know lots of lots of things some people do struggle with that with that transition looking back on it now do you think you're in one of those two camps was a bit of both yeah did you feel you changed over the over the over the years doing it

SPEAKER_02: 13:49

i think it was hard for me at start um just because the way that we were learning was very different to six form so as soon as i could get my head around that i felt like i'd got my feet on the ground a bit more um and i've always been fairly lucky in the fact that i pick practical stuff up quite well so the practical elements i was kind of chugging on that problem it was more the written stuff that i was going i don't know how to write i mean it's impossible um and it wasn't and i until third year that I spoke with one of kind of the student support team and we actually looked and ended up getting me diagnosed with dyslexia so I was like oh that explains a lot of the struggle and so I suppose if I could have looked at that sooner that potentially would have helped me a little bit but equally I think the practical side of things really helped me get my head around things so then when I came to write it I was like okay well I do understand this in a practical level so now let's just figure out how to write it down.

SPEAKER_00: 14:46

I think it's a testament to yourself for using those student support services and also massive congratulations on completing your PGCHE which I know is three years chunky essays and writing so to even sort of be from there to where you are now you should be hopefully you're very proud of yourself for doing that but you know as a student did did as you say did someone sort of spot that there might have been some struggle in there with the essay writing and was that a conversation you had and that's where you were referred on or did you yourself think i'm struggling with this and you went to someone do you remember how that kind of works

SPEAKER_02: 15:28

so i think off the top of my head it was in second year because i got i got the kind of diagnosis uh in third year um or towards the end of second year right before third year and i think i was sat down speaking to one of the lecturers i can't exactly remember who it was And I was just saying, like, I just can't, when I write, it doesn't make sense. And she kind of said, look, let me read this with you because what does this mean? I'm like, well, it obviously means this. And she's like, well, Becky, I can't hear your internal thoughts, believe it or not. They're not that loud. She was like, so I don't understand that part. You need to put that part of your brain on the paper as well. And I was like, but I don't know how. And that was kind of a discussion. She said, look, I don't know what the kind of chain link is, but we need to find it. And that's when student support came in and they did lots of lovely, wonderful tests. And we actually initially did the testing on a computer and everything came back like super clear. Like I had nothing to be picked up. And then I saw the wonderful lady in person. She was like, let me just watch you do the computer test. And as she watched me, she was like, you're doing such weird and wonderful things that compensating so when it was like numbers I'd like do it I'd like tap my fingers or when it was words I like mouth things so she made me then do it in front of her and I just absolutely bombed it didn't get like a single point she was like yeah she was like you're quite dyslexic but she basically I'd picked up ways of coping through through school and that came into university and that's why it had gone unnoticed for so long basically

SPEAKER_00: 17:10

how did that make you feel having been to told that?

SPEAKER_02: 17:15

It made a lot of sense once she said it just because she kind of pointed out things that people would look for and I was like oh yeah I do hide that a little bit and oh okay that does make sense and I suppose there was a part of me that was like angry I'd never been picked up at school but then equally like I did really well at school so I see why it wasn't because there were people that needed the support more so maybe there were people that went oh she writes a bit weird but she gets it so we'll leave her alone. Do you know what I mean? And I kind of get that because schools are limited with their resources and they're not going to spend it on someone that on the surface is doing quite well. So I suppose it just kind of came into, okay, well, I need to now figure out how we go with this. I'm old enough now. Maybe if I was 12, 13, I might have wanted support. But right, how do I manage this now?

SPEAKER_00: 18:06

Do you think even sort of looking back, not knowing that, do you think that might have been an advantage for you at a certain point or do you think I really wish those signs had been recognised earlier wish I had some support

SPEAKER_02: 18:20

yeah I think I suppose it goes kind of both ways I think yes it would have been helpful in the sense of you know there might have been more resources but equally I think when I was younger I was really self-conscious and there probably would be like a sense of embarrassment and that absolutely shouldn't be because there is no there should be no stigma around kind of learning difficulties but I know myself at that age I 100% would have struggled to kind of go oh yeah I have this and I think in a sense not knowing was kind of almost better at the time

SPEAKER_00: 18:54

and I think you make a good point that there's often this is sort of life there are times where we might be able to cope with various things but there might come a point where that accumulation or that strategy as you say are no doubt very clever to create strategies to still performance you have done at really high levels but obviously it came to a point didn't it where it was like these strategies perhaps aren't working anymore but I think that's a healthy thing to say we all at times need to look for something different if a student was listening to this saying that sounds a bit like me what could they do at this point Becky?

SPEAKER_02: 19:37

So I suppose there's different avenues and a lot of it really depends on the student and who they feel comfortable talking to. Obviously, we do have an incredible amount of student services at the university. You only need to take two seconds to Google to find it all. All the student services are available on the website. But equally, I know for students, and it was the case for me, that actually going to someone I didn't know felt a little bit alien. So actually, if it's a case of going to your personal tutor and kind of bringing that up and saying, look, this is how I feel, and it might be that they sign host where you could have found yourself but it's that you've missed that step out of having to find it yourself and they'll give you the more appropriate avenues but equally speaking to any staff that you feel comfortable with you know if you have a particular module lead or a particular lecturer that you think actually I really get on with them that might just be that that's the person you go to you don't have to be a personal tutor that's just kind of a guide if you don't know who else to go to

SPEAKER_00: 20:39

Being a personal tutor yourself, and me as well, but yourself, and being two-year leads in one, how important would you say that is, Becky, for students to use their personal tutors and to use their module leads if they are having problems with a module or something like that?

SPEAKER_02: 21:00

Yeah, hugely important. I think, especially if, say, you're kind of struggling in a module but actually you don't really feel like you kind of click particularly with that module lead or actually the way they've answered the question doesn't really clarify in your head because we all have different ways of thinking then I think actually that's when you go to a personal tutor and you go actually can you help explain this and they might not know the module very well but they understand the university system and they understand learning and they can go from there because I think ultimately the we are looking at the university there's so many different avenues and different people that they go to and I'll always be dead honest with my tutees if there's a question they ask me that I don't have the answer to I'll go look I don't know leave it with me I'll reach out to module lead I'll do my own kind of chatting around the team and then either I can give you the answer or I can signpost you where the answer might be I

SPEAKER_00: 21:58

think that's that's yeah that's great to say I think hopefully we you know when students are listening to this I think it's good to hear from from you and just how how we see it we just want our students to do well and feel supported and i think to to think that there might be some students there struggling um but to know who to go to to know what support services they have i think i think it's really important going back in just going back into your student sort of student life you you got you got to the end of your degree take us take us through what happened there so when you came to the end of your degree how did you feel at that point when when you when you passed and What was the next part of your life? So

SPEAKER_02: 22:42

it kind of went into a huge lovely whirlwind after I graduated. Like I say, I stayed in Nottingham so I was really lucky at the time I lived with my sister. Lucky, maybe not. We didn't get on that well at the time. But yeah, so we lived together and I was able to get quite a few graduate jobs in Nottingham. So I worked in the sports injury clinic at David Ross. I worked at Nottingham Forest. I worked at Derby County. This is all at the same time may I add I was working seven day weeks I was also a waitress in the evening so I literally like seven in the morning till ten at night I was working seven day weeks I don't encourage that to any of the graduates that are listening and burnout's a real thing but it was I just was so excited by the prospect of it and I wanted to kind of get stuck in I was also doing my master's part-time so again what I was learning I was taking into my master's and kind of applying that um and i just really i wanted to get as stuck in as possible um and kind of really really run with it and and just get as much experience as possible

SPEAKER_00: 23:50

i echo what you're saying entirely about that balance and perhaps looking back on it you'd say you know that was a lot of hours yeah i think obviously with the right level of caution here however having all those experiences and being able to time manage.

SPEAKER_01: 24:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 24:13

Would you say obviously there have been many positives in working within those fields and maybe perhaps what it's then given you as a springboard to do since.

SPEAKER_02: 24:21

Yeah, hugely. And even on the overloading point, so August kind of started working. By January, I had managed to kind of whittle it down. I dropped a few things because I acknowledged how much balance is important. So I think almost overloading myself did benefit to figure out that I don't need to or you actually don't perform as well when you're overloaded but yeah I mean I got so much experience from that time and I think when you graduate it's really common to be like oh I don't know what I'm doing and I'm not really sure how to do it and I don't even feel graduated and I have horrendous imposter syndrome so I was graduated and I felt like I shouldn't have even finished first year but actually by throwing yourself in you don't get a choice and you just go do you know I actually do know more than I think I do because I'm seeing this patient and I have quite a few answers for them and I can really look after them and I was really really lucky that I had some incredible patients and some incredible kind of mentors when I started and some really lovely feedback from kind of patients and staff and that just kind of helped build my confidence around it and it kind of gives you that no I do I do know what I'm doing and I definitely should have a degree.

SPEAKER_00: 25:41

Well I'm glad you saw it at that point but I think that's what keeps you humble but but I think what's so evident is how hard working you are. And I was going to say, working for Nottingham Forest, Derby County, I would say in a lot of rehabilitators, physios in these professions, those jobs, there's a lot of people who want those jobs. Hard to come by. So how did you get in there and do it? I mean, you're clearly good, there's no question on that, but that's not always enough though, is it?

SPEAKER_02: 26:15

Yeah. I do, so pretty much all of my graduate jobs were from my performance on placement. So my David Ross job, I'd been on a third year placement. They had kind of a part-time hours that came up and they needed someone and they basically were like, look, we want you to come and do it. So that was kind of that route in. Forest, I again had done a, I think a third year placement there as well. Kind of done really quite well on the placements But one of the things that my educator picked up was I didn't have the highest mark of the people that had been on placement. Like, you know, it wasn't 100 out of 100. He was like, but your kind of attitude and the way you dealt with the athletes and your kind of like rapport and your professionalism. He was like, all of that, come back, we'll, you know, get you in. And then my Derby County, that was with the girls RTC. And that was actually through Rachel Royer. And that was from the feedback she'd been given of me on placement. And when they needed a sports rehabber to fill a role, she was like, I know the one. So it's not a who you know, but it kind of is a little bit, but it's more who you know for what reasons. Because I think sports rehab is such a small little circle and physio within its senses as well, the sports side of the MSK side of physio. It's not just the connections, it's the reason you have those connections.

SPEAKER_00: 27:41

I think you make an excellent point. I want to just dissect a little bit of what you said within that but before I go into that I think you make an excellent point because I think sometimes it's I think there is a misunderstanding where someone may say oh well Becky got that because she knew Rachel Roy but ultimately as you say just knowing someone's not enough and there's always that person on the other side of it and it's their reputation as well so if they're going to recommend make a recommendation sometimes that's all they can do it's sort of opening the door but you have have to walk through that, don't you? And you have to go through that and perform. Getting told, even though you didn't get 100 on a placement or whatever, but being told that actually you have these brilliant qualities, how did that make you feel when hearing

SPEAKER_02: 28:34

that? Again, I think it comes back to that imposter syndrome where it gnaws at a little bit and you go, oh, actually, okay, I do get that. And I think as well for me as a student, especially, and kind of as I went into graduation, my lab reports were never an A. My My written stuff was never that good, but my practicals, I was always hitting A's, I was always hitting good marks. And I think that kind of got solidified when I started working and people were like, yeah, you might not be able to write the most comprehensive, perfect notes, but actually the way you treat that patient is what we want. So I think it started to make me realise that actually it was okay that I had the weaknesses because I also had strengths that kind of pulled me through to that.

SPEAKER_00: 29:22

Yeah, and I think that's really, you know, just for clarification, we're not saying to anyone not to focus on their written assignments or anything like that. However, I think what you're saying, Becky, is really evident and true that, yeah, doing assignments is great and if that's something that you're good at, fantastic. However, you know, we all have skills in different areas and even if you might have favourable skills in a particular area, You've still got to work at those. Going into football, you know, I mean, considering the rivalry even between Forest and Derby is one thing, so even being able to hold yourself going into two clubs with quite a rivalry would have taken another set of skill set. But then also going into clinical work at the David Ross, which is a really good practice, that's different because there's different mechanics on how that is. So there's obviously quite a lot of an emotional intelligence there, isn't there?

SPEAKER_02: 30:18

Yeah, I think, like you say, your attitude in terms of how you approach it has to be so different like I know working with sports I'm now working a lot of rugby and still a bit of football quite high level kind of with college level my attitude for those two groups of people are so different because I know with my kind of high performance England girls I have to be a little bit more kind of gentle with how I put stuff across and not because they're you know soft people by any means but it's they don't need that harsh attack with things they don't need look you need to be doing this they kind of they you can communicate on a slightly more kind of softer level whereas then when you're working with kind of higher level football and rugby especially in male sport I do find you have to be that little bit more stern with it especially being a female in male sport you do kind of have to assert yourself a little bit because there's that kind of well you know we're the big men we'll kind of we'll do what we want and I'm really really lucky that all the coaches I work with in rugby are like, you listen to Becky. Becky, you do what Becky says. So I've kind of got that kind of level of difference. But then, like you say, you walk into a clinic and actually you've got Deirdre and she's terrified and actually you turn into a completely different person. And I kind of always bring it back to when I used to work with horses when I was younger. My boss was incredible. But one of the things she used to say, she was like, whatever's going on at home, whatever's going off, I don't care. You don't bring it in. We were a very kind of tourist, people-faced business. So she was like, you put a smile on and you deal with what's in front of you. And so I think that kind of came through into my rehab quite a lot of, it doesn't matter where I've just come from, who I've just treated, the person in front of me needs their level of attention. And you put a smile on and you deal with it.

SPEAKER_00: 32:15

But you're right, there is often this sort of, there's an argument, well, it's not an argument, there is a professionalism that you need to display in this career. And it often is not good when, and I've seen it, and I'm sure you've seen it, when there are people in the healthcare profession and their job is to help protect patients, help patients, and that line gets crossed and something personal comes into that space, plus the patients sometimes in an incredibly difficult and confusing situation within that. But based on these multiple skills you've got in working in different areas, again, if a student is listening to this, would there be any advice you could give to a student to enable them to develop these skills? I mean, they'll get some obviously through clinical placements, won't they? But is there anything else they can do that you think might help? Yeah, so I

SPEAKER_02: 33:12

mean, one of my biggest advice to students, and it always is, is like put yourself into opportunities so quite often things or you know you'll get an email out oh we need a student for this we need a student for that um go for them obviously if you're available but um i've had a couple of students come with me to some events recently where they've kind of done massage um kind of some running events some jiu-jitsu events um and it's they're different environments and the students have had to adapt to it um and their feedback has been like oh a it was so enjoyable and b i feel like i got so much more out of than just practising on my friend in a practical lesson so yeah I suppose my biggest advice is always talk yourself into it even if you don't think actually I don't feel massively confident that's why whoever supervising you is there and will kind of guide you through it and even to the point where we've had students learning off other students at these events like you know when we're a bit quiet they'll be chatting and they'll be like oh do this and do this and so actually just exposing yourself I think for me is one of the biggest things you can't learn a practical environment from a textbook

SPEAKER_00: 34:18

I think it's an excellent piece of advice and yeah I echo with you that I think often that you know there can be nervousness of course when we think oh I don't know we have that sort of inner narrative to try and talk us out of doing something but you've been able to testify with some of your experiences and you know that actual fact by if you hadn't have gone in and done that and put yourself out there and okay I'm gonna you wouldn't have got these other experiences as a result

SPEAKER_02: 34:50

yeah yeah absolutely

SPEAKER_00: 34:52

so you did your degree you did a masters as well and when did you then start to think oh you know what I think I might I might go into a bit of this bit of this teaching stuff when did that all come about

SPEAKER_02: 35:06

so that was actually Sinead Lodge's fault no it's not her fault bless her I the job came up basically the job I do now and I was working for Sinead at the sports injury clinic at the time and for those of you that don't know she's currently the the lead of the clinic but she used to work here as a lecturer as well and I just kind of brought it up as I've really when I was the first kind of proper job I wanted after professional horse rider and was I wanted to be a PE teacher and so I've always been interested in teaching and kind of educating and so I kind of said to her I'd love to do this eventually and she was like why eventually and I remember going because I couldn't do it now I don't know enough

SPEAKER_01: 35:47

and she was like shut

SPEAKER_02: 35:48

up just apply for it she was like you're more than capable of doing it you teach students on placement all the time um just just go for it um and so I did just go for it and here we are basically long story short um but yeah I'd always had an interest in education and I knew eventually I wanted to go into it um so it was kind of right place right time really a little bit um in that I was in a position where I was really interested in that I really enjoyed that part of the clinic and actually I knew that just because I went into education doesn't mean I have to go away from sports rehab so I do still treat on weekends the odd kind of bits of pieces so I still work with rugby and football so I never had to leave it completely which was the beauty of it

SPEAKER_00: 36:36

Yeah and I think it's only a positive that that's exactly what you did do and look at what you're now achieving within the school and I think we've talked on previous episodes on the podcast about you know trying staff students to try and create what we call this work-life balance some believe we can't ever really get that balance it's not this moment where we go I feel really balanced but we try our best don't we to try and do that so what things do you like to do outside of work Becky that perhaps give you that balance or give you some interest or recharge yeah it depends on

SPEAKER_02: 37:14

the class's balance I'm not sure what sleep is anymore yeah so I kind of have a very active life outside of work I can't remember the last time I sat down for more than 10 minutes one of my biggest things I've got I've got a wonderful dog Diggy he's a 50 kilogram ginormous goat and he is my pride and joy so at least two hours a day I'm out walking him so he's a huge part of me actually bringing my brain back to where it needs to be because of can't think about anything else because he's got his face in my face um so he's like a big big love of mine um and then one other thing is i do jiu-jitsu so i compete in jiu-jitsu um internationally and nationally um and i do my sc for jiu-jitsu so if i'm not walking the dog i'm sweating probably

SPEAKER_00: 38:05

and you know you're incredibly high high level with the jiu-jitsu and i mean some might argue that's not probably the most relaxing of activity but you seem to genuinely love it and love the competition side of things. Have you got anything coming up that you're training for?

SPEAKER_02: 38:21

Yes, so I fly over to America in two weeks for the Worlds. So I go for that at the GF Worlds. So I've got the British next weekend actually before I go to that. So British week, I say week off, I'll be training over in America and then the Worlds, which is just incredibly exciting. I'm obsessed with the sport. It's insane.

SPEAKER_00: 38:43

How long have you been doing jiu-jitsu

SPEAKER_02: 38:45

So about three years now, so I'm still kind of new-ish to jiu-jitsu. So I'm a blue belt. So as it goes, it's white, blue, purple, brown, black. And jiu-jitsu belts are quite different to other belts. You don't get them for being in a certain amount of time. You don't get them for, you don't pass tests to get your belt. It's about kind of your performance and improving. It takes on average over 10 years to get your black belt. So it's not a speed appropriate test by any means. I got my blue belt when I was in high school. last year yeah about just over a year ago year and a half ago um so i've been training as blue belt for three and a half now um and it's just yeah it's just taken over my

SPEAKER_00: 39:28

life is that going to be your long-term aim to get black is that what you're aiming for yeah

SPEAKER_02: 39:32

so my snc coach when i very first time i met him he he's a jiu-jitsu athlete himself um he the very first time i met him he was like right what your goals and i was like oh i want to get strong i want to do that and he was I was like, no, what are your goals? And I remember being kind of dead sheepish and I was like, look, and he was like, have no judgment I said I want to be black belt world champion and he was like ace I want to work with you and that's kind of how it kind of started and actually saying that out loud was okay yeah I do have big goals for myself and I think it's completely valid to actually push myself towards those goals so this blue belt was the first step

SPEAKER_00: 40:14

that's amazing and look listeners heard it here first you know when I know that you're you'll get there. Do you feel like, I've spoken to people before, I've done martial arts, worked with people, and quite a lot of them say martial arts can often give them a structure. There can often be quite a lot of the disciplines within the martial art that can give them that commitment. You can't really go into jiu-jitsu half-hearted, half-prepared. Would you agree with that? Would you think there's some of those things from your life so far suit the jiu-jitsu model and vice versa? Yeah,

SPEAKER_02: 40:53

massively. I mean, when I first started, I was training in maybe twice a week and it would kill me off and then when I first started competing at a white belt my coach was like look you need to train more because you can only get better at Jiu Jitsu by doing Jiu Jitsu you can't go for a run and get fitter so like my coach before said the only way to get fitter for Jiu Jitsu is to do Jiu Jitsu and so I was like right okay train more cool we got up to like five days a week and then when I went I went to Euros as a white belt won Euros as a white belt got promoted and he was like look just to let you know blue belts train even harder and I was going

SPEAKER_01: 41:27

harder

SPEAKER_02: 41:28

than how and it literally is to the point now where I've got some form of training seven days a week twice a day on some days when I tell you it takes over my life it takes over my life but you just have to you can compete without training that much but if you want to compete well if you want to get the medals if you want to do well there's only one way to do it and there's sometimes a bit of a joke at my club where they're like leave some goals for everyone else because I have done really well over the last few years but everyone that kind of jokes about it is like no but if you're on the mat we can guarantee she's on the mat and that's kind of been my energy towards it is I need to go into it with such a focus that I know walking on that mat I've trained harder than everyone else in it kind of thing

SPEAKER_00: 42:18

and I think that's a really great thing to touch upon in that you know as you say coming down to what people's goals expectations are in life we all have different ones yeah some people will be um i used to do martial arts many moons ago and there was a chap always remember him and he was he was stuck on i'm pretty sure it was third brand you know karate it was like third brown got you but he was stuck on it for about i'm not about five years he never and it was like he just went every every yeah and there was this thing about like is he is he ever gonna go is he ever gonna go for that one and I think he just I'd love to have gone back and asked him more about it but you know he was sort of there there there and then I think eventually he did do it and everyone gave him this big round of applause when he came in but you know actually the fact was is even if he stuck on there would have been no that wouldn't have been a disservice or anything to want to do but I think what you've said in terms of there are sometimes those particular top top levels that level of dedication and discipline You need to be to be the best. I mean, it's apparent from what you're saying, you know, to get there, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02: 43:31

And I think it's, you know, our clubs, it's an amazing club. I train in Ilkeston, Grace Barrett, Ilkeston. And we have the biggest variety of people. We've got people that have got families and jobs and they train once a week and that's absolutely fine. And, you know, that's the best that their life kind of can support. Well, that's what they want to do, which is fine. And then you've got the rest of like, you know, the kind of middle ground that training kind of two three four times a week and then you've got the psychopaths like me and and and us lot that we go to worlds sorry we go to to euros and and that kind of level um and it's a case of okay well no you don't have to compete at that level but if you want to then you have to train at this level that's the kind of way around it is um so everyone is supported for every kind of goal um and my coach always says he'll come he will support anyone's goal regardless how big small whatever but you then have to put in the appropriate amount of shift as well

SPEAKER_00: 44:32

I think you just remind me of another story but I think what you're saying is often that clear goal if your coach at the beginning when he was trying to get that answer from you what are we working towards here if he hadn't let you get that clarity you might argue that these next things might not have happened and that's how it takes us back into rehab sometimes isn't it how how often do we say when you're working with patients, actually having that goal is so, so important. Because otherwise the treatments can just drift, can't they?

SPEAKER_02: 45:07

Yeah, massively. And I think we've had a lot of chats before about obviously I push myself hard, but also my coaches push me appropriately hard. And quite often my S&C coach will go, I only push you this hard because I know what you want. I wouldn't push someone else this hard. And I think like you say that transfers into physio and rehab because actually if someone's goal is right I just want to be able to go for a walk with my dog then actually the intensity and the kind of what you want back from them might not be as much whereas if you've got a patient that's like right I want to get back to professional football if they've come in and they've not done their exercises for three days you're going to go I thought you wanted it

SPEAKER_01: 45:47

yeah but you

SPEAKER_02: 45:47

clearly do you know I mean like you're the way you approach it can be very different and almost not harsh but that much more like this is the reality if you don't do it we're not going to get to there whereas you know barbara that wants to walk her dog if she comes in and she's not done her exercises because she's been busy that's fine you know we understand life gets in the way professional sport you don't get that choice life can't get

SPEAKER_00: 46:09

in

SPEAKER_02: 46:09

the way i mean and you change it according to that

SPEAKER_00: 46:12

yeah absolutely and i think yeah you're absolutely spot on i think a clear goal but clearly setting expectations of you know if you want this yeah You're going to have to do this, this and this. And if you don't do this, this and this, I'm sorry, but you might fluke it and end up doing this. You might do it. You're probably not going to do it very well. You're probably not going to do it very consistently. You're probably not going to be able to do it again. I often think of marathon runners from my experience. Some of them are so, like yourself, so committed and their training is great. And they often don't have any real problems leading up to the race, do the race well. And they can go again, do another marathon, the deck know next week or whatever but you do see some where that might be the goal and oh yeah all that prior bits all over the place and it can be a really difficult thing to manage can't it yeah hugely

SPEAKER_01: 47:04

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 47:06

Becky, I'm just conscious on your time. I know you're going to have to go, but it's been amazing speaking to you. The last thing I just want to ask is if you could give a little bit of Becky Mayo advice out to the world, it could be some student advice, it could be life advice to people listening, it could be something you hold to you that gives you strength and motivation. Is there anything that you want to share that people can listen to on that?

SPEAKER_02: 47:31

Yeah, I suppose kind of twofold a little bit. One is how you look after yourself upon is how you look after other people. How you look after people, I think one of the biggest things to note, whether this is rehab, whether this is life, whether this is friends, you don't know what someone else is going through. So I think you know when you're approaching patients don't assume don't assume that their life is x y and z don't assume that they want x y and z like we've said go after kind of individual goals and treat people as individuals and that kind of aspect and I think generally people respond a lot better to you if you approach them with that attitude rather than well my day was hard so I'm going to be like this actually you don't know what that person's day was and therefore you know treat them appropriately and then the other thing kind of about yourself is I think A you've got to treat yourself with kindness just as you would everyone else but I think there's a certain level of finding the balance between pushing and looking after and I think that's different with everyone you know just because someone pushes themselves X amount of hard doesn't mean you have to it kind of comes down to what like again it's what your goals are at the end of the day and me and my coach kind of have a saying like how much do you want it I absolutely hate paper cuts there's a reason I'm saying this I hate paper cuts they stress me out and we were chatting before about what's worse than my knee injury I was like a paper cut obviously and we've got a saying now of like how much do you want it paper cuts I want it paper cuts so I suppose find your own paper cuts because everyone's will be different you know your level of how bad you want something is different but yeah kind of have that in your head and write how bad do I want it and if I want it bad I

SPEAKER_00: 49:22

want it paper cuts love it Becky thank you so much thank you for having me it's been

SPEAKER_01: 49:31

great thanks