This year I became the Physio and Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Men's Volleyroos- the Australian Indoor Volleyball Team. As the team competes to earn an Olympic Qualifying Spot in Rio, I was lucky enough to follow them on this exciting journey.
I headed up to the AIS in Canberra to start immediately, where we had a series of friendly games against China in Brisbane and Canberra. Currently, we are now competing in World League and are in the top pool against Brazil (Ranked 1st), Italy (4th), and Serbia (8th). We lost to Italy in Adelaide in the first two games and are now in Brazil to play the world number 1. We have two games against the Brazilians before we head to Italy to play them again, folllwed by our match against Serbia. We then return to Australia and play in Melbourne on the 4th and 5th of July against Serbia. Following this we play in the Asian Championships in Tehran (Iran) and the World Cup in Japan, both of which are Olympic qualifying events.
I'm loving it very much, it has been super busy being responsible for both their injury management and general health, as well as the strength programs of course but it's very enjoyable.
-Darren Austin, Physiotherapist
