A PhD slam dunk
by Michele Nardelli
Dr Quinnette Louw is one of South Africa’s first female PhD graduates in
physiotherapy, but she did much of her postgraduate study here in South
Australia where a passion for sports physio blossomed.
She graduated from UniSA last month and delivered her first public lecture as a Doctor of Ph.ysiotherapy in the same week in Adelaide, the city that nurtured her research and a place she calls a home away from home
And in what must be some kind of creative crescendo she delivered her thesis
and her first child within one fortnight.
Dr Louw studied her Masters in Physiotherapy at UniSA and returned to Cape Town
at its completion, but when she won the UniSA President’s Scholarship for
International Students, there was just one place she wanted to complete her PhD.
With strong support from Professor Karen Grimmer and countryman Professor Kit Vaughan, Dr Louw has completed a unique study into how mind and muscles can be exercised to reduce the incidence of knee injury in young sportspeople.
“In South Africa, since the beginning of our new political system, the fastest growing sport for young people of both genders is basketball,” she said.
“And the most common injury in that sport is knee injury. Every third adolescent between 14 and 18 years old incurs some sort of knee injury. These range from moderate pain to quite acute injuries, some which inhibit or in fact stop participation in sport, and some that even impair normal life function.”
And in a world where people are increasingly less active, Dr Louw believes any advance in helping kids to stay active is important. Building on the idea of neuromuscular control, and after an exhaustive analysis of the way basketball players land using the sophisticated bioengineering laboratories at the University of Cape Town, Dr Louw developed a set of 18 exercises for basketballers designed to minimise injury.
The 20 minute regime concentrates on controlling muscles to protect against forces that are predictable in the game, especially in landing. But her key advice to young players is to focus on landing softly.
“Sportspeople can practice these kinds of techniques in addition to normal training so that they become second nature, and that is a strong factor in reducing knee injuries. It is about getting the mind to work with the body and making that an habitual mechanism while playing basketball.
“If these techniques can become part of mainstream coaching practice I think we can go a long way towards keeping young people playing the sports they love well past their teens – and that is a healthy outcome for individuals and the larger community.”
Dr Louw said she had been especially pleased to find that her research had been validated by a similar study done by Scott Lephart from the University of Pittsburgh in the United States.