TWIF Event – Helsingborg, Sweden – 2024

Written by Dr. Rob Scott, UK

A snow blizzard hit me as I came out of the station at Helsingborg where I was met and taken to the ironically and optimistically named “Comfort” Hotel. An interesting cold start to my time in Sweden and although the snow abated the weather remained cold and grey – not that it mattered, as we were indoors for the duration of the event.

My colleague, Dr Elena Guisasola, from Spain, flight was delayed and arrived the next day. However, Team FICS had its treatment area in the Helsingborg Arena, which was all set up and ready for the start of the competition. The arena was a huge, spacious area that lent itself extremely well to tug of war. We were placed in the warm-up area, away from all the action and noise and got to work.

We were joined by locals Dr Glenn Ekstrand and Dr Christian Calvert from Sweden, so we had four chiropractors working at the event to support the athletes. It was a surprisingly slow start, but we got busier as the competition went on. A total of 201 treatments were given, and having Basque and Swedish chiropractors made the job of assisting non-English-speaking athletes much easier. The FICS President, Dr Martin Isakson, whose local home is Helsingborg, Sweden, dropped into the event for a day, which provided great support to the team and a chance to meet with the TWIF federation.

TWIF looked after us very well, as usual, and the food at the arena was amazing (more like that, please!). There were the usual tug-of-war complaints of upper and lower spine issues a handful of more complicated cases, and an opportunity for us to share ideas and learn from each other. The “locals”, Glenn and Christian, took us out into Helsingborg and allowed us to sample the local hospitality, which was amazing! Thank you for that.

The injuries remain largely the same, but I still struggle to understand why athletes come to a world event with an injury—it doesn’t happen as much in football or athletics! We recommend that athletes carry on their care, but they obviously don’t all do that. There was an initial reluctance to come and see us at the start of the event as there was a perception that we would make things worse. Obviously, this not what we aim to do! Somehow, it would be better to get across a message that we are there to help and reduce injury and not break people! Perhaps this can be achieved through an educational process by regular articles or case histories or an editorial in the event programme. I think we are missing a small step somewhere!

Our position in the training area was good, but it turned out that teams were going in and out at both ends, and the teams down the far end did not know we were there for a while. However, as the word spread, we got busier, and it all turned out well in the end. The Hong Kong Chinese were so happy with us that they made a special presentation to us. All the Chinese teams were handing out little gifts as it was Chinese New Year!

Thank you to FICS for continually improving their data recording resources. It is important to note that we now record all our Games’ Medical Notes directly on a computer, phone, or tablet, which makes data reporting to the International Federation very quick and accurate.

Thanks again to TWIF for all their help and cooperation and the Swedish Tug of War (Svensk Dragkamp) for supplying medical cover and ensuring we were happy. The Secretary-General, Maaike Hornstra, always looks after us and ensures everything is working for us, and I am grateful for her long-term support.

On a personal note, these events are about meeting new chiropractors, making friends, learning new techniques, and getting ideas about patient management. I always try to give and take as much as possible, and once again, I was not disappointed. I returned to my clinic reinvigorated and full of fresh enthusiasm.

I will be retiring in 2025, so my tenure at Tug of War must come to a close. On behalf of FICS, I have nurtured a good relationship with TWIF over the last 14 years and laid a solid base for FICS to work from. Any future events should run smoothly as all involved with TWIf know the way to support FICS doctors to deliver good outcomes for their athletes. We have comfortably inserted ourselves into “the TWIF family” and are now part of the furniture.

My thanks to the doctors who work alongside me on this event. Thank you, Glenn, Christian, and Elena, and a special thank you to Maaike and TWIF for making it an enjoyable competition. I hope we can all do it again sometime soon. Finally, Thank you to FICS sponsor Dynamic Tape for supplying tape and the Comfort Hotel for redefining our team comfort!

Yours in Sports Chiropractic Dr Rob Scott