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Learning about physiotherapy in sport

One important aspect of sporting performance is keeping yourself in the best condition possible to compete, and our Penarth Club had an insight into this with the visit of physiotherapist Dyfri Owen.

Dyfri has over 20 years of experience in sports physiotherapy, having worked for major Welsh sporting institution including the Football Association of Wales, Cardiff Rugby and Glamorgan Cricket, before creating his own practice - Penarth Physiotherapy Practice and Pilates Studio.

Sharing stories from his career

Dyfri joined our Penarth Club members in an engaging session where he detailed some of his experiences working in the sports industry and meeting some of the most influential figures in Welsh sport throughout his career.

Dyfri spoke about working alongside several managers of the Welsh national team including John Toshack, Robert Page and the late Gary Speed and managing the workloads and expectations of players when they played internationally.

He also referenced looking after some of Wales finest players and shared stories of working with Gareth Bale and current Welsh Men’s manager Craig Bellamy during his playing days. Dyfri also shared tales from his early days when he worked with the like of Welsh legends Ian Rush, Dean Saunders and Roy Evans.

Alongside his connections with football, Dyfri also referenced his involvement in other sports including rugby and cricket through Cardiff Rugby and Glamorgan, citing how he also worked with high-profile players such as Jamie Roberts, Leigh Halfpenny and Marnus Labuschagne to help support their physical wellbeing.

Away from supporting some of the best in Wales to play sport at the highest level, Dyfri also detailed to our Penarth members about enjoying playing sport himself and spoke of great pride in recently representing his country, playing football at Over-50s level in the past few years.

Reaction to Dyfri’s visit 

It was a session enjoyed by our Penarth Club, with Peter Owen, one of the Club’s volunteers saying: “Dyfri offered us a unique insight into a different feature of sport we rarely hear about as he spoke about his career in physiotherapy. There were many great stories shared involving some real characters of the sporting world, so we thank Dyfri for taking the time to come and visit us.

Club member Ken commented: “I really enjoyed listening to Dyfri, he spoke very well about his illustrious career and I could’ve listened to his stories all day!”

A big thank you to Dyfri for his visit and we hope he can come back and visit Sporting Memories soon!