Dr. DL Murphey and four student doctors from newly established St. James School of Medicine in Anguilla have begun an intensive eight-week research project with the Anguilla World Cup Women’s football team coached by Teacher Collin. With the kind permission of Mr. Gerschard, Dr. Murphey and SJSM student doctors Bayaa, Drake, Milano and Khaimchayev began the Hamstring Stretch Protocol with the World Cup team on Thursday, Feb 4.

Medical students in practice sessions

The session was supervised by Teacher Collin. Mr. Gerschard kindly provided the facility of an exercise table for the range of motion measurements to be taken on the players.

The doctors worked with each of the players to enable them to correctly position themselves for a Hamstring Stretch Protocol which Dr. Murphey has performed on intercollegiate teams in the USA at St. Leo’s University, Hillsborough College, Jacksonville University and Edward Waters College over the past three years. The design of the stretch protocol was the idea of Dr. Murphey when he was asked by the National Marathon Team to design a set of stretch exercises that would reduce hamstring injuries. The design has been so successful that not one hamstring injury has occurred when a player has been using the stretch protocol after three weeks. It has added benefits in increasing quickness, evening out stride length differentials, increasing speed and competitiveness. In the last category, the study has seen many of its team participants go on to win trophies; to wit, it produced a state regional visit for the first time for St Leo’s Women’s Tennis Team in 2007, a National Championship for the Women’s tennis team at Hillsborough College in 2008 and a State Championship and Regional placement for the first time for Jacksonville University Rowing Team, the Varsity Eight, in 2009.

“The study is not an easy one,” Dr. Murphey explained. “It requires strict compliance and good positioning to be successful. You can be sure that we will be checking the players for that week to week throughout the study.”

When asked what he thought of the chances of the Anguilla team to successfully complete the study, he replied, “They are no doubt a talented group of players with good skills, but their stretches are not uniform, not consistent. You can tell that through the goniometric measurements that we have taken already and the 60 yd dash - they are not very uniform. But they have some speed, some agility and a good attitude and I expect that they will have a few surprises for us and some of the teams they will face in the World Cup as well.”
It was Teacher Collin who enthusiastically embraced the study once he understood that it had a good chance of reducing hamstring injuries. The World Cup team has had three or four hamstring injuries in recent months and Teacher Collin felt that the study would be both timely and beneficial for the team’s World Cup aspirations.
St. James School of Medicine is on Albert Lake Drive around the bend from Proctor’s. Its first class of medical students were admitted in January, 2010, with 22 students from all parts of the world. St. James has another campus on the island of Bonaire that has been operating for 10 years. The former Dean of the Bonaire campus, Dr. Satheesh Bhat, has come to Anguilla to oversee the start of the new enterprise as the Dean of the Anguilla campus.

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