Colin Lewin – Soft Skills in Professional Sport – Injury Rehab Network

The second Injury Rehab Network event in October 2024 with BASRaT featured a presentation from Colin Lewin. The online event took place on the evening of Thursday, 24th October, with 170 sports rehabilitation practitioners in attendance.

Colin shared insights from his 30-year career in sports medicine, and considered the importance of effective communication, organisational and leadership skills. The recording is available to watch here.

Colin Lewin, Chartered Physiotherapist

Colin qualified as a Chartered Physiotherapist from the University of Brighton in 1995, before joining Arsenal Football Club later that year as assistant physiotherapist. In 2008, he became Head of Medical Services at Arsenal Football Club and remained in that role until May 2018.

In that ten-year period, Colin oversaw the evolution and development of the medical team supervising a staff that grew from seven to twelve. He was also a member of the planning group that designed a purpose-built medical building in 2012 and a new £17 million player performance centre in 2017.

Colin implemented the Research & Development arm to the medical team in 2015. This resulted in the co-publishing of articles, editorials and podcasts in various journals including BJSM, Tendon, and Aspetar journal. Along with Dr Gary O’Driscoll, Colin was the founder of the annual Arsenal FC SEMS conference which ran for 9/10 years from 2011.

Colin has visited many sporting environments including a number of NBA, NHL, NFL, Major League Baseball teams and major universities to broaden his knowledge of other facilities and methods utilised in managing sports injuries. Colin speaks regularly at sports medicine conferences at home and abroad and also guest lectures at universities in the UK. He is currently co-director of The Lewin Sports Injury Clinic in East London/ Essex and also works for the FA with the Para football teams as well as providing the Medical Team for SoccerAid for UNICEF every year with his cousin Gary Lewin.

Soft Skills in Professional Sport

Introduction

Colin introduced to his experience as a Chartered Physiotherapist, starting in 1995, where he was a Physiotherapist at Arsenal FC for 13 years before progressing to Head of Medical for a 10-year period until 2018.

Since 2018, Colin has worked on a short-term consultancy basis with various professional football teams, including Bristol City in 2019 and currently at Ipswich Town.

Colin is the Para Pathway Physiotherapist at the Football Association and Director at the Lewin Sports Injury Clinic alongside his cousin Gary Lewin.

“Soft Skills”

Colin shared a short quote from Simon Sinek about soft skills, “I hate the term ‘soft skills’ – think of them as human skills – they are not in opposition to hard skills. It’s ‘human skills’ and ‘hard skills’ and the human skilled people make better leaders.”

Colin considered attributes of high-performing team members where successful organisations recognise that high-performing high trust individuals make the best leaders. Those who engender trust can inspire and create a real impact.

Colin displayed a classic iceberg image based on a model of skills where visible hard ‘intellectual’ skills and knowledge can clearly be seen, but invisible ‘emotional’ soft skills and attitudes cannot be seen.

Hard Skills

Colin discussed the hard skills required in performance physiotherapy. A range of clinical, technological, and administrative skills are essential for success as part of a medical team in an elite sport. Colin noted that hard skills are fairly easy to assess, measure, or test at an interview.

Why are soft skills important?

Relationships and trust are critical in a pressure environment particularly when operating as part of a large team. Colin considered how building trust takes time and how soft skills are vital in building it. Colin described how communication needs to be near perfect, with empathy vital for the many ‘bad days’ for individuals and the team.

Colin described how practitioners need to be adaptable in the fast-paced and constantly changing environment of professional football.

In relation to emotional intelligence, Colin’s advice is to know when to ‘time your run’ when delivering news or presenting an opinion.

While the team is all working towards the same goal, Colin discussed how there will be arguments and disagreements, and good conflict resolution skills are, therefore, needed.

The key point Colin noted with regards to soft skills in a team environment is that there should be no egos.

The Seven Soft Skills

Colin considered seven soft skills:

1. Communication
2. Emotional Intelligence
3. Adaptability
4. Problem Solving
5. Leadership
6. Teamwork/ collaboration
7. Time Management and Organisation

Communication

Colin considered the many individuals and teams that a physio needs to communicate with, and the different types of communication required for different situations.

Emotional Intelligence

Colin discussed the different areas of emotional intelligence required in a physio, including self-regulation, trust, listening (and recognising we are often the middle person), social skills, and motivation/ positivity.

Adaptability

Colin described how everything changes in professional football, including managers, coaches, colleagues, and players. The people who evolve and adapt will prosper.

Colin considered that every athlete is unique, and a one-size-fits-all approach to rehab will not work. Decision-making is required under pressure. Practitioners should be open-minded, and Colin discussed the use of new technologies and culturally sensitive decisions. Colin recommended that practitioners recognise when things are not going well and seek advice.

Problem-Solving

Colin considered how problem-solving is like adaptability. His recommendation is that practitioners build a black book of contacts to call upon so that when they can’t solve a problem, they know someone who can.

Colin noted that practitioners should recognise problems early and that regular discussions and meetings can help to highlight any issues earlier (they are usually easier to solve). Colin discussed how professionals should solve problems by managing up, down, and sideways.

Leadership

Colin noted that leadership is a whole topic for discussion in its own right. When building a team, Colin’s advice is always to employ people better than you and that you work for them; they are not working for you. Colin recommends that leaders take more than their fair share of the blame and less of their share of the credit. He describes how leaders need a vision and need to be able to demonstrate that vision clearly. He also considers how leaders need to be good ‘chess players’.

Teamwork/ Collaboration

Colin reiterated that having no egos is the most important ingredient in any multi-disciplinary team. The team all needs to be pulling in the same direction with a clear vision.

In a professional football team, Colin noted that the relationship between the doctor, lead physio, and strength and conditioning coach needs to be rock solid. Colin described the importance of clear roles with clear delineation and accountability lines drawn early. Colin commented that players and coaches will sense any cracks.

Colin encourages professionals to address disagreements early. In meetings, many voices are encouraged, but thereafter, there should be one voice of the team.

Time Management/ Organisation

Colin described the many moving parts in professional football, and organisation is therefore key. At the training ground, morning meetings help to ensure the team is informed and has the opportunity to raise any questions. Colin commented that matchday time management has to be perfect, with the team ready to make decisions under pressure.

Colin discussed how practitioners should organise data early as coaches like exact numbers. Player rehab requires short-term and long-term plans. In such a busy environment, Colin advises practitioners to take time off when they can.

Examples of Soft Skills in Practice

Example 1 – ‘failed’ new player medical

Colin described how soft skills were extremely important when a new player failed a medical. The news needed to be communicated to many different stakeholders, and there were many different emotions across the team. Decision-making was tested as the team worked together to compromise and find a solution that worked for the player, their new club, and their previous club.

Example 2 – family bereavement

Colin shared an example of when a player suffered a family bereavement whilst on a pre-season tour. Colin described how this situation tested all of the soft skills and none of the hard skills.

Example 3 – bad injury news

Colin considered managing bad injury news to be one of the hardest parts of a physio’s role in professional football. In the example discussed, a player had a metatarsal fracture that was not progressing, with x-rays showing poor healing and that surgery was required. A three-month injury became a six-month injury. In this situation, communication had to be exceptional to all.

Summary

• Colin concluded with some key points to reflect on about soft skills in professional sports:
• The best medical practitioners all have exceptional soft skills.
• Great clinicians don’t always last long in sports where soft skills are vital.
• Practitioners should seek out opportunities to learn about soft skills.
• Experience helps to improve soft skills.
• Soft skills are looked for at interviews but are difficult to ascertain.

Follow Colin Lewin

Website – The Lewin Sports Injury Clinic
X – TheLewinClinic

Q&A

Colin kindly answered questions put forward by practitioners who attended the session. Please see the presentation recording for the insights from Colin to the questions.

Presentation Recording

The recording of Colin’s presentation is available to watch here

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