Over the past few months, Emmett practitioners in the UK have been out and about at various events, promoting Emmett and EMM-Tech. The first such event was at the WOMAD festival in Wiltshire, UK (Australians may be aware of its “big brother”, Womadelaide). Jill Clappison Dagless and I set off with our tent, marquee and my faithful skeleton, to offer treatments to some of the 40,000 festival goers. We were in a huge arboretum, with around 30 other therapy practitioners, and we were offering Emmett treatments. Bookings were slow for the first day of the festival, though a large number of people came to talk, to ask about the therapy and to watch what we were doing or to pick up a leaflet. This was fantastic to promote awareness and certainly paid off during the next two days when both of us worked virtually non-stop from 9.30am until 6.30pm. What an amazing experience: we were both blown away by the results, the enthusiasm and the lovely atmosphere. Of course, it wasn’t all work, as the evenings allowed us to sample the international flavours – both of food and music. Are we going back next year? You bet!
Then, at the start of September, Judith Johnson, one of our Welsh practitioners, scored a great coup by being invited to be part of the first ever Ironman Wales event. Ironman is a sort of super-triathlon event, where the competitors swim 2.4 miles, then cycle 114 miles, followed by a full marathon and it attracts the cream of international athletes. With the support of Emmett UK, Judith put together a team of Emmett practitioners to offer treatment to some of the 1,500 competitors and their entourage of around 13,000 people. During 4 days, leaflets and information were freely given, and many niggling injuries were given the Emmett “rapid response” treatment! As always with Emmett, we had some startling results and we were delighted to be so easily accepted by this band of athletes, who are incredibly body-aware. Despite almost gale-force winds and torrential rain, the competition day was mainly bright and mostly dry and it was wonderful to watch this event. There was huge interest, too, in EMM-tech courses and we gave out a lot of email addresses and telephone numbers of therapists and Tutors in several different countries. Congratulations to Judith for spotting and capitalising on this great opportunity. Ironman Wales will be continuing annually for at least 5 years and already we are looking at putting together teams for other Ironman events…Hawaii, anyone?
Debbie Buck,
United Kingdom Co-ordinator and Instructor
From Back-Left to Right: Judith Johnson, Nicki Wood, Colin Buck and Debbie Buck