Sky Academy Sports Scholarships: Louis Persent inspired by MJP experience

Louis Persent: Believes his trip to Dallas will help him to train more efficiently ahead of his 2014 season

The 400m runner spent 10 days in Texas at the top class MJP facility to undergo tests, rehab and train following an Achilles injury picked up early in the year that has put him out of action since. The Sports Scholar believes that by identifying areas he most needs to work on that he will be better positioned to maximise his potential.

"I'm here because I had an injury in July and I'm at a point now where I'm just getting back into running so we can do that in a really controlled way," said Persent.

"I can have an assessment of the way that I'm moving, my functional movement, my strength, all the good things and the bad things about me as an athlete and it's kind of critical that I know my weaknesses so that I can start working on them here and so then when I get home, back to the UK, we can train smarter.

"Hopefully this experience here will make sure that my training back home is as good as it can be, I stay injury free and I have a great season come the summer."

Persent travelled to Dallas with Dr Ralf Rogers who was recently asked to help with the 23-year-old's recovery and he was full of praise for the work done by the staff at MJP.

"Louis is a very promising athlete who unfortunately had some issues with his Achilles tendon," explained Dr Rogers.

Commitment

"I was happy to help him and so far he's done very well but we thought it was a great idea to bring him to this magnificent set up here at Michael Johnson's Performance Centre for rehabilitation and what I really appreciate about this place is the communication and commitment that they have shown to Louis. I think it's been a great experience."

Lyndsey Anderson is a performance specialist at MJP and worked with Persent during his time at the centre. She was pleased that, through detecting certain flaws, Persent will be better able to train in a way more suited to him as an individual.

"Luckily we were able to find some of those weaknesses that we can potentially start to correct and increase and improve so that he can look forward to his 2014 track season," she said.

"Every day Louis is coming in enthusiastic, he's ready to work, he's willing to learn which is really important because he is wanting to go about this the right way. He's just absorbing everything that he's hearing around him and he's really excited, as are we."

Physical therapist Lorenzo Vite further explained the benefits of the tests that Persent underwent adding: "One of the things Louis is going to go through is our advanced athlete assessment and from there we'll construct a template or a plan that he should progress through when he gets back to the UK."

It is an experience that Persent has clearly savoured and one from which the benefits are potentially huge.

"It's inspiring to be here," he concluded. "There are really great athletes from football, from American football, ice hockey so it's an environment where you want to excel and learn all you can."