Catherine Fall is an Orthotist at Stepping Hill hospital, part of the Stockport NHS Trust. She was a world ranked tennis player who played at junior and senior levels, reaching a career-high WTA ranking of 1211. She retrained as an Orthotist as well as being a part-time tennis coach. You can connect with Cat on LinkedIn.
I started when I was 8 and then went to an Academy at Bolton Arena between the ages of 12 and 15. I was attending school part-time and part-time playing tennis. Then I had a big push to try to get a senior ranking in order to start winning money, as you can’t win money on the junior circuit, and tennis was costing my family a lot, so I had to start earning, to fund my tennis.
I got a senior ranking when I was 16 and at the time I think I was the youngest in the country to have a senior world ranking. I played for a year on the ITF circuit, reached LTA National Finals and became Lancashire Champion at 17. I represented Lancashire in 1st division County level.
I was only 17 when I injured my arm, I developed a bone spur in my elbow from serving. When you serve, your arm extends. My arm was hyper-extending and the bones chipped together, but we didn’t know what it was for a while. I had the operation at 17 to have that removed and from there I injured my shoulder because I started to serve differently. Then I got a hernia as well on the other side of my body.
I later found out, in my 20s, that I have a condition called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome which is a disorder of collagen formation leading to hypermobility. It can be very severe and some people are wheelchair bound but some people are more mildly affected, it made more sense as to why I was injured so often in comparison to others. At the age of 18, I took my coaching qualification and started tennis coaching.
Even though my arm still wasn’t great, I didn’t have to serve when coaching, so I’ve been a coach since. But I still really wanted to play! That was the hardest part for me. I also did a personal training qualification and I still train today, particularly on court fitness sessions specific to tennis. I’ve been a PT for over 10 years, always coaching on the side.
Where did your interest in prosthetics and orthotics come from?
I’ve always been interested in health, particularly because of my own health condition and I wanted to take it further, but because I played tennis at such a young age and didn’t attend school full-time, I didn’t have a couple of qualifications needed. Then Covid arrived in the world, the UK was in lockdown, and during that period I decided now was the time to go back to studying. I had a mixture of GCSEs and A Levels and took a few more, then I got on the prosthetics and orthotics undergraduate course partly based on my sports experience. I was working in a rehabilitation centre and had a sporting background, so they took a chance on me. I got a First in my final year (which was great!) and on the back of that I’ve gone straight into a job.
I’m now working at Stepping Hill Hospital, for the Stockport NHS Trust, but I am still doing the part time tennis coaching. I’m trying to blend the two together because I know there’s quite a lot of need for sports orthotics.
What’s your job look like day to day?
I’m nearly a year in and you probably never stop learning! It’s so varied. People think Orthotists just treat feet, but it could be anywhere on the body. It could be a helmet that you’re having to make someone bespoke. It could be bespoke ankle splints or shoes to help someone walk, it could be a spinal brace, a neck brace or even a hernia truss.
We work in outpatient clinics and visit inpatients on the wards. Every patient that we see has a completely different challenge to solve and the job is very rewarding. But I think because of my background in trying to be precise, I prefer the more complex work and I think that keeps it interesting.
With my sporting background and particularly coaching, the essence of coaching is that you’re looking at the way people move. I already have an appreciation of how people move physically, so when I’m in my role as an Orthotist, you have to understand how people move to understand what support to provide them with. People with a medical background might look at how the patient’s condition affects movement, whereas I think someone from sport probably would look at the movement first and go from there. There’s no right or wrong in this but I think through having my own health condition, it helps me understand from both perspectives.
What’s your advice for other sportspeople considering the wide range of health professions?
Pick the one that’s suited to you. I think loads of sports professionals go into physiotherapy because they don’t know about orthotics and prosthetics. We’re a very small industry in comparison to other healthcare branches, and most people think Orthotists just do insoles but actually we treat the whole body. Prosthetics is also a good crossover for those who are extremely good with their hands or have a particular interest in design and engineering.
To find out more about careers in prosthetics and orthotics, please visit the British Association of Prosthetics and Orthotics (BAPO) page on LAPS.