A melting pot is a metaphor for a group where many different types of people blend to make a cohesive community. This BJSM edition is a melting pot of sports medicine research from across the globe, showing the strength and connection of the sporting community and BJSM.

Welcome to the Sports and Exercise Physiotherapy New Zealand (SEPNZ) edition of BJSM!

Within the pages of this journal, you will find articles linked to Northern Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean. It is a small sample of the international work and progression we are making towards improving injury management, refining athlete development, connecting the cognitive to the physical and using exercise as medicine, to name a few.

Sports and exercise medicine is fascinating as it relates to working with injured or unwell athletes and patients to prevent, diagnose and rehabilitate. We also work proactively with uninjured and ‘well’ populations to optimise performance and minimise the likelihood of injury. Some of the on-offer articles within these pages include manipulating sleep ( see page 54 ), paediatric concussion fatigue management ( see page 59 ), the emotional impact of injuries ( see page 117 ) and spotlighting a run for life programme ( see page 114 ). Within the breadth and depth of these areas, specialists, physicians, psychologists, allied health professionals, biomechanists, strength and conditioning specialists, and researchers combine and overlap in common directions of cohesion.

This melting pot theme seems fitting for our edition, as New Zealand has been described as multiple landscapes and people packed into a small area. It is referred to by some as Godzone (God’s Own Country—a term used for more than 100 years by New Zealanders to describe their homeland). Spend time in New Zealand, join the thousands of Kiwis and release your inner adventurer. Ski on an active volcano, raft a river, surf a peak or mountain bike some of our awe-inspiring tracks. You can traverse our country in just days, from forests to lakes, beaches to mountain summits, but we prefer you spend more time looking around Aotearoa (Māori language for New Zealand). Keep an eye out on our social media: https://www.facebook.com/SportsPhysiotherapyNZ/ or https://www.instagram.com/sportandexercisephysionz/ for the release of the SEPNZ conference dates in 2024. Imagine coming to our conference and experiencing the land of the long white cloud or Aotearoa-New Zealand!

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