.png)
Most clinicians weren't athletes. And most athletes weren't trained to think about sequencing, regulation, and fine motor. Isis Williams is both — and watching those two worlds collide in her sessions is something worth paying attention to.
Isis is an occupational therapist and a professional volleyball player. She earned her master's through volleyball — extra eligibility courtesy of COVID — played overseas, and is now in off-season, seeing kids in their homes through Coral Care while also coaching on weekends. Her schedule is a lot. Her clinical perspective is sharper for it.
In this episode of Coral Currents, Isis walks through how she structures sessions the way she structures practice: warmup, game, cool down. Heavy work and brushing before the ball comes out. A point system for kids five and up because cause and effect is motivating, and so is winning. Grading tasks down when something isn't landing yet — rolling instead of throwing, bouncing with two hands before one.
She also talks about knowing when to push. It's one of the things athletic training builds that clinical training sometimes doesn't — a read on the difference between a kid who needs a win today and a kid who's ready to be stretched. Isis names both, and knows how to sit with that tension in a session.
The moment that sticks: a child with ADL goals, hand washing that had always been chaotic, a ball rolled down the hallway into the bathroom. He washed his hands. Nearly independently. Mom was almost in tears. Isis thanked her for trusting the process.
That's the whole episode in one story.
For providers who aren't athletes, the takeaway is simpler than it sounds: structure a session like a practice, use a point system, don't demo perfectly if it's going to frustrate the kid, and remember that passing a ball back and forth is already a conversation. You don't need a court. You need a hallway and a ball that's probably already in the house.
🎧 Listen to Coral Currents Episode #18 now — and bring something new to your next session.
