Mark Coughlan has been to Germany for radical treatment on his troublesome hamstrings with Dr Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wolfhart. This is part one of his story of the trip. Read part two here.

IT WASN'T a bad time to arrive in Munich. Bayern Munich had just won the Bundesliga – the German soccer championship, their equivalent of winning the premiership – and the city was in party mode.

We arrived mid-afternoon on Sunday, the team had just won and were celebrating in the town square, and the city gave away 13,000 litres of free beer or something, so everyone was have a great time.

So it was straight off to the clinic for the first consultation. We met Dr Hans. He'd actually just moved into his new clinic and we were there on the first day. Just being able to see the new clinic and the flash equipment and facilities was pretty amazing.

It was all such new gear that they were all getting used to it. It was a bit of a Chinese kitchen, just getting everything organised.

When we arrived the place was full of other sportsmen. I think it was supposed to be their day off, so we were really lucky to get in to see the doc who was about to shoot off with the German national team for Euro 2008, as he's the team doctor.

So we saw him that first day, and as he's been doing this thing for 30 years, he quickly assessed the hammy, and after a couple of scans, it was straight in with the needle treatment – he didn't muck around.

They were decent-enough-sized needles, but fortunately I was lying on my front. I've had a few sessions of acupuncture, and it was a pretty similar thing. A fair few people ask me what it was like, but that's all it was, really. The needles stay in there for the session, and there's quite a few of them, but it's nothing like going through surgery and recovery for a knee reco.

I was awake through all the treatments, so that's positive as well. Despite all the reports, it's not all that out-there at all.

A great thing is that you feel the results of this treatment straight away, so that really helps you get positive about it.

The needle treatment was every two days for the two weeks, to give your body a chance to get used to the stuff in there, and to get some recovery time between sessions, and in addition to that, they send you off to their physios, chiros, etc. and there's all other sorts of treatment as well.