Athletic Trainers' Outcry?

Here's something that has been spreading around the interweb today:

‎..Oh.. you're a trainer?? (NO! I'm an Athletic Trainer, not a trainer) Oh, that's cool, I wanted to do that. What do you make?" "WHAT DO I MAKE?? I make an ankle sprain that some say should take four weeks to get your child back on the field, playable in a week. I can make driving in a golf cart with lights look cool. I can devise your rehab program after a total knee replacement so you can run ......in that marathon you've always dreamed of. I can tape an ankle before your kid misses 2 mins of play. I can make saving your childs life easier by explaining "getting your bell rung" isnt normal, it can be deadly. I can help you, and your child, survive a heart attack. I can look at a wrestler's pee and tell them how much water to drink. I can make an athlete bigger, faster, better. I can translate "doctorese" from "torn anterior talofibular ligament" into ankle sprain. I went to college to EARN A DEGREE in more than just "water providing" but also injury prevention, evaluation, rehabilitation, administration, and overall problem listening. And I do it because I love my athletes, and I love my profession. Today, I might ice your knee, tomorrow I might save your life. I hope I make a difference, what do you make?"

Nice. It started as something that I felt like the lay person should have a read, but being someone that likes to breeze through a lengthy piece of work I didn't make it past line 4. Reading it a little more carefully, I realized that the author of this little ditty may have embellished a little bit. Looking at a wrestler's pee and telling him whether he needs to drink more water? Sure I could tell you that over the Internet: if it's clear, you're good. Darker than syrup? Drink some water. There. Most of the stuff is actually pretty good though. I do get tired of people saying "oh I want to do that what do you make?" I hardly believe that most people that say they always wanted to do that really know what they think they are getting themselves in to. This profession is notorious for losing a lot of people to burnout and changes of heart. It requires a lot of time, sacrifice and stress for not a lot of appreciation, notice or support from parents or our government (yes I am from California so our government really doesn't care too much to give us licensure). This is not to say that there are thankful athletes and parents that will come out of the woodwork to make your day but there is a much larger group that will look down on what we do as athletic trainers to take care of your kids and will often times seek the advice of a doctor that may or may not be versed in sports medicine.

Anyway, the latter quote was one person's view of where our profession is with the general public. There's still a long way to go and I feel, to the average Joe, their view of us as waterboys and ankle tapers really hasn't changed that much. My opinion for progression in our profession is that we need to move toward re-branding ourselves instead of trying to convince everybody else that we're qualified to do what we have spent hour and years preparing to do. That's a later post though.

An Intro to Athletic Training

Since getting my undergraduate degree in Movement and Sports Science with an emphasis in Athletic Training from the University of La Verne I've gone from a "I could care less about the direction of the profession" to actually being concerned about how the general and professional public views what I would like to do for the rest of my life.

I used to think that the word "trainer" and "athletic trainer" were interchangeable when referring to my job, but that is certainly not the case. I am an ATHLETIC TRAINER! We could debate about how closely the title describes my career but for now that is what the men and women at the National Athletic Trainers' Associaton (NATA) want to call us.

What we do:
In school we are taught the basics about biomechanics, kinesiology, anatomy, physiology, nutrition, general medicine, exercise physiology, rehabilitation and examination of everything between your head and your toes. Suffice it to say we leave school with a pretty good working knowledge and skill level to work with athletes of all ages and even the general public. We do it all and I kind of like it that way. People will compare us to personal trainers or physical therapists and while some of my co-workers get upset at the mention of these two professions I would say that we're a mixture of both and a lot more. Yes, I can write you a workout plan and yes, I can take you from an injury to back on the field safely and just as good as before your injury. In the field of ATHLETIC TRAINING, especially where I work in the college setting, we work very closely with our athletes and see them on a daily basis. We are responsible for the prevention of their injuries, covering their competitions, caring for their injuries on the field, off the field and rehabbing them back to full participation.

That's a lot of info for one sitting of reading. I will be posting things that I find interesting in the world of athletic training and sports medicine and hopefully everyone will get to know how cool the job of athletic training is and how much we can do! Follow me on this blog and feel free to post questions and comments.

Issues

Today was out first weekly staff meeting at UCSD and I must say I have some mixed feelings about the entire thing. At first there were the usual nuts and bolts about changes that we're going to make, students to look out for, etc. After a while we got to a discussion on policies and procedures and boy oh boy that was something I didn't see coming. I think we might have spent about 20 minutes discussing whether female athletic trainers were allowed to wear their hair down and whether or not they had to have it up upon entering the athletic training room or simply before they started working with student-athletes. It got a little heated, which tickled me a little, but I guess it's to be expected when you work in a masculine setting and the women outnumber the men 5 to 4.

On the bright side they made all the GAs feel a little more important when they went around and asked us if there was anything to add and they actually took my suggestion about some improvements to be made.

Wild world of sports medicine

I had this thing set up almost a year ago thinking I was going to put interestings on the Internet.....yeah, now I've decided to follow through with that idea.

So in the last couple months I have made the move from a cozy little room in Upland, CA (inland for those not in the know) and ended up unpacking my stuff in Mira Mesa (San Diego area) to start working as a grad assistant athletic trainer at UCSD working mainly with mens and womens cross country and track.

Yeah, a big university with a lot of smart people. Sounds great! They paid for me to travel to Folsom, CA and get trained in the Graston technique and then gave me a bunch of Adidas polos and jackets.

New Athletics ComplexNew mascot New Boss

I went in thinking I would be at a place with a whole bunch of cash and healthy athletes. Turns out we have a tight budget, small sports medicine facility and a slew of athletes with injury histories like you wouldn't believe. Needless to say this job is keeping me pretty busy. There isn't one moment when I'm not thinking of whether or not I missed something in my eval or if there is something different I could be doing with an athlete's rehab.

Now instead of going home and plopping down in front of the TV (we don't have one in the house I'm living in) I'm researching stuff to stay one step ahead.

One week down and I've gotten 9 cross country runners in. Wow, season hasn't started yet guys.