Where do Athletic Therapists Work?

In honor of National Athletic Training Month in the States this entry will be an overview of all the different areas that an Athletic Therapist works in.

Sport:
All the major professional sports in North America have associations for their Athletic Therapists/Trainers (ATs), the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB and MLS all have highly qualified personal on their sidelines to ensure the safety of their athletes.  Many of the national sport programs in Canada and the United States carry ATs to help lead their medical teams.

It is not just mainstream sports that employ ATs.  There are ATs working with major dance and performing arts groups such as Cirque du Soleil, Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, Disneyland and Disney World.  Many ballet companies employ ATs to keep their dancers in top form through rehearsals and performances.  In both Canada and the US you will find ATs working and supporting pro rodeo athletes, working in the NLL, and the PGA.  You will find that ATs work with cheerleaders, gymnasts and figure skaters.  No sport is immune to us being there to help the athletes, coaches and parents be safe.

From secondary schools to major universities and colleges ATs are the driving force for player safety.  Many are required to teach classes or do research during the day and then start treating and preparing athletes for practices and games.  For those in secondary schools they are the sole person in charge of all their schools athletes which can range in the hundreds.  Those working at major post secondary institutions might be lucky enough to have a group of assistant therapists/trainers as well as a group of student trainers/therapists.  They become administrators and teachers on top of their normal AT tasks.

Occupational:
As discussed in our post So You Only Work with Athletes Right? ATs do not only work with athletes.  Though many work in a clinical setting where they help rehab athletes from injuries, they also will treat the general public.  ATs are employed in hospitals, as occupational health and safety experts and with the military.  Many private companies are using the skill sets of ATs to help reduce on the job injuries and improve the overall health of their employees.  One of the motos of the Canadian Athletic Therapist Association is Rapid Return to Work and Play.

General Public:
The skill sets of prevention and rehabilitative care are not only for those in the areas of sport and work settings.  Anybody who suffers from a musculoskeletal injury can benefit for seeing an AT.  If you have been in a motor vehicle accident, fell on the ice and broke your ankle, strained your back shoveling snow or hurt your shoulder doing yard work, ATs will get you back on track quickly and safely.

All Athletic Therapists/Trainers are trained in the areas of injury prevention, rehabilitation and emergency care.  We work with all levels of athletes, different types of occupations, and all ages of the general public.  Our goal no matter what our occupational setting is to help you get back to either work or play safely and quickly.  We truly are AT4All.

Please follow us on Twitter @EliteInjuryMgmt and check out or website at www.eliteinjury.com

Performance Athletes and Injuries

All athletes at some time or another will need to compete or perform in front of a crowd.  For some athletes however, they are always in the spot light.  Performance athletes such as dancers, gymnasts, and figure skaters have the added pressure of always being critiqued on how they perform.

For many performance athletes both male and female the pressure to look good as well as perform at their best pushes them to extremes that other athletes don't try to achieve.  As with many athletes the fear of losing a position is great with all performance athletes.  This fear be it real or imagined can drive athletes to try and do anything to keep their position.

When dancers, gymnasts, figure skaters and cheerleaders become injured the notion of rest and recovery is a foreign concept to them.  They will hide injuries from their coaches and parents, not wanting them to know as their coach or parent may take them out of sport for the duration of their injury.  Performance athletes are prone to over use of pain medications due to this, which now causes more health issues on top of the initial injury.  However, some coaches and instructors expect their athletes to push through all injuries no matter how detrimental it will be to them both short and long term.  In some clubs and studios it is expected that athletes will train and compete through pain and that personal sacrifice and risk taking are expected and shows how dedicated you are to your sport, teacher and studio.  These athletes also tend to feel large amounts of guilt if they do become injured as they feel they are letting their coach, parent, team or troupe down.

A change of culture needs to occur in these sports.  Somehow all of us from coaches, parents, athletes, officials and health care providers need to encourage performance athletes to properly manage their injuries.  They need to know that their place in their team or troupe is secure and that their long term health is important.  Educating athletes and coaches to see beyond the next performance is part of this change.  No matter the sport proper injury prevention and management coming from all aspects of the athletes life is important.  The more education that coaches, athletes and parents have the safer the athletes will be in the present and future.