In the News

Safe Weight Loss and Maintenance: Position Statement
After reading the NATA position statement regarding safe weight loss and maintenance in sports, I learned there are a lot more factors involved than I thought. When I had originally thought of safe weight loss in sports, I thought the athlete could just eat less fats and exercise. But there are many more factors involved especially when it comes to what sport the athlete plays. Some endurance athletes need to have fat in their diet in order to provide them with energy in an aerobic capacity. So how would these athletes lose or maintain weight when they can't cut fats from their diet. What they can do is look to eat fats that are unsaturated and avoid trans fats. They can also look to cut as many carbs as they can from their diet, while still maintaining a certain amount according to their body weight.

Another important part of safe weight loss or weight management is setting personal goals. An athlete has to set realistic and reachable goals with their coach and athletic trainer. This works best if the athlete can determine their % of body fat vs. their % of lean body mass. Then the athlete can decide how much lean body mass they are looking to gain. With their goal in mind they have to consider their daily caloric intake and what food they will eat to obtain those calories.  Now the athlete has to keep in mind what type of macronutrient they need most. Depending on their sport the athlete might need more carbs than fats and vice versa. Also having protein in their diet is essential to their recovery process. So now the athlete has a lot of things to keep in mind regarding their goal weight. Realizing all of these factors now makes me think that for an athlete to lose some or maintain weight, it is not just as simple as cutting some fatty foods from their diet.

AT Philosophies

When it comes to my philosophy on athletic training I have learned to deal with every athlete as an individual and more importantly avoid the cookbook approach to dealing with your athletes. I believe that every athlete and every injury is different. I try and take everything into account when evaluating a new injury. Their demeanor and attitude can tell you a lot about what they are feeling. Athletes can tell you they are in pain without even saying a word. When talking to an athlete about their injury I like to try and get them to reenact the play where they were injured. I think figuring out the correct mechanism is vital to coming up with the correct diagnosis. Ideas start forming in my head well before I begin my observation and palpation portions of the evaluation. Also talking about previous injuries can help lead you to what the problem might be.

Coming up with your evaluation on an injury is only half the battle. How are you going to treat that athlete to meet his or goals? This all depends on the individual. I have learned to treat individuals based on what point in the season they are in along with they year of school they are in. A freshman football player with a sprained ankle for example would be treated more conservatively than a senior athlete with a similar injury. I would do this in order to prevent this freshman's acute injury from becoming a chronic condiiton. For the senior athlete I would be focusing mainly on doing whatever I possibly could for them to be able to play in their senior season. I am not saying I would just throw them back onto the playing field ASAP, putting them into a harmful situation. But I would like to see them back on the playing field when they feel they are ready.

Another philosophy I have regarding athletic training is to get to know your athletes. It is important to develop a relationship with your athletes so that you feel comfortable talking with one another. An athlete is more likely to come to you with their problem if you have a good relationship with them. Getting your athletes talking to you will be very helpful if you ever have to do an injury evaluation on them. It is much easier to get an idea of what happened to them if they tell you everything they can. Evaluating an athlete who does not want to talk can be very difficult. In this case I feel like you have to pry the information out of them which can be awkward and uncomfortable. So developing good relationships with your athletes will help the communication process of athletic training in a very positive way.

Good Day

This is the song we listen to at Stonehill in the training room before a game because we just want to have a good day.

My Experience at the NATA Conference in New Orleans

This past summer I attended the NATA conference in New Orleans. While I was there I went to seminars, met professionals in the field, watched the NATA Hall Of Fame inductee ceremony, and experienced the spectacular New Orleans culture.

One seminar I found to be very interesting was the PBAT's lecture on how to deal with baseball players and mid-season injuries. I found this to be the most useful seminar because during this past summer I was interning with the Brockton Rox and athletic trainer Lauren Eck. During this seminar I heard from athletic trainers who had worked with professional baseball teams. They talked primarily about shoulder evaluation on pitchers, since they agreed that pitchers were highly susceptible to mid-season injuries. After that they gave a take home note regarding all professional baseball players.  One athletic trainer who had worked with professional teams like the Houston Astros, said to not be worried if your athletes are not the most well conditioned. The quote I remember him ending with was, "What's the farthest distance a baseball player has to run?... 360 feet, and if they make it that far, they get a well deserved rest." He was of course referring to an inside-the-park home run which seldom happens in baseball. That put things in perspective for me. Hearing that made me realize that baseball players do not necessarily need to have great cardiovascular endurance.Just something to keep in mind if I ever work with baseball players again.

Running on the anti-gravity treadmill literally feels like you're running on a cloud.

Ring Toss with the ankle braces, I went a whopping 0 for 3.

Hilary and I playing catch on the balancing boards, a lot harder than you think it would be.