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Athletic training encompasses the prevention, examination, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of emergent, acute, or chronic injuries and medical conditions. Athletic training is recognized by the American Medical Association (AMA), the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as an allied healthcare profession.
Who are Athletic Trainers?
Athletic trainers (ATs) are highly qualified, multi-skilled healthcare professionals who render service or treatment, under the direction of or in collaboration with a physician, in accordance with their education, training, and the state's statutes, rules, and regulations. As a part of the health care team, services provided by athletic trainers include primary care, injury and illness prevention, wellness promotion and education, emergent care, examination and clinical diagnosis, therapeutic intervention, and rehabilitation of injuries and medical conditions.
What Does an Athletic Trainer Do?
Athletic trainers have a wide range of skills and have immense education in athletic care. They are versatile and focus on wellness services, manual therapy, musculoskeletal conditions, and injury and illness prevention. Athletic trainers focus on injury prevention and will show you the proper way to use exercise equipment. They may also apply tape, badges, and braces for preventative measures or as treatment. They have to be able to recognize, evaluate, and assess injuries to provide immediate care.
Why Use Athletic Trainers?
Athletic trainers provide medical services to all types of patients, not just athletes participating in sports, and can work in a variety of job settings. Athletic trainers relieve widespread and future workforce shortages in primary care support and outpatient rehab professions and provide an unparalleled continuum of care for patients. Athletic trainers improve functional outcomes and specialize in patient education to prevent injury and re-injury. Preventative care provided by an athletic trainer has a positive return on investment for employers. ATs are able to reduce injury and shorten rehabilitation time for their patients, which translates to lower absenteeism from work or school and reduced health care costs.
What's the Difference Between an Athletic Trainer and Personal Trainer?
Personal trainers typically work at gyms and health clubs, helping the general public improve their level of fitness. Athletic trainers, on the other hand, are most often found at colleges, hospitals, clinics, and professional sporting teams, helping patients or clients recuperate from injuries. Personal trainers evaluate a person’s fitness level and then come up with an exercise regimen to improve the individual’s health, weight, and even nutrition. They also teach clients how to perform exercises properly and motivate them to push through their current level of fitness. Athletic trainers, on the other hand, are highly qualified, multi-skilled healthcare professionals who collaborate with physicians to provide preventative services, emergency care, clinical diagnosis, therapeutic intervention, and rehabilitation of injuries and medical conditions. Athletic trainers work under the direction of a physician as prescribed by state licensure statutes.
What is the Difference Between Athletic Training and Physical Therapy?
Athletic trainers and physical therapists play different roles in sports and orthopedic medicine. Both treat and help patients recover from injuries. However, each role works a little differently and fills different patient needs. When they work, where they work, and how they work. Those are three major differences between athletic trainers and physical therapists. Athletic trainers often work in educational settings. They also work in medical settings, in fitness centers, and on sports teams. They typically work hours like weekends and nights so that they’re available during athletic practices and games.
Physical therapists usually work in a medical setting. They might also work in a private office or nursing home. Some also provide in-home care for their patients.
1. Athletic trainers are usually first on the scene of a team sport-related injury and are involved in care during the athletic season.
2. Athletic trainers focus on preventing injuries.
3. Physical therapists come in when patients are ready to begin rehab and are involved in long-term care.
4. Physical therapists focus on rehabilitating injuries.
How Many Hours Do Professional Athletes Train?
Intense training sessions and active recovery days influence the overall workload differently. Doing a training session that’s very heavy on technique is different stress than simply just doing a dozen sprints. Long runs and lifting are different stresses. Too much of the same stress is not helpful and can lead to injury, or just stagnant performance.
1. 10-15 hours per week is optimal
2. 20+ hours per week is often too much for non-elite athletes
3. 5-10 hours per week is the bare minimum
4. <5 hours weekly is not enough unless you are intentionally not training
Athletes training 10-15 hours per week were consistently making good improvements in their progress. Often this looks like 5 days of a 2-hour practice with 2 to 3 days of additional training: strength training, skill training, endurance, speed, etc. Some athletes do this with a coaching practice, on their own, or as extra teamwork.
Exceeding 20 hours of training is often unnecessary for most non-elite athletes. Partially because it’s not needed to get the training response, and partially because non-elite bodies are more likely to get injured working out this much over time. This is most common with kids who are intensely doing multiple sports in addition to extra training. Training this much can expose a young athlete to injury from not enough recovery time.
Where Do Athletic Trainers Work?
Most people have seen an athletic trainer run across the field to assess an injury during a high school, college, or professional sports game. But athletic trainers work with a variety of patient populations in numerous settings.
Most athletic trainers around the country work in a high school setting. Regardless of where they are employed, ATs practice according to their medical model education, the scope of practice, and the state practice act.
1. Public and private secondary schools; colleges and universities; professional and Olympic sports
2. Youth leagues, municipal and independently owned youth sports facilities
3. Physician and private practices,
4. Rural and urban hospitals; hospital emergency rooms; urgent and ambulatory care centers
5. Performing arts, including professional- and collegiate-level dance and music
6. Clinics with specialties in sports medicine, cardiac rehabilitation, medical fitness, wellness, and physical therapy
7. Occupational health departments in commercial settings, which include manufacturing, distribution centers, and offices assist with ergonomics
8. Police and fire departments, academies, municipal departments, and branches of the military
Why are Athletic Trainers Important?
Athletic trainers are important because of the many benefits that they provide to their teams, organizations, departments, and employers. Certified athletic trainers provide real-time and immediate health care to injured patients wherever they may be active. Athletic trainers are important assets to any healthcare team due to their education and training. There are few (if any) healthcare professionals that are able to interact and provide care to their patients and athletes before, during, and after an injury occurs. This type of presence requires training from athletic training programs that prepares them to respond to all sorts of needs that a team or athlete may face. Dynamic environments call for dynamic skills – athletic trainers have them!
What is the Role of an Athletic Trainer in Sports?
The athletic trainer is responsible for evaluating, treating, and rehabilitating athletic injuries. After evaluation by a physician and treatment of an acute injury, rehabilitation can begin. Depending on the extent or grade of the injury, it could take days, weeks, or even months. All aspects of the injury are documented and the final release to return to play is given by a physician. It should be noted that in some programs, physical therapists are also used for rehabilitation programs. Once the athlete has completed all phases of the rehabilitation and has been released to return to their sport for full participation, the athletic trainer and strength and conditioning coach can meet to design the sport-specific training program.
How Much Does an Athletic Trainer Cost?
The average hourly wage for an Athletic Trainer in the United States is $25 as of February 27, 2023, but the range typically falls between $23 and $28. The hourly rate can vary widely depending on many important factors, including education, certifications, additional skills, and the number of years you have spent in your profession.
Facts about Athletic Trainers
1. Athletic Trainers are members of the healthcare profession and are recognized by the American Medical Association
2. Athletic Trainers are first responders for acute injuries and medical emergencies, they also recognize, evaluate, treat, rehabilitate, prevent, and manage musculoskeletal injuries
3. Athletic Trainers work as part of a healthcare team which includes working under the direction of a licensed physician
4. Athletic Trainers coordinate care with physicians and other allied health professionals
5. Athletic Trainers must have a Bachelor's or Master's degree from an accredited college/university. Nearly 70% of athletic trainers have a Master's or Doctoral degree
6. Athletic Trainers receive formal education in the areas of (not complete list): human anatomy and physiology, exercise physiology, kinesiology, biomechanics, statistics, risk management, injury prevention, therapeutic modalities, psychology, nutrition, therapeutic exercise, orthopedic clinical evaluation, first aid and emergency care, and health care administration
7. Athletic Trainers must pass a comprehensive exam to earn the ATC credential. An independent national board certifies athletic trainers
8. Athletic Trainers must retain certification by completing 50 hours of approved, medically related continuing education units every 2 years
9. Athletic Trainers must adhere to the requirements of state licensing boards. Athletic training licensure/regulation currently exists in 48 states, including Ohio
5 Domains of Athletic Training
Domain I: Risk Reduction, Wellness and Health Literacy
Promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors with effective education and communication to enhance wellness and minimize the risk of injury and illness.
Domain II: Assessment, Evaluation, and Diagnosis
Implementing systematic, evidence-based assessments and evaluations to formulate valid clinical diagnoses and differential diagnoses to determine a patient’s plan of care.
Domain III: Critical Incident Management
Integrating best practices in immediate and emergency care for optimal outcomes.
Domain IV: Therapeutic Intervention
Rehabilitating individuals with a health condition (i.e., injury, illness, general medical condition) to achieve optimal activity and participation levels based on core concepts (i.e., fundamental knowledge and skillsets) using the applications of therapeutic exercise, modality devices, and manual techniques.
Domain V: Healthcare Administration and Professional Responsibility
Integrating best practices in policy construction and implementation, documentation, and basic business practices to promote optimal patient care and employee well-being.
4 Pillars of Athletic Performance Training
Every sport has unique demands from the body. However, athletic performance training programs have been on a tremendous rise in recent years. As discussed, they focus on the four crucial pillars that promote the trainee’s overall performance.
1. Power
Power is the perfect combination of strength and speed. Strength refers to moving an object with great force, while speed is the ability to move an object with incredible velocity. Therefore, power entails the movement of an object with great force and velocity, allowing you to propel yourself or external resistance at speed in a given direction.
2. Agility
Agility is an additional leading factor in developing exemplary athletic performance. It is defined as the ability to control a change of direction quickly and efficiently. The explosive nature of power and its relation to speed make it the most effective way to promote acceleration among athletes. Eventually, applying it anytime you perform an agile movement becomes the ideal secret.
3. Speed
Speed development is necessary for most sports and works best when combined with other fitness components, such as power or agility, requiring speed for optimal outcomes. Athletes who can perform these other pillars – power, and agility – at the greatest possible speed are likely to excel above their opponents, maximizing their overall performance.
4. Stamina
Stamina is crucial for every athlete to prevent fatigue and its related effects. It refers to maintaining a stable physical output over an extended period with varying intensity – combining muscular and aerobic endurance. With the above in mind, a well-developed cardiovascular and respiratory system combined with excellent muscular endurance capabilities makes the athlete more powerful, killing the chances of fatigue.
5 Key Principles of Athletic Training
In order to reach peak fitness, it's important to master five key principles of your workout -- individualization, specificity, variation, overload, and reversibility. Understanding these basic concepts can help you increase your gains in the gym and improve your performance on the field.
1. Individualization
It's important to tailor your workout program to your personal needs. This requires that you thoroughly assess your current level of fitness, determine your goals, and design a program that's specific to your needs. While some workouts are meant for general fitness, others are designed to improve a specific strength, such as muscular endurance or power.
2. Specificity
The principle of specificity states that you're more likely to improve if you train using similar movements and motions as you'll use in the game or during your sport. For example, if you play tennis, you should train with a tennis racquet (or a similar device) to improve your strength and coordination for the sport. If you're not training with equipment used in your sport, your workouts may not be very specific.
3. Variation
It's also important to vary the exercises you do on a regular basis. Although it's important for athletes to master certain exercises and perfect their technique, it's also important to use different exercises from time to time. This will help prevent boredom with your workouts and prevent overuse injuries caused by repetitive practice of the same exercise or movement. It will also help prevent injuries by allowing an opportunity for recovery between workouts. And finally, it helps enhance the skills needed in competition by exposing the body to a variety of different movements.
4. Overload
Overload means increasing the intensity of your workouts over time -- whether this means lifting more weight, running faster, or swimming longer each week. Without increasing the intensity of your workouts, it's difficult to see continuous improvement in your athletic performance. If you're lifting heavier weights or running faster each week, it's a sign that you're successfully applying this principle of training. However, if you're training harder but not seeing any improvement over time, then it may be time to increase the intensity of your workouts.
5. Reversibility
Reversibility is an important factor in training that makes sure that you've completed sufficient recovery time before starting another strenuous workout. If recovery is insufficiently addressed in an athlete's program, training will be ineffective because the body will not be able to adapt physically and/or psychologically to hard training loads.
Different Titles of Athletic Trainers
When you want to hire an athletic trainer, it’s important to understand the types of services they provide and the settings where they work. Athletic trainers are employed as health care professionals in a number of ways, working in sports medicine departments, professional training facilities, performing arts groups and more. Here are common roles athletic trainers fulfill:
1. Head athletic trainer: The head athletic trainer plans and directs an organization’s training programs.
2. Assistant athletic trainer: The assistant athletic trainer assists the head trainer with managing patients, documenting care and communicating progress to coaches and physicians.
3. Military athletic trainer: These trainers provide services and acute care to members of the military, focusing on effective soldier development.
4. Exercise physiologist: Exercise physiologists develop specialized fitness programs to help patients improve cardiovascular health, flexibility and muscle tone. They may use both allopathic and osteopathic techniques to restore function and mobility following accidents, work-related injuries and sports injuries.
5. Sports medicine physician: These are doctors who focus on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries in athletes and highly active individuals.
Common Conditions that an Athletic Trainer Treat
Athletic trainers focus on treating and preventing injuries. They’re trained to evaluate the situation and decide on the proper action to take. An athletic trainer can help if you have these issues during a workout or game:
1. Abdominal pain
Your trainer can check you out and determine the source of the pain.
2. Chest pain
If you have shortness of breath, tingling, tightening, or pressure around your chest, let your trainer know right away. They can figure out if the pain results from something serious, like a heart attack, or less worrisome, like acid reflux.
3. Dislocations or fractures
If you’re injured during an activity it could result in dislocation -- when the bones that make up a joint are separated -- or a fracture (break) in a bone. Your trainer can assess the situation and stabilize the injury, treat you to prevent infection, and get you ready to see a doctor.
4. External bleeding
Athletic trainers can clean and bandage bleeding wounds. They can also show you how to properly care for the wound and help it heal.
5. Limited range of motion
Sometimes a healing injury or nerve problem limits the way our joint moves. An athletic trainer can create a plan of action to get your range of motion back.
6. Head trauma
Let your athletic trainer know of any head trauma right away. They can determine if you have a concussion and need immediate medical attention.
7. Loss of consciousness (without head trauma)
Dehydration, low blood sugar, or heart irregularities can lead to fainting. An athletic trainer can figure out the cause and help you create a plan to prevent it from happening again.
Importance Of Athletic Trainers
Athletic trainers are important because of the many benefits that they provide to their teams, organizations, departments, and employers.
1. Qualified and Immediate Health Care
Certified athletic trainers provide real-time and immediate health care to injured patients wherever they may be active.
2. Diverse Skills and Abilities
Athletic trainers are important assets to any healthcare team due to their education and training. There are few (if any) healthcare professionals that are able to interact and provide care to their patients and athletes before, during, and after an injury occurs.
3. A Trusted Health Care Provider
One of the benefits of having an athletic trainer is the presence of a known and trusted healthcare provider on the sidelines and in the clinic.
4. Unparalleled Value
An undervalued benefit of athletic training is the value that they provide to the patients, teams, and organizations they work with. It is not uncommon to find athletic trainers providing qualified health care at low cost to historically underserved populations.
5. Risk Management
An often understated important role that athletic trainers play is their ability to mitigate the risk that occurs with day-to-day athletic participation. Participation in these sports-specific activities involves exposure to injuries and illnesses. Having athletic trainers on-site allows for opportunities to prevent and proactively respond to these exposures with a qualified professional. The profession of athletic training is an extremely important and exciting profession. The first step towards becoming an athletic trainer is finding an athletic training program that pushes you toward your goals.
Benefits Of Having An Athletic Trainer
1. Get more enjoyment from your hobbies or career
In many trade careers, injury can feel inevitable. Preventive rehabilitation sessions with the help of an athletic trainer will make you more effective and resilient. It may even lengthen your career (not to mention your drive).
2. Better understand an athlete in your life
You can’t be on the field with your teen while they swing the bat. But you can follow a similar training regimen and practice with them at home. Not only will you show them an example of hard work, but you’ll be also able to relate with them in a way you couldn’t before.
3. Athletic trainers can help lower your risk for disease or injury
If your family has a history of heart disease, physical activity is one of the best ways to lower your risk over time. Getting and staying active will also lower your likelihood of injury. By working with a trainer, you’ll also get instructions on how to exercise safely and get a plan that scales well with your abilities.
4. You’ve got a goal
An athletic trainer can help you put together a training plan that ramps up at a feasible pace and helps you to avoid injury. A little added accountability never hurts either. Adding an athletic trainer to the mix is a great way to change your mindset about exercise and kick off a new routine.
5. Simply put, you’ll get a better quality of life
Everything in your body is connected. There is plenty of evidence that healthy exercise, diet, and social life can make you happier overall. An athletic trainer can help you balance all those things, all the while making you stronger. You’ll feel better, inside and out.
Skills of an Athletic Trainer
Athletic trainers are responsible for working with athletes on conditioning and training as well as injuries sustained during -- or outside of -- sports activities, which may impact their ability to perform. Like other career types, athletic trainers must be equipped with a certain skill set to help them do their jobs properly.
1. First Aid Skills
Athletic trainers must have first aid skills to help athletes address acute injuries, generally in a high-pressure situation such as a game. They must be able to apply bandaging and tape to hold the injury until the athlete can seek further medical attention. They must also be able to apply tapes and braces to hold bones and skin injuries in place to promote proper healing.
2. Educational Skills
Athletic trainers must have the skills to educate coaching staff, athletes, and their families on injuries, healing processes, and the proper methods of exercise and conditioning. They must be able to convey information in a helpful manner to help athletes reduce the risk of injury during sporting activities. They should provide advice on healthy living standards for athletes and offer warnings on activities and supplements to avoid.
3. Communication Skills
Athletic trainers must possess good people skills, as well as a good grasp of proper methods of communication. A large part of their job is to convey information to people and help athletes to understand the capabilities and limitations of their bodies. Often, this communication occurs in high-pressure situations, so an athletic trainer must have the skills to withstand high stress and display calm in times of duress.
4. Medical Skills
Athletic trainers must have a certain level of medical skills to help diagnose issues on the spot. For example, a trainer must know when a bone has been broken in the middle of a game or the extent of an injury to determine whether or not a player can continue. Athletic trainers must also have the medical skills to determine if there may be an underlying medical condition causing problems or whether or not an athlete should pursue further medical attention before he engages in sports activities.
5 Qualities of the Best Athletic Trainers
Great athletic trainers (ATs) have a strong work ethic, a positive attitude, and a desire to expand their knowledge and skills. What makes a truly exceptional athletic trainer? Here are five essential qualities of the best athletic trainers.
1. They are prepared for anything
Every athletic trainer is ready to treat a sudden injury during practice or competition, but the best athletic trainers know being proactive can make it easier to respond to the unexpected.
2. They hold the highest ethical standards
ATs have access to sensitive (and sometimes controversial) information about the athletes they treat. This could be the fact an athlete has sustained a season-ending or career-ending injury or it may be that an athlete is suspected of using (or actually is using) performance-enhancing substances. Whatever the case may be, the best athletic trainers understand they must handle this type of information carefully in order to avoid breaching an athlete’s trust or opening the organization up to legal issues. Most importantly, experienced ATs know the safety of the athlete is of the utmost importance and understand there are instances when failing to share information may put the athlete at risk.
3. Honest and trustworthy
Demonstrating integrity is not just important when it comes to matters of confidentiality; successful ATs understand being ethical and honest is necessary for establishing a good rapport with their athletes. If an athlete doesn’t trust or respect the athletic trainer, it is unlikely he or she will be comfortable receiving treatment from the trainer and/or be compliant with the rehabilitative program the trainer has created.
4. Adaptable
While some athletic trainers (ATs) may be assigned to one particular team, many are responsible for treating multiple teams across multiple sports. This means the AT must be ready to treat the various types of injuries which may be common in one sport and not another.
5. They treat the athlete as a whole
Of course, athletic trainers are responsible for helping athletes with their physical health, but the best athletic trainers understand the emotional and psychological impact of an injury as well. The athletic trainer is the first person an athlete will see following an injury and the one the athlete will see on a regular basis during rehabilitation. Exceptional ATs are supportive of athletes at their lowest moments and encourage them to stay positive during the nonlinear rehabilitation process which contains times of progress, times of plateaus, and times of regression. These athletic trainers do their best to help athletes maintain a positive attitude since they know the athletes who can stay optimistic will recover more quickly than those who don’t.
1. Talk to coaches. Coaches often work with medical staff and trainers as a routine part of their job. They might be able to recommend a candidate willing to work for your company.
2. Ask around local gyms. Many athletic trainers work at gyms, fitness centers, or recreational sports clubs.
3. Research professional sports teams. You may be able to find a publicly accessible list of the current staff, including trainers, for local professional sports teams.
4. Check out educational settings. Many universities have physiology or athletic training programs. Post help wanted brochures on college campuses, or contact physiology departments at nearby colleges to recruit upcoming graduates.
The content herein is provided for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Medical information changes constantly, and therefore the content on this website should not be assumed to be current, complete or exhaustive. Always seek the advice of your doctor before starting or changing treatment. If you think you may have a medical emergency, please call your doctor or 9-1-1 (in the United States) immediately.
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