Difficulties of the PPE and Preparedness for Injury

Physical examinations prior to athletic participation are an important aspect of being prepared for injury in the student-athlete. I don’t know of anybody who would disagree with that, but I believe that we may be complicating matters if we’re not careful.

What Can Be Learned from Sports

This is from an old discussion on the High School Baseball Web discussion forum (http://community.hsbaseballweb.com/forums). A high school player had posted some frustrations about playing time and he felt misled and mistreated. Here was my response. I was a freshman in college at the time and one year removed from a similar situation. That post was met with great response then and it still rings in my head on occasion now. I’m surprised I hadn’t posted it sooner..

You are going through something that is very hard. I know–I was in your shoes just last spring. I was a senior who had been in the coach’s program since 7th grade (was around my entire life). I definitely felt betrayed when I wasn’t given what I thought was a fair shot at winning the starting spot. I did get the first start of the year and we won. That was on a Monday and we played 5 games that week I think. I started three and we won two of those three. I felt pretty good because although I didn’t do a whole lot on offense, things were pretty solid behind the dish. Well, due to a variety of mishaps I found myself off the field and I really thought that I being punished for others’ mistakes. We were bad and I felt like he had chosen to move on which as much as I hated it, I understood why he was doing it.

If You Want to Be It, Then Do It

Sorry for the rant today, but it’s something that has bothered me lately. This post is not intended to be offensive and I hope people don’t take it as such. But today I must put my feelings out there…

If you want to be it, then go do it! I think this is one of our (many) problems in healthcare. Everybody thinks they are qualified to do everybody’s job. Chiropractors demand to be called doctors. Nurses want to be called doctors. Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners want the power of being a doctor. Physical Therapists want the power of being a doctor. But Physical Therapists also want to be Chiropractors and Athletic Trainers too! Chiropractors want to be doctors and they want to be Physical Therapists too! Athletic Trainers think they should be Physical Therapists. Anybody else confused yet?

What’s in a Name Part 2

Last year during National Athletic Training Month, I discussed the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s plan to evaluate a potential name change. You can read that post here.

This year I am enrolled through the University of South Florida as a graduate student and last week our discussion was about this very topic. I’d like to talk a little bit about that discussion as well as introduce a new year on the blog during National Athletic Training Month.

So What’s In a Name?