By Mark Winter, LAT, ATC
In honor of National Athletic Training Month, I’ll discuss changes in our profession over the years and how in some instances it’s stayed the same.
In 1950, a small group of 200 athletic trainers gathered in Kansas City, Missouri and formed the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), with the thought of collaborating on enhancing the practicing profession of athletic training, using guidelines in ethics, education, research and practice settings.
Athletic trainers have always been there to help athletes reach their goals, with the first documented occurrence in ancient Greece during the Panhellenic games.
The athletic training family has also learned that along with bandaging (taping) an injury for support, we must also be ready at times to support our athletes’ minds and prepare their bodies for activity with proper nutrition.
Athletes relied on their trainers for guidance in exercise, rest and diet to help keep them at their physical peak. Physicians also guided athletes back to health with exercise.
But what has changed in our profession since the 1950s?
A lot. Early professionals may have dealt with only hot/cold treatments, bandaging and stretching in caring for athletes.
Today, treatments are similar, but have kept up with the advancement of medicine and technology.
Electrical stimulation, ultrasound, diathermy and whirlpool baths are used to achieve healing and well-being. The athletic training family has also learned that along with bandaging (taping) an injury for support, we must be ready at times to support our athletes’ minds and prepare their bodies for activity with proper nutrition.
After all, rehabilitation is the same way we help our athletes get back on that field or court as safe and as healthy as possible.
What’s changed is that the profession has developed multiple safe exercises that produce the same end result of getting that athlete back into action.
Research, or evidence based practice, has shown us that exercising even the smallest of muscle groups can aid in healing the entire body. There are words such as kinetic chain, core stabilization and proprioception to name a few.
Education has also changed. I learned through apprenticeship, as well as learning on the job, and just a few college related classes.
Today’s athletic training students are held to a much more rigid schedule of learning, in addition to multiple clinical settings to enhance their understanding. This class setting is valuable as it prepares a future athletic trainer to understand how the body works. However, I feel the best knowledge comes from “doing,” as they did in 1950s and talking to each other.
Finally, as our profession grows, so do our supporters. In 1990, the athletic training profession was recognized by the American Medical Association as an Allied Health Care Provider, caring for the student-athlete’ well-being and putting their heath first. Whether it be from doctors, parents, coaches or athletes themselves, showing athletes that we care for their health and safety on and off the field is what we do.
That has not changed; athletic trainers are healthcare.
