What Makes an Athletic Trainer Tick

Have you ever worked with an Athletic Trainer (AT)? Whether it be on the sport field or in the workplace, athletic trainers are on hand as health care professionals. They are responsible for making quick decisions that can dramatically impact your well-being.

With this pressure that ATs face in mind, its best to be conscious of things that may make them tick. Like with every profession, there are some things that get under an Athletic Trainer’s skin. Because our well-being depends on them, we need to be sure we are respecting their jobs. Our friends at Ultra Ankle have put together some key annoyances of athletic trainers.

• Moms and Dads do not need to provide their own physical evaluation. It undermines the evaluation done by the athletic trainer and can interfere with a proper diagnosis.
• Never call an AT just a trainer. An athletic trainer is a health care professional that is highly educated. By just calling this title a “trainer,” lessens the profession and can makes its status synonymous with a personal trainer.
• Just because it has “athletic” in the name, doesn’t mean athletic trainers just train athletes. They are there to spot injuries, rehabilitate and prevent injuries based on their vast health knowledge. Athletic trainers provide support to more than just athletes. They service dancers, police officers, baggage handlers and a lot of other professions.
• Don’t ask an AT if they know how to tape, it’s like asking a surgeon if they know how to cut. Taping is one of the first things ATs learn how to do in college.
• Many athletes expect Gatorade to be a natural resource like water. They ask for Gatorade from their AT without realizing it’s not free.
• If you borrow a cooler, please return it the way you found it – clean. Many times, when a cooler is borrowed by a coach it is returned filthy.
• Lastly, people who fake an injury to get out of practice – just don’t do it. Your AT may just make the next “warm up” session more intense than practice.

Next time you interact with your athletic trainer, try to be conscious of these annoyances. It’ll make your experience and your athletic trainer’s much better.

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