If you want a high-paying, on-the-move, active, exciting job that requires knowledge in biology and sports, the you should pick to be an athletic trainer. Not to be confused with a personal trainer, who helps various individuals progress and build up their fitness through customized workouts, an athletic trainer is a health-care specialist who helps athletes avoid becoming hurt during athletic or sporting events, instantly treats painful damage done to their bodies, and also assists athletes as they recover from these injuries (Angst 2011, 1). Athletic trainers are the heart of their sport teams; they help provide support in order to keep the athletes up and running to win their games and provide positive support for these players. Read along to find out what it takes to be an athletic trainer and how this job has progressed and will continue to, and what you can benefit from having this exciting job.
To prepare and certify to become an athletic trainer, an individual can even start at high school by taking different math and science classes, such as physical education, biology, anatomy, chemistry, physics, first aid, health, and anything else that is recommended for this profession (Shing 2006, 4). In college, taking courses such as human kinetics, kinesiology, physiology, biomechanics, clinical training, and other human movement sciences, with nutrition and passing the exams with good grades and earning a bachelor degree after three to four years of study in each of them can help a person get an employment as an athletic trainer, but receiving a masters or even a doctoral degree in these courses can definitely ensure a nice future for their career (Justin 2011, 2; Angst 2011, 2). In addition, when someone is positively recommended, licensed, or certified by the Board of Certification, employers will be more interested in their services. When not studying in college, other options a person interested in athletic training can use to prepare for this occupation is to stay active and go to the gym, work with other trainers and teams to understand communication skills with coaches, physicians, athletic directors, and athletes, and make sure to also search for commission on accreditation of athletic training education classes (Shing 2006, 4).
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A few colleges and universities that offer training for this profession and degrees in this field that are located in California are the University of Southern California, California State Fullertorn University, and San Diego State University. The annual cost for attending each college or institution is as follows:
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- USC: $58,000 estimated (Anonymous 2010, 1)
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- CSFU: $24,000 estimated (Anonymous 2011, 1)
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- SDSU: $24,000 estimated (Anonymous 2011, 2)
According to the Board of Certification, students must have 54 units related to athletic training courses and 14 units of general study in order to receive an athletic training undergraduate degree (Ryan 2011, 1).
Salaries for athletic trainers have fluctuated throughout the years by a few thousand, but generally it has risen due to the greater demand for them. As of 2009, the median salary for athletic trainers has been $41,000 a year, the lowest was $25,500 and the best athletic trainers made more than $65,000 a year (Grant 2010, 3).
As previously stated, the outlook towards athletic trainers is great; the demand is very high at this point due to the fact that athletic trainers cost less for teams rather than paying a lot for insurance companies and other medical necessities. As of 2008, there were 16,300 athletic training jobs and it is predicted that by 2018 there will be 22,400 jobs open, which is a 37% increase, which is greater than the average of what other professions will come to be. Many positions are being created in fitness and recreational centers and hospitals, as well as high schools, but competition to land a spot on a college or professional team has a smaller chance, but is not impossible for those who have prepared beforehand (Grant 2010, 2).
Ever since athletic training was introduced into modern society, many innovations and new technology have positively impacted this profession, making it easier to perform many important tasks. It may seem ordinary at first, but clothing is actually specialized for workouts and training. Particular clothes are designed to keep any person who is wearing them cool in the scorching heat and warm in chillly weather, in order to allow them to train no matter what the weather condition may be. Even better, athletic merchandise companies are creating more enhanced clothes that wicks sweat rather than absorbing it. Also, for team jerseys, the numbers are imprinted on the back instead of being tabbed on, which makes the person wearing it a bit uncomfortable (De Lisa 2011, 2). In addition, shoes are also being developed with more advanced technology, and are being designed for each specific sport they are needed for by having different and unique sole, side, and lace designs to help increase athletic performance. Diverse running shoes are designed for different runners, and differ in levels of frequency of training, natural movement of the foot, and the runner's performance level (De Lisa 2011, 1). Also, to help provide greater support for strained muscles for multiple parts of the body and helps athletes stay off injuries, neoprene braces were invented. Before the innovation of neoprene braces, athletes would have tape around the area where they experienced pain and wrapped spandex over it in order to keep the tape in place (Loh 2011, 2). These braces cover different parts of the body, including the foot, ankle, leg, knee, thigh, hip, pelvis, shoulder, arm, elbow, forearm, wrist, and hand (Smith 2011, 1). In fact, studies have shown that braces have minimized the number of injuries with athletes while performing in sports (Yang et al 2011, 5). For example, if an athlete is still recovering from an injury, they can wear a brace, which will offer protection, and it will allow them to be able to play once again (Yang et al 2011, 6). New equipment helps maximize power, movemement, and comfort while working out and training. Examples of equipment that is being newly renovated and improved consist of: baseball bats, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks, soccer balls, and for safety and protection during these activites are helmets and padding (De Lisa, 4).
But that's not it yet; lots of new innovated equipment athletic trainers and athletes utilize use real technology, such as the Internet. The Internet helps with communication between doctors, physicians, and the atheltic trainers, and also assists in organizing medical files and makes it easier to send information between different doctors. Before the Internet, in order to communicate, athletic trainers had to call the doctor's or physician's office when they had business with them that they needed to handle (Loh 2011, 3). Athletic trainers also use different tracking tools with the athletes that they are working with and training, which helps them monitor success with their athletes' performance and fitness levels. Different types of tracking tools include: pedometers, which counts the number of steps a person makes while running or walking; sport watches, which tell time, record laps, and even play music; scales and body fat calculators, which records weight loss or weight gain; and heart rate monitors, which display the heart rate fitness levels (De Lisa 2011, 3). On a day that an athlete does not work with their athletic trainer, they can always use their training programs, which help make training for athletes at home easier. Examples of training programs can be using a pre-recorded DVD with different workouts, or using the exercise programs on fitness websites, in addition to the nutrition information and email support on those websites. When exercising in their home gyms, athletes can use their tracking tools to view their fitness levels (De Lisa 2011, 5). Some of the new technology athletic trainers use are actually needed in serious or life- threatening situations. Invented in 1973, MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Imaging, diagnoses significance of disastrous injuries and provide a quicker recovery time rather than before, when doctors had to put athletes underneath diagnostic surgery to analyze which muscle or bone an athlete tore or fragmented, for instance (Loh 2011, 1). Neuropsychological testing is very similar to Magnetic Resonance Imaging in a few aspects. Both help diagnose what injury an athlete suffers from, but neuropsychological testing specializes in the brain. This form of testing is often used after an athlete suffered from a concussion and doctors need to know how well they can think, instead of holding up fingers and having the injured count them, which is not enough to see how healthily one's brain is functioning (Loh 2011, 4). With new innovations in technology, athletic training has advanced greatly throughout the decades since it has been introduced to the world.
Given all these facts, the profession of an athletic trainer promises a great future. In addition to making an abundance of money, you can gain a greater understanding of the human body and the functions it performs throughout, in addition to special ways to treat it when certain factors affect it. But although it may seem quite simple, this occupation calls for a lot of preparation beforehand and while at the task.
There are a lot of factors that contribute to this occupation, including both positive and negative aspects. A negative part of the job is the great amount of travel. That may not seem so bad, but it causes you to be forced to not be with your family or friends most of the time, and takes away time from your normal, everyday schedule. Also maintaining enthusiasm with the athlete that you are helping is extremely difficult in some cases, due to the fact that they take may take out their anger on you and may become depressed when learning the condition they are in. In addition to these troubles, you may have to deal with income dilemmas. A trainer’s schedule is their athlete’s schedule in most scenarios, so if the athlete cancels out on you, then it costs you money in most cases (Westlake 2011, 1, 2, 3). But to deal with this problem, you can have more than one client so they get more than one source of pay. On the bright side, there are also a lot more positive factors. Athletic trainers make a large amount of money in earnings, and you can also end up getting a workout as you are doing this job, so you can stay fit and healthy while at work, and yet there are so many more positive contributions to list. So you should not worry about the few small things and should not let that hold you back. So you should be interested and make sure to become an athletic trainer and you will be set for life.