Although many high school have at least one trainer on staff, there are still several across the country that cannot afford such a luxury. Also, many coaches are called upon to act as trainers and handle many of the preventive measures to help their athletes. For these reasons, Champion Fitness Physical Therapy ATC Kevin Casey, who serves as the head trainer at Pontiac (IL) High School, has produced a series of videos, highlighting some of the more prevalent areas that coaches will find useful.
Video 1—-Lower Extremity Taping techniques—Ankle sprains, Arch problems, and Two methods of handling turf toe
Video 2—-Knee Taping Techniques—Hyperextended Knee, MCL Sprains, Patellar Tendonitis
Video 3—-Elbow and Hand Taping Techniques—Hyperextended Elbow, Buddy Taping of Fingers
This is another in a series of presentations, which, hopefully, can provide the coach with the proper knowledge of some basic skills, the kind, if done properly, could keep the athlete competing and, hopefully, out of the training room. In this entry, Tera Moritz, currently a member of the Champion Fitness Physical Therapy staff and a former member of the ISU football squad’s athletic training staff in 2010, demonstrates the proper techniques for taping the wrist and the thumb, two often-injured areas affecting many athletes. Tera, who performed an internship at Champion Fitness Physical Therapy, is assisted by Champion Fitness ATC Luke Thompson. The series is hosted by Mick Peterson, Growth and Development Director for Champion and himself a former high school coach for over 30 years.
Oftentimes, coaches at the high school level are asked to perform duties that go way beyond the basic X’s and O’s. Most of that “extra” deals with the health and well-being of their athletes, both on and off the court/field. With the help of various ATCs from the Champion Fitness Physcial Therapy staff, Growth and Develpoment Director Mick Peterson, himself a former coach for 33 years, introduces a new program designed to help coaches eliminate potential problems that could be avoided with the information available.
“Many times, the head coach assumes that his staff members know how to perform basic techniques like taping, hydrating, stretching, or handling various weather issues with their athletes, simply because of the nature of the profession,” Peterson explained. “However, that may or not be the case. Some schools have trainers who take care of this; others don’t. The head coach figures his coaches know what they’re doing when it comes to …taping, for example, but, in reality, we may not be that comfortable. Regardless, we coaches, both head coach and assistants, learn through experience that we could ALL use a little refresher course now and then, whether there’s a trainer on the school’s staff or not.”
This is the first of a series of presentations, which, hopefully, can provide the coach with the proper knowledge of some basic skills, the kind, if done properly, could keep the athlete competing and, hopefully, out of the training room. In this first entry, ATC Luke Thompson demonstrates the proper technique of taping an ankle, the most common ailment seemingly the coach has to face.
Although many high school have at least one trainer on staff, there are still several across the country that cannot afford such a luxury. Also, many coaches are called upon to act as trainers and handle many of the preventive measures to help their athletes. For these reasons, Champion Fitness Physical Therapy ATC Kevin Casey, who serves as the head trainer at Pontiac (IL) High School, has produced a series of videos, highlighting some of the more prevalent areas that coaches will find useful.
