Athletic Trainer Instilling Fear in My Athletes

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
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I train the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams at a college. The new athletic trainer is a chiropractor who, to my knowledge, has never worked full-time as an AT prior to this gig, and she certainly has never regularly lifted in her life.

This has been happening since August but has spiked in the last week: she is constantly telling this or that athlete with a sore shoulder they should avoid ANYTHING overhead (rather difficult for basketball players), the knee tendinitis guys/gals should avoid squatting and do banded duck walks or leg curls on a ball or some other corrective exercise, and many other things along those lines. It’s not worth writing all of the cases out, but every time I get the athlete to ignore her (she never comes to the weight room) and listen to me they are totally fine and continue getting better/stronger.

What’s really startled me this last week is that I have had three athletes come in with a legitimate look of fear when they talk about their current ailment and what the AT just told them about it. At this point, I believe she’s doing actual harm to the athletes by instilling this gnarly fear parasite in their heads and I need to do something about it.

My plan is to go in there and appeal to her intelligence and multiple degrees, then tell her that I want the athletes to keep lifting, and ask how I can get us on the same page so that she is not telling them to avoid x, y, and z while I’m telling them to do exactly the opposite. I’ll meet her in the middle, but I refuse to let her waste the time of a strong athlete by prescribing him/her banded external rotations for 15 minutes when my time with them in the weight room is so limited as it is.

Any advice would be appreciated, as I’m sure you guys have come across these hurdles many times.

What would be some introductory literature I can sneak into her purview in order to get her more interested in the pain/fear avoidance business discussed by you guys? It’s so radically changed the way I train myself and the people around me, and I know she (and her clients/my athletes) will be so much better off if we can get her over here. I would bet she hasn’t even read Starting Strength, so we’re operating from ground zero as far as strength training goes, but she’s obviously well-versed in A&P/biology. I’ll stop typing.

Thanks

2

Hey,

Sorry to to hear about this situation. Going to meet with the person and attempting to form an alliance for the benefit of the athletes is a great first step. Perhaps the initial meeting would be to get to know one another before any strongly held biases are challenged. You could begin with asking about her approach to clinical practice and pain. Then if the opportunity presents itself present different viewpoints under the guise of novelty (meaning asking if she’s heard about the BioPsychoSocial Model) and if she hasn’t then you can offer to send some information. Unfortunately, in these situations trust has to be formed first before beliefs can be changed. Going into their office and strongly suggesting alternative viewpoints isn’t likely to work. However, I applaud your willingness to try to form a relationship for the betterment of your athletes. Keep us posted.

Regardjng things to send the person: podcasts and blogs tend to be my initial step. Sending research often is intimadating to people and/or just the abstract is read. If they listen to the podcast or read the blog and want more supportive evidence then the science flood gates can be released with research evidence.

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