Hey, this is Sandy. And Randy?
And we're here on AT Corner. Being an Athi trainer comes with
ups and downs, and we're here to showcase it all.
Join us as we share our world in sports medicine.
Welcome back to another episode of AT Corner.
For this week's story episode, we're going to be talking about
the home away from home. Athletic training clinic, the
athletic training facility, the athletic training room, I could
go on and on. And that was actually one of the
first story questions that I asked on our Instagram stories
was what do you call the place you work?
I call it clinic. Yeah, yeah.
I feel like when I'm talking to people, most of the time I say
clinic, Yeah. But 80% of the people in our
poll, which was over a couple 100 votes was ATR, 80% said ATR.
Oh, interesting. Interesting.
I feel like that that's pretty common, but I actually.
Didn't mean that's what everyone knows it has.
Right. But I I didn't think that it was
going to be 80%. Yeah.
I felt like a lot of people that a lot of colleagues I know like
to call it like a clinic or facility.
Facility only got 5%. I'm surprised by that.
And the clinic got 11%. I'm again I'm surprised so low.
Yeah, yeah, I was really surprised too, especially after
like NATA put out this big thing like about the the verbiage and
like, you know, Jackson B said I have too much going on to fight
the Battle of. It's actually called the
athletic training facility. Everyone knows it is the
training room, which I, I respect.
Like there, especially in athletic training, you have to
pick your battles and picking the battle of what the name of
where you work is. That's yeah, I was.
Going to say that that one I can stomach.
Like whatever. If we won't call an athletic
training room, we call it. I mean, I do, I do call it the
athletic training room. Yeah.
I try not to call it the training room.
Yeah, no, for sure. I try to make sure it's still
athletic training room. Or ATR.
Also accompanied in the
background of this episode are our two dogs.
We just got a puppy so. So we are making it work
recording with a puppy barely three months.
So that just if that puts any context.
Yeah, another mask off for A2 corner and then 5% was other.
Jessica J said she calls it a treatment center.
That one's kind of cool. She said.
I had a professor talk about the treatment center in college and
I loved it. I work in the orthopedic clinic
at our hospital and they pay for me to go out to our local high
school and that's where I call it the treatment center.
Yeah, that's pretty cool. I like Treatment center.
Our I remember our program director was really big on
calling it a clinic because he he would say like, oh, people
call an athlete training room, but it's hardly ever just one
room. It's like multiple rooms.
So it should be called athlete training rooms.
I was like, that's true. The only problem with like
facility that I have, I I like centre.
The only problem with facility is I feel like when you say
training facility you think of like personal training.
Oh yeah. Or like a workout space or like
somewhere where someone goes to train.
Yeah, I can see that. I I would prefer athletic
training room over athletic training facility personally.
Oh, I don't know, 'cause when you say athletic training
facility, it kind of sounds cool.
Mark W said athletic healthcare facility and I really like that.
I never thought of that. That one's pretty cool.
Because it is a healthcare facility.
Yeah, and it depending on the setting, it's going to be
athletic. Yeah, most of the time.
Yeah, I do like that. I've never heard that.
That's that's pretty cool. And then anonymous says sports
medicine center. OK.
Yeah, for a college setting. You know what?
I have seen that for college setting I think sports medicine
center. Some, and yes, I think sometimes
depending on how close you are with your physicians and if your
physicians also work out of it, it might be easier to call it
sports medicine center where is sometimes like calling it sports
medicine without the physicians actually being in it.
I think sometimes they get a little butt hurt.
Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, most somehow
it when I've seen it like that, it's been physicians are in
there every day. I mean, that makes sense.
So, yeah, no, I've definitely like you said, like it kind of
depends on that kind of scenario.
Right. That's why I like the healthcare
facility, like athletic healthcare facility.
It just I like. That's a long title.
We've called ours in the past the Dojo of healing.
And then I really followed the the Barbie movie with my Mojo
Dojo. Yeah, Mojo Dojo.
Casa House. So then I also asked, how much
do you love the layout of your athletic training room?
You know, most people actually don't love the layout of their
athletic training room. That's interesting.
I I I love the layout of my athletic training room, but
there's always more that could be done to make it better.
I mean, there's no perfect athletic training space.
Because anytime they're designing it, they never listen
to the athletic trainer. That's another thing that we
talk about later. What?
OK, give us an idea of what your layout looks like and then I'll
I'll explain what my layout looks like.
So in in my individual clinic, it's basically one giant
rectangle. Like I would say.
How do I put like put it into context?
It's an open layout. Yeah, it's it's an open layout,
so there's no like office, there's no wet room, which is
kind of a bummer, but honestly, like I actually.
Have it. But it's also the satellite
facility. Yeah, it.
Was designed as a satellite facility, but it actually works
out really well having like working in it all the time it it
is pretty spacious for that and how my team practices are kind
of laid out it's never really like packed so it actually kind
of works I would say it's probably.
How many treatment tables do you have?
I have two. I have two treatment tables and
I have a taping table. Two taping tables.
Yeah, 2 taping tables. Yeah, it's one like long.
Yeah. So 2 taping tables.
But yeah, no, it's, I think it gets the job.
I would say it's bigger than your traditional like high
school athletic training room. OK, I'll take that.
I think maybe like double the size of what most people would
probably say is like a normal high school.
We're in California, so it could be California high schools, I
think. I think you can't base it off of
everyone. Yeah.
So I think you might be double. That would probably be my gym
clinic. I mean, when I was at a high
school, my athletic training facility was, well, first it was
a corner of a church. Like, it was a little church
classroom. And then they moved me to where
the principal's office was. So I was next to the printers.
It's important. And then they moved me to a
portable where I had Christmas decorations near me.
So I had to like, move that out of the way to do some rehab.
I mean, I've had a, I've had a warehouse.
This man here. I had no walls.
That was probably. The how?
How was that with like being brought up to the weight room?
It was actually pretty nice, 'cause like you could do so much
more with rehab right there, right?
So that was actually really nice.
So you want to read this one from Marissa S.
Yeah, Marissa says. My favorite thing is I have a
door straight into the weight room with a big window along the
wall. It's super nice to be able to
watch kids getting back into team lifts or utilize the weight
room as part of their rehab, but it can get so loud.
I put in earplugs if I'm trying to get work done or go for a
walk around campus until they're done lifting if I get a
headache. But the only bad ones are
football. Everyone else is pretty chill.
My kids know I don't let them get out of doing hard things,
they'll pop in for help modifying a specific lift when
they're when they have an injury and I love that.
I do get annoyed when I get a stream of them wanting wrist
tape to lift though. I have also been known to text
coach if there's some malingerers and he'll come scare
them straight and get them back on task.
So I can relate to the getting too loud portion because in that
said warehouse, it wasn't the weight room that was the
problem. It was the fact that we had a
basketball court in there. I forgot about that.
Yes and the amount of times basketball would like to come
shoot around during the day all I would hear are just bouncing
basketballs all day so I can relate.
Anytime I had to get work done I'd put in the air pods and
noise cancelling. Thank goodness for.
Those it made a big difference by the way they do work.
Yeah. I feel like the weight room
getting like being close to it is a blessing and a curse.
We in our actually in both Atrs, we have a main ATR and we have a
satellite ATR. But one of them is worse than
the other because there's an actual functional door.
Yeah. That goes to, they're both next
to men's locker rooms. Yeah.
But one of them is like the door is like the, the back door goes
straight to the locker room. And if we don't block it off,
like people go through it to go to the locker room, which is
really, really annoying. Yeah.
So we try to tell them like, hey guys, like go around.
Yeah, Nah, don't do that. Yeah, don't come through here.
Right. Our main ATR is really long.
Like really long and skinny. It's got a ton of cabinets and
drawers which is really nice, and a storage space in the back.
I wish I had more storage space. Right.
You have like these really tall cabinets, like built in like
tall ones. Which are nice.
We just have a lot of them, but it's literally like you walk in,
there's like a really skinny hallway, there's like cubbies.
And then on the other side there's our offices.
And then just straight back is, is our whole ATR and there's
like 8 or 9 tables. Like we have a lot of tables.
Yeah, you guys do have a lot of tables.
And then like we have a, we have a good amount of space, we just
don't have rehab space. So we, every time I have, and I
do a lot of rehab in my like my return plays and like injury
anything, like I do a lot of rehab.
So anytime we have a bunch of people and they're like, we
literally send them outside to do their rehab.
I was gonna say I I I have to do the the hallway sometimes.
I don't think, I think it actually shows like too when
we're so busy that we have a bunch of people doing rehab
outside, like I think it shows that we don't have space.
Yes, you know, like it. I think actually this is a topic
that I was talking about with some other people.
But like, if you just keep making things work, like people
outside of the situation don't understand what weight it has
and how much stress it's putting on you, like, sure, we could
pack it. And I actually, I don't think we
could actually even pack them in safely.
Like to do rehab, right, right. But like if, if you don't, if
you don't like advocate and draw attention to some of the things
that you're dealing with, like it's never going to change.
Yeah, for sure. And like we're, we are making it
work. We're having them do rehab
outside. You should bring the fire
Marshall in. Be like see This is why I need a
new facility. It's not safe having as.
Many. Well, they're doing it outside.
Have them come in. So just shows, yeah.
How organized is your athletic training room?
It's pretty organized I'm pretty proud of.
It yours is really organized. I'm pretty proud of it.
I do my best. Everything has a home.
It does. It does.
Most people said that their Atrs were pretty organized.
I think it makes sense. It kind of like aligns with the
fact that like it's healthcare, like a lot of like supplies,
like first aid supplies and like stuff like that.
I think rehab areas tend to not be as organized.
Oh yeah, that can get. That's where the tornado
happens, right? Megan M says garage storage is
the way to go. It's lockable, durable cabinets
with holes for electrical cord access and and it's magnetic so
you can hang things. It's also really customizable
for like whatever you need. Nice, I really want one of those
like mobile. Like a tool shed, like with
drawers and. And it has like a work bench on
top. I want that for courtside.
Or even like in the ATR and then you could just roll it out.
It could work in the atrium except for I don't think in mine
I have the space for it. You could put it right outside
though. So what I've, what I've heard,
what I've heard some people do is they have one of those and
they have it like a first aid station and they literally roll
it like right outside their ATR. So if someone needs like a
Band-Aid or like first aid or something like they have access
to that like, and it's like right there, right next to you.
Because I was thinking about getting like little baskets as
my like blood like biohazard kits and throwing them on the
carts for their water even though.
Oh yeah, we do that. None of them would use it.
We use it for like if there's a ton of blood on the court, we
can just grab the blood kit and then.
That's nice. OK, have you ever designed an HR
from scratch? Unfortunately, no.
You started to. I oh, yeah, you're right.
I forgot about that. But it just never, I don't know,
that was a complex situation. I did.
Yeah, you're right. But again, it was kind of weird.
I don't think it's like the traditional designing an ATR
from scratch. That's true. 28% of people on
our poll said yes, they have designed an ATR from scratch.
72% said no. I feel like that's such a big
thing because you're talking about like a, but like again,
traditional setting, a school building it like that's, that's
a lot of money. So I feel like it's really hard
to see see that happening a lot. I don't know, I feel like this
reigns pretty true to like I I do know a bunch of people who've
done it, but it's not a lot. It's not the majority.
It's. Mostly like Community College
because that's where a lot of the upgrades have been
happening. That's true at.
Least in our state. That's true.
I mean, to an extent like that, like in several of my jobs I
have been asked because like, for example, at the high school
they were thinking about making one, but like, did I actually
design it? No.
And then at one of my jobs, they were building a satellite ATR
and they were asking us like some things to go inside of it.
But they what we didn't actually design the space.
We we picked out what was like going inside.
Yeah, see, that's what's funny to me is like, I feel like.
Which it's built and actually I haven't gone to see it yet, I
just realized. The thing that that always gets
me is like, you get all these people involved and it's like it
seems like the AT is the one who's like left out.
The AT Yeah. I thought you said the AD.
Oh. No, the AT he's always left out
on at at certain for certain meetings.
And it's like this is like designing the softball field and
just like we don't need to head coach.
Honestly, it happens more often than it.
Like I, I, it's so easy to be like it's us.
We're the bottom of the totem pole, like it's blah, blah,
blah. It happens more often than you
think in other areas in outside of athletic training too.
Like even when I was working in a very, very large company, the
performing arts entertainment company that did like costuming
and stuff, like the performers were not consulted in these
costume designs that were causing them pain.
And then when they would, when they they would change the
costume designs, the performers were still not consulted the
ones who were actually wearing. See, that's the thing and I
think I don't know what it is. I don't know why this happens.
I just feel like the the amount of people that get involved with
things like that, because there are a lot of moving parts and
there's a lot of thing, a lot of people, a lot of other
stakeholders that do need to be involved that I think it's just
it gets lost in the shuffle that like, oh, we should also have
these people. I think the reason why is
because they're like, oh, this is going to be way too hard if
we ask like this many people or even like the people who are
going to be in it every single day are going to be asking for
the moon. So I think some sometimes it's
just easier to just have like one point person.
You know the the only problem that you run into is you lose a
lot of the actual usages of what the space or.
You, you. You absolutely do.
So there has to be a better way.
Like I get, like you said, I get that point of just like you
can't, you can't ask everybody, 'cause it would be hard to
coordinate schedules for all those meetings, by the way.
Yes, but I'm just trying to think like, yeah, part of that's
true, right? If they asked me what do I want,
an athletic training room, I'm for sure going to ask for the
moon first, right? But we can narrow that down.
We can narrow that. I just want a few extra plugs at
a place that makes sense. Honestly, outlets are nice.
I know. Why do we?
Why do we wait? Hold on.
Why do we skimp out on the outlets in the athletic training
room? Because they're thinking about
building normal classrooms. We're not normal.
No, that's why it's not so straightforward to build our
spaces. That's right.
The athletic training space. What do you think about that?
Still sounds like training space, huh it?
Does, but I think it's I don't feel the gusto.
So this person said I teach as well the concept of how I wanted
it. Classroom leading into ATR that
has a separate entrance to the hallway and a door leading to
the gym is there. The overall square footage and
storage not so much. I also would have liked to have
a door leading straight outside, but security purposes wouldn't
allow for it. See, and I think that's the
thing, like, it's like, give or take, you know, there's things
you could like, yes, you would have liked, but there's also
things like, hey, like if I don't get it, I can live with
it. Like I can live without it.
But there are some things like, no, like I need this, right?
I think it's like with any kind of negotiation, right?
There's a give and take that there's some stuff like you got
to compromise on. I got to say, every single
person that I've talked to, when they get a new ATR and they're
showing me their new ATR, they always point out all the flaws.
I'm like, I think it's just human nature.
Like it's just what you. See.
Yeah. And also too, like, how much is
it Like, hey, I'm not like trying to like brag.
Yeah, I get that. I do check on this.
Even like state-of-the-art facilities.
Yeah, well, there's always something wrong.
Oh yeah. You know what's?
Great. I've been to one
state-of-the-art facility that they've been like, oh, look how
cool this is, like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I'm just thinking, yeah. Everyone else is like oh, this
is what's wrong with it this. Is I mean, I like mine.
Like I, I, I, I, I I can't point out anything that I'm like, oh,
I absolutely do not like this. Like I hate this.
I mean a bigger room would be nice but like for what it is I
don't know. Does anyone else on campus have
access to your ATR? Unfortunately for sure, my gym
clinic head coaches do. Oh, do they really?
Yeah, because the ice machine's in there.
Oh, and it is technically the same key as the equipment room.
They have access to the equipment room, yeah.
Because most of them that, well, that's where they store their
jerseys and stuff and we don't have like, like the equipment
room that's in our gym isn't necessarily staffed.
So like they come over to do it. So a lot of times the coaches do
a lot of their own stuff. Highly surprised by this. 165%
of people said yes. Other people on campus have
access to your ATR. That's yeah, that's. 35 Only 35%
said they have private access. I mean, I'm, that's like, yeah,
I'm not happy about it. But also like, like they respect
the space, especially now that they know that I work out of it
all the time. So like, I don't have that.
I'm not. I don't really want to do that
battle because they're respecting the space.
I don't think they really go in there and do anything like
outside of getting ice. Yeah, I've, I've had people who
do not respect the space. And that's the sad part.
Right. We just managed to get private
access. That's nice because the thing
that was holding us back from getting private access was
because people wanted stuff for first aid and they wanted stuff
to get ice. But so we asked, we asked
everyone like why do you need access to athletic training
room? Like what?
What is in there that you need? Because like obviously like
medical records, medicine, like all the like stuff that all.
The things they shouldn't have. Access to right slash things
were going missing all the time. That's the problem.
Including AE DS. Yes, I remember.
That so very frustrating. But anyway, we asked like, what
do you need? And it was first aid supplies
and ice. So what we did was we made, we
had an ice machine put in the concession stand that everyone
has access to. They have to walk a little bit
further, but they have they have access to ice.
And then we made first aid kits that we keep now in the division
office. Ah, that's nice.
Yeah, see solutions. Yeah.
Yeah, I'm again, I I wish I could get that lock changed, but
so far that hasn't been an issue.
So that's not the battle I want to fight right now.
Right. And I mean, do you even keep
your records in there? I do have records in there, but
they are locked. OK, yeah, like all the HIPAA
stuff is locked. It's more my bigger concern at
that point is people trying to do treatments without me there.
That is tough. And that's why like, I know they
respect the space because I've never seen anything right off or
like someone's messed with something.
We've had coaches before, not in my current place, but coaches
who have let people in to have access to ATR so they could do
like treatments. In wild, yeah.
Someone said sadly some do. Stadium ATR is the same key as
the coach's office and the school.
ATR is separate but admins have access.
But one of my admins is also a basketball coach.
Love that. Yeah, that's that's kind of a
tough situation. We fought to make sure access
was secured due to medical documents and HIPAA, but some
coaches were not happy with that.
Then Courtney P says everyone has access to the main door
because that's how they get ice. But only I have keys to the
storage cabinets and drawers, so that's where I keep anything
valuable slash harmful. Technically the same, like I'm
the only one that has a key to my cabinet so if I really want
to be a stickler and if I was really worried about it I could
lock all my cabinets. So that's actually I've been to
a couple Atrs that do this and I think this is a great middle
ground. Like, if you can't fight to get
private access, like at least you can have some security and
privacy over the things that matter.
Yes. Yeah.
Do you let your athletes hang out in your athletic training
room? Yes, yes, you know what I mean.
There are times it's sometimes a a bit much 'cause I'm like, I'm
trying to work on the computer and they keep wanting to talk to
me, which is nice. But it's like, you have to
remember, guys, I had to entertain the team before you.
And if I entertain every team, I don't get any work done.
But no, for the most part, yes. Yeah, we, that's a little
difficult or different than us because you don't have like a
wall of your office. Like, at least like if I'm, if
I'm sitting in the ATR, like, and I'm talking to them, I can
like walk around the glass wall to go to my desk and then they
know like, oh, I'm going to sit at my desk and like, I'm going
to work now. Yeah.
I mean. So like they can hang out in the
ATR and like, I am not as disturbed.
You're not as I, I have kicked out people who have been just
absolutely like you guys. I I cannot think in my own
office and you're over there. Yeah.
I mean in the in our stadium clinic, I do have that.
I have that. I can shut the door. 82% of
people said sometimes they let athletes hang out in the ATR,
15% said always and 3% said never.
Yeah, I feel like that's kind of true.
I feel like more people are getting more comfortable just
having them hang out. I think so too.
I had a job that our our admin were were very adamant that they
don't want people hanging out in the ATR.
It was actually one of my interview questions which I was
kind of getting the sense from them of that, but I am not 100%
in that boat. Like I get why because they're
saying like they're hanging out in HR instead of other things
like weights or like whatever. But like, that's not when I'm
letting them hang out in HR, that's.
A yeah. You know it's a.
Different situation. So I think you just have to be
wary about them, be smart about that.
And you just have to know that, like, sometimes athletes are
going to lie to you and say they're not supposed to be
somewhere when they really are. So as long as you know, there's
no generic schedules of like when things are still like if
you know, like, for example, I know football's supposed to be
in weights at 1:30. So like.
Yeah, yeah. Why aren't you in there, buddy?
Right, Marissa says. I had to fight to get the kids
to trust me and naturally share their concerns with me.
I found that letting them hang out when it's slow helps build
that relationship. If I have a lot of taping, slash
rehab or getting ready for games, I kick out the Lingerers.
Or if I'm a little overstimulated and need some
quiet, they're really good at leaving when I tell them to.
That's good. Someone says it'll as long as
they're not bothering people getting treatment, etcetera.
I want them to feel comfortable in the training room.
And I think it helps reduce the stigma of being in the training
room is only when unfortunate things, yeah.
I agree. I think it's just creating a
nice place to you want to be here.
Mm hmm. Miguel M says if it's hot, or if
they're waiting for a ride home, or if they just need a safe
space. Yeah, hell yeah, I know.
I've been having to cover the other clinics.
I haven't been in my gym clinic and all my athletes are always
asking when are you coming back to the gym?
I like the gym better. The gym, I said.
I know. It's pretty homey, huh?
Yeah, I know. It's really nice.
Especially to my like, especially to like the recruits
who come in. I always explained our space as
a place where you come take care of business, not as a place
where you come and fear or it's a bad thing for coming here.
And the coaches all backed me up on that because I want them to
know that it's like, like you're doing whatever you need to do on
the field. You are doing whatever you need
to do in here. And they are synonymous.
And it's not like you can only come in here when something bad
is happening. For sure.
I mean, my biggest thing with with with my athletes especially
cause basketball 'cause you know, they like to give me Gray
hairs anyways, they always end. I always tell my basketball guys
like dude, like everyone's heard like, oh, LeBron spends like
$1,000,000 on his body. I'm like, dude, like you got
that right here for free. You don't have to be hurt to
come in and take care of your body, no.
Or like when people come in with their friends and I'm like, do
you need anything? Or your moral support?
Right Moral support. Yeah, that's my thing when they
bring bring buddies and like you just just hanging out just moral
support, right. The one though that is sometimes
a little iffy that like sometimes kind of like it's a
little too much is when they bring like a random person.
Yeah, that's it gets a little weird.
Like, I get it if it's like a significant injury, like we got
someone like in tears and stuff like that, I'm fine with.
It it's all different, yeah, but like you're.
Just coming in and just some random, I'm kind of like, like
as long as it's not like happening all the time or you're
bringing like the entourage, like I'll let it slide.
But sometimes they shouldn't be like, no, you got to be outside.
Right, right. How about this one?
Do you have music in your athletic training room?
I should I should. I thought you did.
Well, in mine I really don't. Oh, but you put stuff on your
computer. Yeah, I put YouTube TV on my
computer. I just have Sports Center going.
I should put music on. But here's the problem that I
found with music. Everyone complaints.
Yeah, it doesn't matter. What's whatever, someone's going
to hate it. Somebody's like, I don't like
this song. I've heard this.
You should put this on. And then you put that on.
Then someone comes in. I don't like this.
That's what it turns into. We have different themes on
different days. I mean, that's nice.
So then we're like, OK, like, exactly.
Like, you can't complain about this music because whatever.
Yeah, but we do let the athletes connect to the Bluetooth we
have. 68% of people said yes, they have music. 32% said no.
Alex S You want to read this one?
Yeah, Alex says I'm anti music but the rest of my staff love
music so I got the short straw. The one exception is Pitbull
Friday where we listen to Pitbull every Friday.
I mean he does have some bangers.
It's three O 5. Not my idea, but I respect it.
Because you have to. It's Pitbull.
That's hilarious. I prefer to have sports playing.
My go to saying for this issue is this is a sports medicine
clinic. There should be sports on.
Oh my gosh, I like to be able to hear during my evaluation slash
treatment, huge asterisk that I am almost deaf.
So that plays a factor. Ha ha.
I always lose that battle, Mr. Wilwi.
Sound effects provided by Randy Darling Pitbull Pitbull Pitbull
Friday. I I mean, I agree with like I I
don't know, wait, I shouldn't say that I don't know.
I don't music's OK. Like I said, the reason I'm anti
music is that the complaining. But like a lot of times I just
have like sports on. But even then I'm just kind of
like. So we put sometimes.
So Juan has a like his computer connects to our TV and so like
he'll put on like some of our sport, some of our sporting
events, sometimes like a big sporting event, but some, but
like, sometimes it'll be like one of our streams or something.
And the problem is we just get locked in.
Oh, dude, we have ATV, Like we have ATV in the the stadium
clinic. And like there's times like
something's on and I'm like watching, like I feel like an
iPad kid. I'm watching.
I'm like, I'm getting way too locked in on this.
Like I have to stop. Yeah, I really, I really feel
like when there's music playing, like even if you get into it,
like you can get into it and jam, like while you're doing
stuff. Yeah, but like you, you just sit
and you just stare at the TV. Yeah, that is the one nice thing
about having sports on. Like I feel like like I don't.
I wouldn't necessarily get locked in.
That's what we have on I. Don't know.
I'm just saying like for me, not for me.
Like I could have sports on in the background and just not kind
of not care. Yeah.
Like I get if it's a big like when we have like the Olympics
in like World Cup, like that's really fun to put on, but like
day-to-day, like just have ESPN on.
I'm like. Sometimes on like a really
pumping day, we'll have like if someone's really good on the
like, what? Whoever's DJ like someone's
really good on the tunes and we are just like blasting music.
Sometimes I'll take like the flexi wrap handles and I'll do
like microphone and like go around and have people like sing
with it. That's fun.
It's fun. Yeah, it is fun.
It doesn't happen a lot, but on those days like good dance party
days, good little karaoke days, Zoe H says.
I connect to a JBL speaker but usually let athletes pick a
station on Spotify if they want, as long as it's appropriate.
It usually depends who is in for rehab and who picks the station
lol. We listen to a good variety.
You'd also be amazed at the music.
Some of these athletes don't know.
One of my girls didn't know who Avril Lavigne was.
Get out. Needless to say, we also do some
educating. Oh yeah, dude, I've had some
people try to be a hater on Taylor Swift.
I kick him out. Oh, Randy's a big Swifty.
Yeah, they they tried to talk. They tried to talk mess on
Taylor. And I'm like, you don't talk to
her that way. Unbelievable.
And then I'll hit him with the I don't know about you feeling 22.
What happened in 32? OK, if I say that, they're not
going to know what that means. They're going to be like.
What? OK, so I did ask if people had
ATV in their ATR. 60% of people said no.
It was actually 40% of people saying yes.
It was actually higher than I than I thought.
Yeah, I was going to say, I feel like that's that's actually
higher than what I thought because I thought that was like
really cool. You have ATV and I'm like, oh
whoa. Yeah, I, I mean, I, I know
people who have T VS in their ATRI guess we have ATV in our
ATR. We just don't turn on like a
lot. I mean, I have one in the, the
stadium has one, I need one. Yeah, but you get locked in.
Not if I put my normal just ESPN on.
What do? What do you put on current?
Or, or I'm just saying sometimes TV shows have the same problem
as music and people complain but the one thing that no one
complained about is when I had like nature videos on.
Oh. Everyone got locked in or
children's programming. I'm just saying I had Blue's
Clues on one time because football got into a fight and I
told them that they need to learn their manners.
So I put on that everyone, no one said a thing.
They were just watching. No one said why are we watching
this? I don't like this.
Everyone was like Blue's Clues. It's novelty.
I that I know. It's nostalgia.
And when we had it on, no one got in a fight.
You going to try it again? Yeah, I keep it rolling.
For football. We had Bernstein Bears,
Clifford. You know Caillou and.
No, we didn't have Caillou. I went older than that.
I went, I went back to my childhood.
What's older? Than that I don't even know what
the I don't even know where. Caillou.
Arthur. I love Arthur.
I know, but that was back in my day.
OK. I can make it sound like I'm
like super old Blue's glues was fire.
Blue's glues. I should put I.
Should put OG Dora. They should.
Put Teletubbies on. I could do that.
It's kind of a trip. It's kind of a trip.
Oh, the Wiggles would be good. Actually, yeah, Teletubbies are
a trip. I I guarantee you I won't get
complaints though. Oh Pokémon.
We had Pokémon on one time. OK, how about this cool one from
Kevin? I think you'd like this one.
This is this one could be helpful for your ATR.
Yes, during big games, collegiate and professional,
I'll hook my tablet to a projector and put games on the
ATR wall. I think that's a great idea.
Well, you don't need ATV, you could just get a projector.
I want the school to buy ATV. They might buy you a projector.
I know, I just got to justify it.
Oh, rehab. Yeah, yeah.
Like you could do things on the. Yeah, Speaking of what?
What's up on the wall? What do you hang up on your
walls in your ATR? So I need to utilize my walls a
little bit more. Fun fact, I have a picture on
the ceiling. Of what?
One of our water polo guys, they got all butt hurt in one of the
in the other athlet training room that like, oh, you have all
these pictures of other teams. Why don't you have pictures of
us? And I'm like, if you bring in a
picture, I'll put it up. Finally brought it in, but like
I didn't know where to put it. And I was like, I don't know
where to put this guys. And one of them was like, put it
on the ceiling. I was like, OK, so now that's
the thing. I have pictures on the ceiling.
Oh, so it's not just one. It's two.
I'm waiting for more because everyone always asks and I'm
like, well, if you bring a picture, we'll end up there.
So we'll see. But I have like, like the thing
for the physio ball, the Swiss ball on the wall.
I I saw this on TikTok and I'm all in now.
I want to get some Velcro strips, put it on the wall and
then put the game ready sleeves up there.
I'm like, whoa. We have the game ready cabinets
that like slide out and. The only problem is I feel like
it doesn't store the game ready sleeves effectively.
I think it's always a jumbled mess, you can't find what you
want. Ours, ours, well, we also have a
million cabinets, but it's like we have knee, ankle, shoulder,
left shoulder, right shoulder, left hip, right hip like it's
labeled for each. More organized than what I've
seen those game ready things for.
Thanks, Lorena. So wait, do you put it?
See, that's nothing. Do you put it on the metal thing
or do you put it in between? We have too many to put on the
metal thing. That's what I don't know.
Either so we put it in between, but I'd like to put it on the
metal thing. That's why I want the Velcro.
I could see it. Yes, that's nice.
Alberto H has sticks, towels, physio balls, floor mats, pads
from the game ready coolers, etcetera.
Resistance band clips on our walls.
I was just going to say I have hooks on my walls and I got like
one of those laundry loops for my, uh, bands.
Put that on the wall. Mm hmm, that's cool.
I thought you used your wall space very well.
I think we don't use our wall space very well.
We did last year when we, umm, one of our student volunteers.
So we do for March. We put up the umm, I heart my
athletic trainer because and they like sign the little
posters. Umm, we had a bunch of them and
they were big and one of our volunteers, like, arranged them
into a heart on one of our walls.
Really. Nice.
Yeah, it was like a focal point of our ATR and we were going to
do it again this year, but we did smaller ones thinking that
we could do, yeah, like the other heart, maybe an AT And
then like on the walls, that's cool.
But we just kind of put them on the cabinets and then we kind of
never did anything else. So.
So they're just on the cabinets right now.
But we did get medical posters that we're going to put up, like
anatomy posters. Oh nice, so I got those up too.
Yeah, Alberto H also says. We have our mascot, our
institution name, we have our posters on foam rolling and some
exercises from wall balls and such.
I have like like rehab programs that I've made-up on the walls
too. That's always fun.
That's a good idea, yeah. One of our top answers was
anatomy and medical posters. I mean, you got you got to set
the vibe. Mm hmm, I feel like they're
helpful too. They can be.
My last ATR had those and we had
a big thing that said AT like the AT logo.
Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, it was pretty cool.
It was pretty. Cool.
You're pretty cool. Oh, you're pretty cool, Someone
said they have abstract colorful anatomy art.
I'm all in now. Dang it, I want that.
Like I feel like that's really cool.
One time I went to a doctor's office.
It was like, it didn't feel like a doctor's office, but it was
still like doctor's office. Like it was almost like someone
came in and did like interior design.
It was really nice. Like it made such a different
homey feel with it still being like comfortable and sterile.
Yeah. Oh good word.
Now I want that though now in my clinic.
Well, I used to have a, it wasn't in my athletic training
room, but I used to have a big tapestry that was ribs with like
flowers coming out of it. Oh.
Yeah, it's true. That's what I picture when I
think of, yeah, a lot of people also said photos and posters of
athletes. So like signed action shots of
athletes from each of our sports, pictures of athletes
that were injured, rehabbed with us, made it on to the next
level, Someone said. A wall of my office is decorated
with signed college pennants from where students have gone.
That's really cool. I really like the signed action
shot thing. I really kind of want to do that
with like my post op kids. Like when they return to play, I
want like a action shot and put it in my that'd be cool show,
show the kids. Hey, this work kids get better.
And you could end up on the wall when you get better one day.
Huh. Motivation NATA and AT themed
decorations are really popular too, like posters from the NATA.
Oh yeah, rules, like ATR rules. We have a big poster that says
HR rules and someone like wrote them out and like they'll like
drew little things in it. I don't know when it was made,
but. That's pretty cool.
Oh, also, I do have a basketball hoop.
Oh, you do. So we.
That's fun little ones. Yeah, except someone.
I don't know what happened to our net.
I could probably imagine. Yeah, certifications up on the
wall. Someone said that a local
photographer took action shots of us to put up.
Oh, that's cool, I know that. Never happens to me.
That's such a good idea. Yeah, that's so nice.
Yeah, that'd be cool. Mm Hmm.
School themed items were pretty popular, like a painted logo on
the wall or school posters of. Course you got to have.
That school, a lot of people also talked about how they
decorate for the holidays, like not just Christmas, like some
people said like Christmas cards from former athletes, but some
have like seasonal decor, like depending on what holiday it is
to just make it more welcoming, Which I was thinking, you know,
I guess with a lot of like high schools, that would make sense
because I feel like high school, like not just high school, but
like kind of like grade school decor kind of goes with
holidays. So I feel like it's easier to
kind of do that, yeah, at like a high school 'cause that's kind
of what the vibe is. Yeah, I mean, the only thing I
can think of, I mean, there are times I'm like, yeah, we should
put some like Halloweeny things in here during Halloween.
Oh yeah. But also like I I just really
want to put up lights. Yes, yes, yeah, people, people
put up lights or like LED strips or stuff.
Oh. The LED strips would be cool
'cause there's like, I don't know, I think it'd be cool to
have the colored lights. Have you seen where people like
do a rave kind of where it's like dark, but they have like
lights and in the athletic training room?
I mean, I've seen that I I don't think I'd like it, but.
No, but you've seen it. I've seen it, yeah.
It's a fun vibe. It is a vibe.
Some people these are like more unique answers.
Not as popular but someone said a mural.
OK. I'm having my artistic student
athletes paint murals for the walls.
Oh, that's cool. Mm hmm, school's OK with that.
Yeah, I guess. I guess that's cool.
I painted a mural for one of my schools.
You did. You did still there, right?
No, the school remodeled, so it's not there anymore.
That's OK. Dang.
I know it was a long time ago. Also injury Wall of fame.
Nice. What is your favorite part of
your ATR? Dang.
That's a good question. I know actually when I asked
this question I didn't really think about what my favorite
part was. I.
Think that's just the feel of it.
That's so funny that you say that.
Did you read the No, because the top answer actually wasn't
something physical. Oh, that's funny.
Yeah. No, I just, it feels homey.
I have my duck. I have all my ducks in there.
All the student athletes love the ducks.
Like that was one of the things when people were like, when are
you going back to the gym? Someone was like, I missed the
ducks. Yeah.
So it's just the feel. The top answer was my student
athletes. My student athletes safe space
for the athletes to feel in the ATR.
Yeah, I like that. Culture of everyone is welcomed
and just basically like that kind of.
Yeah, the feel. The yeah, the vibe.
Yeah, I mean, that's why we do it.
That's what makes it fun. Like, I just really liked that
that was the top answer. Like, I thought that was really
cool that that was like. We all love our kiddos.
Another top answer was Office. I mean, when you don't have an
office and you get an office, an office is pretty.
Nice. I would have to say I even like
I actually really like our office.
There's three of us and we all share an office and everyone is
like, man, you guys need a bigger office like blah, blah,
blah. I actually really like it.
Like I feel like it's, it's, I think about this sometimes and I
think about if we ever hired another person, there's no way
we could fit another person in our office.
But if they separated us, like there's just so much like
collaboration that happens in that office.
And I just can't imagine like going to go sit on my computer
and like, work by myself. Oh, it's OK.
Like I really like that. Like I can be working on my
computer and I can turn around and be like, hey, like blah,
blah, blah, blah. And then like go back to like
whatever I'm doing or like multitasking or like meeting in
the minds in the office or like have the students in the office
or like, I just really like it. That's really nice.
I pretty much work by myself all.
Day a lot of people said they liked their office because of
like what they put in it and like their personal stuff.
So like if, if it's if it's their safe space, yeah or like
their desk, they like their desk or their pictures that they put
up. I have I have a bunch of like
mementos, some some like like when you first look at my desk,
I have two signed baseballs, one of em from when I got to throw
the first pitch and then another one from my from that team.
They all signed their names. So that was really cool.
But just like momentums like that or like someone made me a
friendship bracelet. So I have like that or like I
think that's, I think all athletic trainers have stuff
like this. So I think that's and you put
them like in your office. Oh.
Yeah, I keep everything my student athletes give me.
Oh yeah. I'll find a home for it.
Like, I mean, now it also makes sense.
Like a lot of them give me ducks.
Mm hmm. So that's a little bit more
blended and blends in nicely. Right.
But I still have the rock, by the way, that one soon now that
you just gave me a rock. I'm just saying I still do have
just a rock. Is it right there?
No, it's in. It's in.
My oh, I thought it was in that box.
Oh no, it's it's in the office. Another thing that people liked
was custom design. Like a lot of people mentioned
that they've had the chance to build or like customize their
ATR. If they didn't like get to build
it from scratch, they got to like customize it a little bit
more, which made it more meaningful.
That's true, my my gym clinic was empty when I walked into it
so. Oh, you're right.
Everything. The way it's organized, I've
just done. When I it does make it special.
When I got to my current job, I kind of rearranged things.
So it makes it special, yeah. Do you want to read this one
from Miguel? Yeah, Miguel says it was once a
storage room shared by PEASPI. Have not heard ASP and
custodians, but it was twice as big as the old room.
I had to do so much demo work, but it was a real community
effort. I've been able to collect and
repurpose pieces of equipment like my old treadmill and even
picked up some donations from neighboring ATC's.
That's the way to do it. That is Brito.
Home Depot sponsored the project to paint the walls and redo the
floors. That's really cool.
Yeah, so I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Tell me more about this. Yeah, I walked in on the way to
work, asked to speak to the store manager, introduced myself
to him and told him about my work project, gutting out an old
storage room, and asked if he'd be able to sponsor the project
by donating materials or supplies.
Specifically the floor. I needed acid wash and floor
epoxy and surprisingly he was super cool about it and gave me
everything I needed for it including rollers, tarps,
painters tape, and paint trays. How, what?
What, what? Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Just go to the store and just ask.
That's really cool. Where a second says no.
I mean, that's true. I should do that now.
You should go to just stores. Yes, I'm doing this project to
help. That's really cool.
That's really dope. What a cool.
That's just cool. Yeah, it is really cool.
Something that I was surprised about that people said that they
actually liked was the amount of space they had in their ATR.
That's nice because it was also the top answer of what is the
least favorite part of your athletic training room is not
enough space that. Is correct.
Mick H says I work in a military setting, but I work for a
university covering 3 ROTC programs we have.
My space is literally a closet with an ice machine that runs
constantly. That's the worst.
The clinic was placed there before my time.
I will Max out with three people but generally only have to one
or two at a time. I thankfully have an auxiliary
space that is the supply room from one of the ROTC branches
and they have like at a garage gym set up with wrestling mats
so I'll be in there a lot if I'm doing bigger exercises.
It's definitely loud but still comfortably talking level.
I try to have an open clinic but with my patient load it's mostly
appointment only type of thing. I'm also very limited on
modalities in that I have cupping, dry needling, scraping,
and 10s. But most of my work is either
therapeutic exercises with occasional mix insurance with
dry needling and cupping if it's good fit for the case.
I do have an admin office out of the clinic that is a space I can
retreat to when I'm not working with a patient.
Lack of storage is another complaint.
Yeah, I feel like that happens a lot.
Awkward layout like where it's. A Catholic training room.
Yeah, where the rehab space is or like where the door is or
like if you have multiple rooms, which can be kind of awkward.
Yeah, I know a couple athletic training rooms that have a
couple rooms that's like they're like there's a hallway in
between the two rooms or like kind of split up a little bit
like that. It's like they had a had a space
and then it was like we're giving you more space, but like
we can't give you more space in the current space.
So like we're giving you the classroom across.
So like, yeah, a huge one. I'm surprised I didn't put this
higher. Lack of windows or natural
light. I'm.
Going to say I have windows just they face in the hallway.
I was going to say yeah. So natural light, yeah, for
sure. But the Again Stadium clinic
does have natural light. Yeah, we on both of them have.
Oh no, we have windows on one the other.
One we don't, yeah. But the door opens but it has no
airflow. None, zero.
And like you said, the other side is a locker room, so you
don't want that airflow. Yeah, that was another thing.
Overheating or no AC, the airflow or like where the sun
like hits. Yeah.
The temperature is never right. No, no, Especially like, so my
tear is freezing, which is nice on a hot day.
But like, I'm constantly wearing a sweater and like, I'll walk
into work with a sweater and people are like, how are you
wearing a sweater? I'm like, I work in the office
all day long. Yeah.
On days that I'm in the clinic. Yeah.
And I walk out, like to go to the bathroom or something and
then I come back and be like, how are you wearing a sweater?
I'm like because I'm freezing. Some recurring themes, which
this one that I thought was interesting.
Frustration with multi purpose or shared spaces like someone
said they share with equipment and then someone said they their
ATR is in the school's laundry. Room 0 but that it makes doing
laundry easier. Yes.
What's more annoying, a laundry machine?
Laundry machine like a washer, dryer or like a an ice machine?
Laundry. It's like.
Yeah, and like, I feel like that's going to kick on more
than maybe the ice machine. Yeah, Ice machine.
You know at a certain point that ice machine's going to stop.
When the ice machine turns on, it's so loud.
It is but like. Someone who who can make a quiet
ice machine if you can $1,000,000 but.
It's also the same noise the whole time, so eventually.
It can turn the kind of white noise, but it's loud white
noise. Yeah, whereas the washing
machine changes its vibe. Yeah.
Like that, right? Or if there's depending on
what's in it. That's true if it's like
unbalanced and next thing. You know, it starts walking out
and you're like, whoa, whoa. Some people said they desire
more privacy or better functionality.
They felt like they've been overlooked in facility planning,
which we already talked about before, something that some
people said that really sucks. And I've had this before and you
have this. I have this currently.
Poor cell service. It's the worst.
It's it sucks. It sucks because obviously like
the someone trying to get a hold of me, right?
That's a little bit of a bugaboo.
But you try sending a picture, you try sending one thing is
like like scanning, right? I have an app that scans things.
I want to e-mail it to myself so I can put it on the computer.
Takes forever. I have to like send.
It one of the best things I've done is move our scanner into
our office. Smart.
I was like one of the first things I was like please can
someone help me get a scanner in here?
I don't care what it takes. Can we just get a scanner in
here? Absolutely best thing.
Like I scan from my desk. I do documentation so quickly.
Nice. Instead of walking all the way
out, finding the time to leave my office, walking all the way
out, walking across, walking through the division office,
walking all the way to the back, walking the copier scanner,
scanning things coming all the way back.
Yeah, that's that's all I had. Yeah.
It's kind of classic. Athletic training clinics, man,
they're fun. Yeah, it's home.
Home away from home. You put it really well.
It it's home away from home. I mean you spend 8 plus hours
there. Well, you do.
I'm I'm only there like half the day on football days and then
and then I go out to practice. Yeah, yeah.
I would be interested to find out how how, how often are you
spending your time in the ATR? Like do you does everyone?
I don't know, it depends on the time of year for me.
Yeah, like set football, you're going to be at practice for a
few hours. I mean other days and other
other divisions will have like if you're like at a university,
you're going out to soccer practice, you're going out to
baseball practice. But then.
Depending on that setting you definitely work 8 plus hours.
That's true. It probably does equate where
you're probably doing 8 hours in the clinic and then you're hours
at practice. Sweet, do you have any more ATR
stories or anything? Nothing that comes to mind.
So this is our our last. It is it is this is our last
episode of season 5. I know.
So we're moving on to season 6. You'll see us back in August as
we're preparing this summer. If you guys are new, we do
episodes like this story episodes where we bring stories
from real life athletic trainers and we put them into a a topic.
If you are interested in C us because it's a it's a reporting
year, head over to our website down in the show notes below and
you can find all of our CU episodes.
Thank you so much to athletic training chat and clinically
pressed who provide those to use for us.
And there are several that are free and then there are several
that you can purchase if they're a little bit older.
We also do interview episodes. So if you are interested in
highlight topics, you can check out something from one of our
highlight experts on those topics.
And yeah, there's, I'm working on an episode directory.
Since we have so many episodes now, I'm working on trying to
like a lot of times people ask us about certain episodes, like
have you done this before? I'm trying to work on a
directory. It's like in the works.
So something we're doing this summer.
That's. Right.
Anything else, Randy? Thank you for helping us
showcase athletic training behind the tape.
Bye.