NATA Now

By Scott Sailor

President, National Athletic Trainers' Association

Today's athletes are like finely tuned machines: Every aspect of their physiology is carefully worked over, each variance in the athlete's condition diligently noted. As athletic trainers, we are the tireless architects behind an athlete's health, both on and off the field.

By Dan Newman, MS, LAT, ATC

Do you Tweet? Do you Facebook? Do you Instagram? How about Snapchat? If those four simple questions leave you scratching your head, then you are in the minority. Today, there is more than 2.3 billion, yes billion with a “B,” people using some sort of social media. Social media has taken over every aspect of our lives. From creating and ordering groceries to posting pictures of the family reunion and even help planning a family, there is not one aspect of your daily lives that has not or cannot be affected by social media.

Last weekend NATA staff conducted interviews with current and former Seattle Mariners players Ken Griffey Jr., Robinson Cano, Felix Hernandez, Kyle Seager, Steve Cishek and Hisashi Iwakuma. During the interviews, players discussed the important role that athletic trainers played in their careers. We also talked with the head AT for the Seattle Mariners, Rick Griffin, about how athletic trainers reduce risk for players at every level.

By Lisa Walker, ATC

NATA SSATC District Seven Representative

Working in the secondary school setting is rewarding and presents some challenging issues in knowing the rules of sport that apply to all participants, including the AT. How much do you need to know about each sport?

NATA is launching a new digital publication in April focused on legal issues relevant to athletic trainers. The Sports Medicine Legal Digest is a quarterly digital newsletter exclusively for NATA members that has been created to:

Sleep is essential to health and function, playing a major role in cognitive performance, physical health and mental health. However, it seems like most people have trouble getting enough sleep. Studies show that one-third of college-aged student athletes get fewer than seven hours of sleep per night—and that rate is even higher among female athletes. To help educate parents, athletes and coaches about the important role sleep plays, NATA created a sleep infographic handout, which was featured in the April NATA News.

The April NATA News – NATA’s annual Education Issue – features an article about the Journal of Athletic Training (JAT) and Athletic Training Education Journal (ATEJ), detailing the publications’ growth over the years and what’s to come in 2017.

One of the missions of the NATA Ethnic Diversity Advisory Committee is the promotion of athletic trainers as leaders in issues related to cultural competence and professional diversity within the health care professions.

By Daniel Ruedeman, MA, ATC, LAT

When you think of the physician practice setting, what do you think about?

In January, the NATA Board of Directors approved a proposal to restructure and expand the NATA College/University Athletic Trainers’ Committee (CUATC) into the Intercollegiate Council for Sports Medicine (ICSM) to address the varying needs of athletic trainers working in this diverse setting.