Sports Psychology Application Paper

ATs are health care professionals who provide preventative services, emergency care, clinical diagnosis, therapeutic intervention and rehabilitation of injuries and medical conditions. I successfully joined Athletic Training (AT) by mastering AT terminology, leading well as captain and motivated members, as well as athletes, during intense sport seasons. Being an AT has interested me in the interdisciplinary science of sports psychology. Sport psychology is the study of how psychological factors affect performance and how participation in sport and exercise affect psychological and physical factors.

Other ATs in my DC are always asking me to help them with injured athletes. They ask for advice on what treatment they should give, how to tape a certain area of the body (e.g. thumb, shin, wrist, etc.) and sometimes for just life advice. I

really feel appreciated when they tell our head athletic trainer that I am quite professional with a good sense of humor and that I’m noble at what I do.
I enjoy motivating and helping the athletes become better. I feel a sense of accomplishment when a player tells their coach or the head athletic trainer: “Yeah, Lindsey helped me and now I feel superior.” Or they might say, “I love Lindsey, she is the best supporter/ athletic trainer I’ve met this year.”
I have learned to never put an unlabeled bottle of pickle juice inside a cooler of water bottles or athletes and coaches will scrunch their face at you. When sometimes you just forget the little things like labeling the pickle juice; all you can do is sit back and laugh about it.
Some knowledge that I have learned is that you never put heat before ice onto a new injury. Cryotherapy, cold therapy, hence the “cry” because a person whines when cold objects are placed upon them is the best option for a fresh injury. When your body is injured, the damaged tissue becomes inflamed. This can cause discomfort, swelling, or redness. Cryotherapy is believed to be the best aid in control of inflammation and swelling. Cryotherapy is best for acute pain, it can also help relieve inflammation in chronic pain. The use of cryotherapy after exercise is also recommended to reduce post-exercise inflammation.
Another skill that I have acquired is that applying heat to a new injury can aggravate existing pain, causing it to continue to swell. Heat therapy, also known as thermotherapy, is used to stimulate blood flow, relax spasms, and soothe sore muscles. Thermotherapy can help to restore blood flow and speed the removal of lactic acid, a chemical in the body that accumulates when muscles become overworked from muscles. Thermotherapy is best for chronic pain. If someone suffers from an ongoing injury it is recommended that they apply heat before exercise.
In the training room we have an acronym, R.I.C.E. that we that follow through with very well. R.I.C.E. stands for Rest Ice Compress and Elevate. We practice this term every time someone comes in with a new injury. After 1-2 weeks of receiving RICE, the athlete will begin receiving other treatments.
Being an athletic trainer you must know CPR, the essentials of sports medicine – how to help rehabilitate athletes and keep them healthy. An athletic trainer must also know the correct way to tape a part of the body (e.g. shin, ankle, and etc.) You must have common sense when regarding if a player is able to be on or off the field/court.
Being an athletic trainer, you experience a lot of emotions. You’re always exhausted from staying late after school, on Saturdays for extra rehab, and of course game days. You’re agitated sometimes with athletes that are stubborn and do not want to go through with treatments. You’re overwhelmed and excited for those Thursday or Friday night games in football when you can run on the field with players. You can’t sleep Sunday night because the next day is baseball Monday and you can spit sunflower seeds out with the guys. When the season is over you’re drained and disappointed, anticipating the upcoming year for the new season, unless it’s your senior year.
Everman’s football team went round 4 of Texas high school playoffs.

Everman was so close to becoming champions. Everyone’s all pumped up, praying every 10 miles on our way to Grande Communications Stadium in Midland, Texas. The bus ride there and back was something I’d never experience all within the span of 24 hours. I will never forget that game. It was the most intense game I’ve ever witnessed and been a part of. It’s the last few minutes of 4th quarter and the opposing team, Canutillo, crowd is going crazy because they’re ahead by a field goal. Everman’s side is hastily growing a head full of gray hairs, on the brinks of tears anticipating the final score. We either go home as proud, waggin’ tail bulldogs or go home with our tails in between our legs. It happened so fast. We lost. It’s like someone snapped their fingers and everyone started crying, literally everyone. Players dropped to the ground. There are no words to explain the way I felt. All the time we spent at practice, the time helping the players with rehab for the next game, not being able to sleep in on Saturdays, and all those words of encouragement down the

drain.
It bothers me that parents, players, and even some of the coaches believe that athletic trainers are a waste of time and space. They believe we are just “water girls/boys” or that we really don’t do any hard work. I understand why they might assume we don’t do any “hard work” because everything an athletic trainer does is behind the scenes. We are the reason your sibling, favorite athlete, child, and etc. is on that field/court playing their favorite sport. There’s so much to being an athletic trainer and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything in the world. I am a real member of athletic training because I am awesome. It’s not as easy as it seems; there’s some dirty work we go through and you need to have a strong stomach for that.