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Why is Next-Level Athletic Training Essential for Student-Athletes?

Athletic training often begins early in life. What begins as a way for parents to keep children active and moving, may eventually turn into a lifelong passion for games that continues to grow well into adulthood. Once these young athletes reach high-school age, they tend to commit to a sport, and their training intensifies. In a secondary school setting, how can student-athletes be supported best in a way that keeps their growing bodies healthy?

 
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Sports Training and Rehabilitation 

Creating a program that is uniquely designed for young athletes is important to nurture and unlock maximum potential. To support this effort, having an athletic training facility that allows rehabilitation and recovery enables a school to build a unique athletic culture for elite physicality. Guided by expertise from trained professionals, a dedicated space for intense strength, agility, and training can enable athletes to safely navigate their progression while also getting needed advice to recover properly and efficiently.

The support of professional coaches and instructors creates an environment where students can train with less likelihood of injury. Recognizing that some injuries and illnesses are inevitable, professional staff can work to provide initial treatments and follow-up care, including any rehabilitation, while counseling students on available treatment options. Student-athletes can recover in a safer, more beneficial way that can be supported on-site and by providing quality care as early as possible, student-athletes can return to the field of play as soon as possible while decreasing their risk of re-injury. 

 

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Growing an Athletic Training Program

Competitive middle and high school athletic programs should prioritize athletic training and the health of their student-athletes. Having this support on the sidelines and behind the scenes enhances the student-athlete experience through care and support. Schools that invest in these centers are seen as committed to student health, safety, and holistic development, strengthening their reputation in the community. The availability of athletic training spaces raises the value of a school’s profile in sports and academics while creating new workout opportunities for athletes. For students who have the desire to continue onto professional sports, they may begin looking for a school that will support their training.

 

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Teaching Future Trainers 

An athletic training staff and facility may be used in conjunction with a variety of Sports Medicine courses for students. These courses have opportunities in covering topics such as lower or upper-body injury evaluation, rehabilitation, and systemic conditions or vital signs they may recognize as volunteer sports trainers. Nutritional health can be educated in an applicable way in a safe and inclusive environment that creates training opportunities.

Mount Paran Christian School selects an athletic training team made up of high school students who are interested in pursuing careers in the field of sports medicine or health. Alongside professional athletic trainers, physical therapists, and doctors, these students glean a wealth of information and hands-on experience about what it takes to support an athletic program. It's an opportunity for real-world, innovative learning on the sidelines. 

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How Are Schools Incorporating This Philosophy?

Mount Paran Christian School has renovated and expanded The Knox Athletic Performance Center, along with donor support. The Wellstar | PT Solutions Athletic Training Facility creates a training space that sets the standard in innovation, peak performance, and recovery for the total health of MPC athletes. Players commit to training together, building relationships, and working as a team in every avenue. Along with the weight room and turf room areas, these facilities are designed together to build up our athletes in skill, strength, and proper muscle recovery. Ensuring a school provides ample athletic training areas acknowledges the commitment coaches and athletes are putting forth to each sport, each other, and upholds the standards of the athletic program.

 

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Facilities Required for Best Performance

At schools like MPCS, facility improvements may feature a balance of private and communal spaces for team training and game review technology, as well as treatment and rehabilitation stations. In combination with the weight room, central turfed strength and agility area, and the athletic training room, athletes are provided every opportunity to physical prepare for intense game competition and personal athletic goals and personal bests.

Other space offerings should include enhanced technology in the weight room, turf room, and training room as well as spacious storage for equipment for multiple types of sports and a large laundering area. High-performance athletic turf for strength and agility training is need in a warehouse-size the athletic training space to accommodate more athletes to meet after-school demand. 

 

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“With the new training room, the athletic training staff and I will be able to work together to help our injured athletes quicken their recovery by implementing their rehabilitation program into their class time," explains MPC Strength Coach, Coach Carter Smith. “Our new turf room, upgraded strength equipment, and sports med facility will transform our training environment. It’s a true investment in our athletic programs and the future success of our student-athletes.”

Comprehensive sports medicine care is coordinated for all Mount Paran Christian student-athletes under the direction of a team physician and a team of certified and state-licensed athletic trainers. Services in the athletic training room include state-of-the-art modalities such as ultrasound, electrical muscle stimulation, cryotherapy, thermotherapy, and red-light therapy, as well as other treatment methods to alleviate pain and swelling, increase strength and flexibility, and decrease the risk of re-injury in the athletes treated there. Athletic training staff members are available at every practice and competition for the Mount Paran Christian teams throughout their respective seasons.

 

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Leah Gates is the High School Athletics Trainer at MPCS.

Diana La is the Assistant Director of Communications at MPCS. Click here to learn more about athletics at Mount Paran Christian School.
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