IC Training Room

I went over to teh Training Room today. I spoke to Chris Hummel. By an extreme amount of good luck, he happens to be the Athletic Trainer for the Ithaca College Gymnastics team. Good luck, right? I told you. So, I asked him questions about what the common injuries were in gymnastics and he gave me a list of five. They are:

• Tibia Stress Fractures
• Ankle Sprains
• Stress Fractures in the Lumbar Spine (Spondylysis, commonly called "Spondy")
• ACL injuries
• Concussions

I then asked him what some of the common prevention methods that he uses are. He said:

• Educating the athletes on the possible injuries and informing them of issues with them, etc.
• Having them come in as soon as possible, if they have any early signs, meet with an Athletic Trainer
• Talking with an Athletic Trainer about the history of their injuries
• Strengthening as far as ankle injuries go
• Mechanics of jumping and landing with an ACL injury

I asked him when I could go and learn some basic taping techniques. They are open 9-12 Monday through Friday and between 2:30 and 8 pm. He said those were the best times. In the morning they are the least busy and in the afternon, they are the busiest. He also sent me to an online reference that I can use. I can use the Journal of Athletic Training. It is an online magazine that I can use. The volume that he sent me to has statistics about a lot of college sports and the injuries that they involve. I'll blog about this later when I read up on it.

That's it for now...

Second Mentor Meeting

I met with Mr. Heurich today and we talked about two different topics. One was what i had done since the last mentor meeting that I had last Tuesday, and the other was what I am planning on doing in the next week or two.

What I've done since Last Tuesday

• I read multiple periodicals that I had picked out and put in my annotated bibliography before I even really started working on my project. Some proved to be helpful while others weren't. There were one or two that I got a lot of information on and that I will be using in the future. (Soon I will post a blog entry about the articles that I read.)
• I had a doctor's appointment with Dr. Andrew Getzin, who is a doctor at Cayuga Sports Medicine. I was talking to him about my project while I was having my appointment, and he said that I was welcome to go and visit him at Ithaca College if I wanted any hands on experience.

What I plan on doing in the next two weeks

• I am going to meet with Dr. Getzin most likely this Friday to see what he can tell me and who I should get in touch with.
• I will be heading up to Ithaca College to talk to some of the professors in the Athletic Training program. If I could get an appointment, I would like to meet with Paul Geisler to see if I could go to his class and observe every now and then.
• I am going to start meeting with Kim Bailey next Monday, March 8th. The spring sports are going to start then and I will be able to do something as far as helping Kim and learning some of the information that I want to.
• When I meet with some of these people, I hope to find out some of the more common injuries associated with gymnastics. When that happens, I can start researching those specific injuries.
  
  

Self-Assessment

I think I need to get working more now that i have a lot of the starting points. I said in my original two week plan that I wasn't going to be able to do a whole lot at the beginning of the project because of dance, and that proved to be true. However, now that I have a lot of my competition season out of the way, I should be able to focus more on getting the work for my project done.

I have been able to work occasionally on what I wanted to do, and when I was able to, I got a lot done in a short period of time, so now with the time that I have, I will be able to get a ton of research done.

Dear Reader

Dear Reader,

For my WISE project, I plan to shadow Kim Baily, Ithaca High School's Athletic Trainer. By the end of the semester, I want to have a diagram and be able to show the major injuries sustained in gymnastics. I want to know how to take care of the injury and prevent it from happening again. For your reference, I am going to Ithaca College next year to study Athletic Training.

I am really excited about starting my project. I have talked to an Athletic Trainer at Ithaca College and he said that I should learn the basics. By this, I mean get my taping skills better and learn how to spot. I'm nervous about getting as much done as I want to get done. There is going to be a large amount of research involved in this project, and I'm worried about putting it off until the last minute.

For the next two weeks, I am not going to be able to do a whole lot because I have a lot to do with dance, but I am going to start meeting with Kim two to three times a week and asking her questions. I could go up to Ithaca College and spend time in the Training Room. After I learn what the major injuries are, I could start doing the research on them.

For Now,

Taylor Dyess