Tuesday, May 4, 2010

NCVA Tournament/ Sports Medicine

For two weekends I was able to work with some great athletes. I evaluated and treated injuries relating to shoulder, knee, hip, back, neck, ankle, thumbs, wrists etc. If you could injure it, they did it. This tournament was huge, it is put on by NCVA and is a National Junior Olympics qualifier for the teams that place high in the tournament. Thousands of volleyball players participated and we saw on average 150 plus injured athletes on a daily basis. Some just required ice and rest, others were sent for x-rays and a possible cast. So for this blog I thought that I might share some insights that are important when practicing in the world of Sports Medicine.

1) Nutrition. While walking around the convention center I couldn't help but notice that a lot of the teams were busy eating between matches. Some teams brought their own food. Fruits, veggies, gallons of water while others went to the snack bar and were gorging themselves on greasy pizza and lemonade drinks that had so much sugar that it could put you into a diabetic coma. I'll let you decide who you think was ready to play and who was sluggish on the court.

2) Taping. Not all tape jobs are created equal. Taping is an art and it takes a lot of practice to get it right, not to mention doing to correctly so as to prevent injury. Many times an athlete would show up in our room and tell us they rolled their ankle. They didn't understand how it could happen because they had their ankle taped for support. Well when the tape came off it was apparent that it was just put on for looks because there was no support whatsoever to the ankle joint. If you have any questions about taping, please have a professional help you or apply it for you so as to avoid serious injury.

3) Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. Kenny Rogers said it beautifully, but you really do need to know when to hold off and when to call it quits. With 3 days of tournament play and an injury on the 1st match of the tourney you need to know when to let it rest so that you can play the following 2 days and help out your team. For a more serious injury it might be best to sit the whole thing out because a permanent injury might just ruin your chances of performing well for a lifetime.

4) Have Fun. One thing that I did see consistently from all the athletes was that they were having fun. And when your having fun your mentally in tune with your teammates, more alert and better equipped to bring your A game.

I will be having a Sports Injury Prevention Class soon, that will help you stay in the game and performing well by avoiding injury. Stay tuned for dates and times.

If you have any questions about Sports Injuries feel free to call my office 775-882-3555 and ask for Dr. Russell.

1 comment:

  1. Sports medicine is what our athletes need these days. Thanks for some good facts and insights. By the way, this group of medical research assistants might interest and help you in some ways. More power!

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