Sports Medicine adapts to continue care for Pioneer student-athletes
Platteville, Wis.-The University of Wisconsin-Platteville, like every other college in the country, is using alternative deliveries to educate its student-body due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pioneer students are home, doing their part to help flatten the curve. It is a challenging time filled with adversity and changing circumstances.
Platteville, Wis.-The University of Wisconsin-Platteville, like every other college in the country, is using alternative deliveries to educate its student-body due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pioneer students are home, doing their part to help flatten the curve. It is a challenging time filled with adversity and changing circumstances.
UW-Platteville offers 16 varsity sports with roughly 450 student-athletes on different rosters. Student-athletes have seen and dealt with their share of adversity and challenging times, but nothing like the COVID-19 situation.
Ryanne Breckenridge is the Head Athletic Trainer at UW-Platteville and has a very spacious and welcoming Athletic Training Room that is just a year and half old. Now it sits empty, no student-athletes coming in for pre-care, post-care or rehab. Like the professors at UW-Platteville, Breckneridge and her staff of Michael Martin, Kristin Sitte and Natilie Steblay will have to use alternative deliveries to keep the student-athletes at UW-Platteville healthy and prepared for when sports start back up.
One of the issues that the sports medicine staff is overcoming the different resources each student-athlete has access to. Sitte: "The biggest change is identifying how to go about rehab with our athletes. Some athletes have a full gym at their home and others may only have a foam roller and a set of dumbbells. We had to get creative in how we can continue moving our athletes along in their treatment plans without them being on campus. I wouldn't say the change has been difficult, it has just required a little more communication and creativity to ensure everyone is on the same page and that things are going smoothly."
Martin: "Fortunately, before the 'safer at home' order was issued, I was able to set up all my big rehab athletes with physical therapy at least once a week. Once everything closed, and it was unsafe to go to parks or gyms to rehab, I tailored rehabs and workouts to what the athlete has access to."
Breckenridge: "We had to adjust to making at home rehab programs that the athletes can do with minimal to no equipment, yet still progress them through their return to participation. It causes you to be a little more creative then you might have been when you had access to more items and our facilities."
Sitte: "I send notes to my athletes. My notes may be verbal cues that I would regularly say, 'DO' and 'DON'T' pictures when it comes to form, or videos so that the athlete is aware of the task they should be completing if the exercise is new."
Once the athletic trainers established what resources student-athletes have at home, communication was the next issue. Breckenridge: "A challenge we faced early on was how were we going to communicate with the student-athletes. Depending on what stage of rehab an athlete is in, they may need a cue to help them perform an exercise. We have had to adjust to doing this via ZOOM, FaceTime, or whatever video chat service the athlete is using so we can give these cues based on visuals."
Martin: "It is definitely much more difficult to see progress from athletes without physically being in the room with them. I am using mostly FaceTime or Zoom for visual check ins with their progress."
Sitte: "Zoom has been helpful in identifying progress with athletes. It is all about adapting to what the student-athlete has at home. Common home objects become extremely useful when it comes to therapy. I have had student-athletes use textbooks or cans of soup as weights for exercises. We have used softballs or tennis balls as a foam roller. Body weight exercises are just as beneficial for therapy and we can manipulate the sets and repetitions to still see positive results."
Steblay: "Personally, I like to communicate with my student-athletes over email because it leaves a paper trail for me to follow when I am going through documentation. I have used GroupMe to communicate with student-athletes, which can be more time efficient. Many of the athletes I have been working with were seeing me on a regular bases in the athletic training room and are comfortable with the exercises currently provided. The challenge comes in the progression of rehabilitation, which I can often provide visuals by using previously created YouTube videos."
Athletes are used to structure and routines. Breckenridge: "During this time when we are all away from campus, we try to communicate to all the athletes to take the time to do things that their busy academic and athletic schedules may not have afforded them the opportunity to do as much as they would like. Get a full night's sleep, eat well, take care of your mental health, stay on top of academics, engage in activity that improves your physical and mental well-being. We also encourage them to continue to reach out to coaches, teammates, and us. Those connections are important."
Martin: "I have been stressing to them to get a structure in place, so that they can control the amount of sleep they are getting and about their nutrition. Both proper nutrition and sleep are directly correlated with the quality of a person's health so it's been extremely important to communicate that message to the athletes."
Breckenridge: "My staff and I are anxious to get back to being able to see and work with our athletes on campus. It is truly a surreal feeling to see your athletes every day and be in that environment, to switch to not seeing them and working remotely. Everyone, please stay safe and take care of yourselves!"
When the time comes and Pioneer athletics is back, the Pioneers will be ready to compete thanks to Breckenridge and her staff's commitment and dedication in this unprecedent time.