Tag: Doug Long

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Nebraska Athletic Trainer Talks Sport Specialization

Article reposted from KNOP News 2
Author: Chelsea Croft

In a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, kids who focus on only one sport are at a greater risk of stress and injury.

The report said youth participation in sports has changed dramatically over the past 40 years.

Coaches and physical therapists say adolescence who specialize in one sport tend to over use the same muscles and wear on the same joints causing major injury.

They also get burnt out and tend to lose interest in that sport since that’s all they’ve played.

Adams Middle School Asst. Principal and Activities Director Brett Joneson said, “I think statistics show that the obesity rate in our society and especially younger kids is on the rise. And so any activity they can do will obviously benefit them and their health.”

About 60 million kids between six and 18 years old play organized sports in the US each year, according to the National Council of Youth Sports.

And over 16 million of those kids specialize in one sport.

Great Plains Health Lead Athletic Trainer Doug Long said, “We have known for several years that kids that specialize in one sport work those joints over and over and over and they tend to get more overuse injuries and wear out a little faster.”

Eighth grade head football coach Tyson Hammond said, “There’s definitely an over-worked thing, I mean anybody that does the same repetitive movement over and over again is going to create issues with themselves as far as injuries go.”

Long said, “They also become like coaching saturated by the time they’re in that seven, eight ,nine age range, they kind of have learned a lot so by the time they get to high school they kind of don’t care as much anymore and they’re kind of burnt out on the sport.”

Most of the time the idea of specialization comes from the pressure to get scholarships or a professional career.

Hammond said, “Athletic scholarships are few and far between so again, I don’t think that’s a big thing with kids. I think that’s more of an adult thing. I really hope that somewhere along the way, we can kind of get adults to start realizing that kids at this age, it’s fun. They play sports because it’s fun. Their favorite sport is the one they’re in right now. But if they do it year round, they start getting burnt out.”

That’s why trainers encourage kids to play multiple sports so they get a variety of body movements and training.

Eighth grade football player Camron Sutherland said,
“It helps a lot playing multiple sports, kind of helps with sports you’re more interested in. Like wrestling helps with football and basketball because it makes you more conditioned and ready to go and little bit more flexible .”

Long said, “We know multi-sport athletes tend to go on and do better, they’re more coach-able, they have fewer overuse injuries because their changing their stress points and their stressers.”

Joneson and coach Hammond both said that kids in North Platte need to play more than one sport for schools to be able to compete in Class A because teams wouldn’t have enough players if kids chose to specialize in only one sport.

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Mobile Athletic Training Facility Extends Care to More Nebraska Patients

The Great Plains Health Sports Medicine team spends a lot of time traveling across the region to serve 16 area high school and college sports teams as volunteers on the sidelines. Now team members have a mobile medical unit to take with them.

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The unit, a modified stock trailer, was unveiled Wednesday afternoon. The purchase was made possible by funding from the Great Plains Health Care Foundation. Foundation director Libby Lashley said the project aligned well with the foundation’s mission of enhancing the quality and availability of health care in the community.

“We’re not just chasing Friday night lights, courts and tracks,” added Doug Long, lead athletic trainer at Great Plains Health.

Tyler Oberlander, an athletic trainer at GPH, said the trailer would travel to all types of sporting events. Oberlander said towns that have never seen an athletic training room will now have access to one during games.

Oberlander and Dr. Nathan Jacobson, an orthopedic surgeon, headed up the project. The GPH marketing team came up with the trailer’s design, which features area athletes.

CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL ARTICLE

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Nebraska Athletic trainer provides concussion expertise

High school athletes are passionate about their sports. They want to play … sometimes even through pain. but there’s one injury that can sideline them immediately — concussions.

The state of Nebraska uses guidelines called “Return toLearn” to identify when an athlete is allowed back on the field or court. St. Patrick’s Quarterback Bryce Byrn is back on the practice field for the Irish. He is preparing for the Irish’s first round opponent in the state playoffs. A concussion a couple of weeks ago, forced Bryce to the sideline. The quarterback couldn’t take any snaps until he passed a relatively new concussion protocol called the “Return To Learn.”

Doug Long, an athletic trainer, says, “That way thekids get back in the classroom. They are preparing academically before we put them out on the field.”

The state of Nebraska mandated this new proceedure to make sure athletes are truly ready to get back on the field or court.

Shelly Byrn, Bryce’s mom, says, “As a parent you have a look at the big picture. He doesn’t see the big picture. Now he see the big picture but he knows we did the right thing.”

Bryce says, “It was hard because I just wanted to compete. Now that I look back at it I would rather behealthy for the playoffs rather than a regular season game.”

Long says it is very important to follow these proceedures for the safety of the athlete. A concussion can be difficult to detect. Long says you need to be able to ease an athelte back into competition.

Long says, “Once they can do a full day of school then they start back on the gradual return to play. They start out just doing streaching, easy jogging that sort of thing”

The first year of the new concussion protocol has worked very well and it has helped insure the players return to the field healthy.

Long says, “15 to 20 years ago we would send them back to practice and we had no idea they may not be processing information correctly and that is still part of the residual concussion and they were not ready for practice.”

Long says there will probably be some tweeks to the new concussion protocol but he says the new proceedure is makinig a difference….Bryce had to miss the last game of the regular season but he is cleared to be in the line-up and ready to make a run at the state championship. Long says in cases like Bryce’s have to use your head — and make the right choice.

ORIGINALA RTICLE:
http://www.knopnews2.com/home/headlines/New-Concussion-Protocols-Helps-Safety-of-High-School-Athletes-338511032.html

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Athletic Trainer Doug Long provides expert opinion on Heat Illness

Central Nebraska has experienced hotter summers than 2015, but that doesn’t mean athletes need to stop monitoring hydration.

“The heat and humidity combination is the thing you have to pay most attention to,” said Doug Long, certified athletic trainer for Great Plains Health Sports and Therapy Center in North Platte. “In 100 percent humidity, if the ambient temperature is 75 or 78 you’re at high risk for heat illness. It’s the humidity that doesn’t allow the sweat to evaporate off the skin.”

Long was part of the Nebraska School Activities Association committee that drafted new practice rules for the 2015-16 school year. Those new guidelines are aimed at reminding coaches to be aware of the heat and humidity during August practices and the risks it poses for their players.

“The goal was to keep that in the forefront of coach’s minds,” Long said. “Out here, our coaches do a great job. We don’t spend a long time barking at them about adding more breaks. They are all pretty conscious of doing those things.”

Two-a-days, once a staple of the training regimen for preseason programs, are mostly gone now. Those have been replaced with walk-throughs and film studies. For example, the new NSAA rules restrict padded practices to four each week.

“One of the schools [in our area] does a walk through in the city park where they can do it in the shade under the trees. They can do that and keep the kids a little cooler,” Long said.

Those types of regulations have trickled down from the NFL and the NCAA as governing bodies become more conscientious of the effects of heat and dehydration.

While athletes are urged by coaches and health professionals to take more breaks during practice and drink plenty of fluids, Long said it doesn’t stop there. Athletes also need to continue to drink low-carbohydrate liquids throughout the evening hours in preparation for the next day’s practice, as well.

To help monitor that, Long encouraged athletes to watch the color of their urine — the clearer, the better — and to weigh themselves before and after each practice.

“Make sure they drink that weight back so they don’t start the next practice in a pre-dehydrated state,” he said.

Long encouraged parents to watch athletes when they get home for dizziness, nausea or muscle cramps, which can all be signs of heat illness.

While the focus is primarily on football athletes at this time of year, athletes in other sports also need to make sure they are hydrated.

“We think football, football, football, but volleyball, softball and cross country are running the same risks,” Long said.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.nptelegraph.com/sports/local_sports/beat-the-heat-staying-hydrated-after-between-practices-also-important/article_dc12db14-c90d-5958-b114-e9949449fa5b.html

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