The number one thing you should know if you're interested in becoming an athletic trainer is, they have no lives! Speaking from a traditional athletic trainer's view (meaning working on the court/ field with the athletes in a sports setting), their life consists of taking care of the athletes before and after every sporting event, preventing injuries, rehabilitating athletes with injuries, setting up nutritional plans, dealing with coaches and sometimes even parents (depending on whether the athlete is a minor), traveling with the teams, and having no holiday breaks. So basically, it takes a lot of time and dedication to be a great athletic trainer and it is definitely not for everyone. That is one of the reasons why it is such a competitive field of study. As an athletic training student, I've already noticed that during my undergraduate program, it's hard to even have a job. I thought I was going to be able to work all through my four years, but I was far from wrong. Just going on my first semester, I had to have 50 observation hours in different clinical sites and settings, and that wasn't too bad for working 20 hours a week. But, next year I have to have around 250 a semester, which is approximately 20 hours a week... See my dilemma? Another big thing to realize is, there is so much Science and Anatomy involved in athletic training. You have to know how an athlete's body work; what is the name, position, and function of every muscle in the body, how that muscle is going to get stronger, what exercises will make it stronger, and even to make a diagnosis of why that muscle is injured just based off of what an athlete tells you. Last time I checked, that is not easy! So, there is an incredible amount of studying involved in becoming an athletic trainer, kind of going back to the know life thing.
With that being said, even though it's not the easiest and most respected profession, there are definitely so many great things about it and I couldn't think of any other way to be spending my undergraduate education.. Can you handle it?
