Athletic Trainers in Professional Sports

Athletic trainers provide preventative, emergency, and rehabilitative health care services to professional sports teams all over the world.

Roles and Responsibilities

Approximately 3% of athletic trainers who are members of the National Athletic Trainers' Association work in the professional sports setting. ATs in pro sports prepare supplies and equipment, administer pre- and post-game/competition treatments, communicate with the visiting athletic training staff and coordinate with stadium or event EMT personnel.

Other responsibilities include assessing and caring for injuries during, and after practices as well as diagnostic testing, surgery, arthroscopy, and rehab programs during off season.

NATA has strong relationships with the professional societies that serve these athletic trainers and works collaboratively with these groups to advance the profession.

Throughout my career athletic trainers have had a big impact in preventing injury which is hard for athletic trainers because on one end you’re trying to get athletes used to understanding how to take care of the body to prevent injury and if they do a great job of that and injuries never come then athletes will say okay well maybe I can cut corners here, cut corners there and all of the sudden an injury pops up and then you have to back track quite a bit so it’s hard for athletic trainers to really get across the importance of doing the preventative things: the   exercises, the rest, the ice, the stretching. But also from a standpoint of once the injury takes place making sure you’re doing the necessary steps to get back in peak condition which is very hard because most athletes want to jump from a to z and you have to do all the little necessary things first.

Kobe Bryant
Former Professional Basketball Player