2014 National Athletic Trainers' Association Clinical Symposia & AT Expo

Last week, Behind the Scenes Medical Consulting's owner, Laura Mertz, attended the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Clinical Symposia & AT Expo for four days in Indianapolis. Here, she shares some of her experiences and observations at this year’s convention.

As I have done every year of my career, I attended the Performing Arts Medicine pre-conference half-day session at the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) conference. This year focused on connecting with performing artists and arts organizations who may not know that performing arts medicine exists. Presenters included the athletic trainers at Ohio University, Dean College (MA), the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and the hospital outreach organization that provides medical services to Cincinnati Ballet. In addition to the invaluable information this session consistently provides, one great benefit of attending this seminar is re-connecting with friends and colleagues from around the country, including the athletic trainers at Ohio University, Cincinnati Ballet, Indiana University, Radio City Rockettes, Louisville Ballet, and La Rêve – The Dream at Wynn Las Vegas.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of this year’s panel of speakers was the inclusion of someone from Athletes and the Arts, a new initiative to link artistic demands and athletic medicine in the minds of both the medical and artistic community. All too often, artists tend to shy away (or even recoil) from identifying themselves as athletes or recognizing that the physical and psychological demands that performing places on the artists is similar to what sports demand of athletes. Athletes and the Arts, an initiative from several leading arts and sports medicine professional organizations, looks to change that.

Over the next three days, the conference provided hundreds of educational seminars and hands-on sessions for over 10,000 certified athletic trainers.

On the first day of the actual conference, I attended 4 presentations related to dance science and medicine research. Among the presenters were 2 friends of mine who, like me, conducted their research with the assistance of the dance and ballet majors at Indiana University. Study topics focused on tape application, ground reaction force differences based on shoe type worn during jumps (pointe, flat, and barefoot), and factors related to the development of non-contact ACL injuries. The findings from each of these studies contributes to the growing scientific literature available in the dance medicine and science world. The future research that can now be performed using the information discovered during these studies can have a profound effect on injury prevention and care of dance-related injuries in the future. The first day of the conference also provided the opportunity to catch-up with the Assistant Director of Performance Medicine at Cirque du Soleil, Resident Shows Division (the “permanent” shows in Las Vegas and Orlando).

Days 2 and 3 of the Clinical Symposia have already led to updates in some of the services Behind the Scenes Medical Consulting offers to performing arts organizations. Presentations I attended on these days reviewed the latest research and best current practices in group-based ACL Injury Prevention Exercise Programs, preventing fatigue and overtraining, and 2 separate presentations from Registered Dieticians on the best methods to fuel the athletic body while optimizing physical performance and health.

Attending the NATA annual conference and the Performing Arts Medicine pre-conference session always provides me with fun opportunities to catch-up with colleagues and friends, updates from the latest research and current practices in the sports medicine and performing arts medicine professions, and lead to enhancements of the services I provide to the performing artists and arts organizations who hire me.