DALLAS, June 14th, 2012 – The National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) announced the release of its online Sports Safety for Youth Coaches course today. The course offers youth sports coaches a comprehensive review of the latest information on health and safety issues facing young athletes.
The 14-section online course includes the most recent, expert information on the prevention and care of concussion, heat illness, conditioning, over-use injuries and other sport-related illnesses and injuries. Other modules include emergency planning, equipment fitting and safe playing conditions. The course is $19.95 and includes a concussion (traumatic brain injury) module free with purchase. The concussion module can also be taken as a stand-alone course and costs $4.95 separately. Those who complete the course will receive a certificate of completion and will be automatically listed for two years for free on NATA’s Youth Coaches Registry.
While 81 percent of youth coaches said they believe it is important to be very knowledgeable about sports injuries, only 52 percent said they felt like they were very knowledgeable, according to a recent survey commissioned by SafeKids USA®. Another 43 percent of coaches said they felt only fairly knowledgeable on sports safety.
With increased sports participation prior to high school and in league sports, NATA leaders believed it was important to share their expertise through a convenient, affordable education tool. Coaches and parents of youth athletes will benefit from knowing that their sports safety training was written and designed by athletic trainers, the health care professionals who specialize in working with professional, collegiate and high school athletes.
“Coaches cite lack of time and access to a quality, credible sports safety course as barriers to improving their knowledge,” says NATA President Marjorie J. Albohm, MS, ATC. “The NATA Sports Safety for Youth Coaches course will fill the national need to educate our coaches when athletic trainers are not available at the sport complex facilities and fields.”
The course has been endorsed by the National Council of Youth Sports (NCYS), which has long been known for its dedication and attention to safety-related issues. “Whether a seasoned professional or one just entering the field, the NCYS strongly encourages all youth sports leaders and coaches to enroll in this excellent training course,” said Sally Johnson, NCYS executive director. “Completing the NATA Sports Safety for Youth Sports training course is the right and responsible thing to do for leaders, coaches, teams, leagues, organizations and communities.”
Additionally, one dollar of every purchase of the full course will be donated to NATA NATION, a national effort to collect data on injury surveillance, injury treatment and clinical outcomes so researchers can study how to better care for young athletes. The Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention also conducts the NCAA Injury Surveillance data collection program.
NATA plans to release an instructor’s course in 2013 so that coaches and parents will benefit from face-to-face instruction from professional athletic trainers.
For more information:
www.nata.org/Sports-safety-for-youth-coaches-course
About NATA:
National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) – Health Care for Life & Sport
Athletic trainers are health care professionals who specialize in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of injuries and sport-related illnesses. They prevent and treat chronic musculoskeletal injuries from sports, physical and occupational activity, and provide immediate care for acute injuries. Athletic trainers offer a continuum of care that is unparalleled in health care. The National Athletic Trainers' Association represents and supports 35,000 members of the athletic training profession. Visit www.nata.org
There are no comments
Please login to post comments