978-1-4222-3268-2

In many cases, McCann told Monitor on Psychology, “It’s not so much that there’s something going wrong. It’s like strength conditioning; it’s part of what [athletes] do to get ready for competition season.” The issues aren’t always about what’s happening on the playing field. Real-life stresses and problems—a divorce, a death in the family—can negatively impact an athlete’s performance. The sports psychologist helps with those problems, too. “You can’t wait for those issues to resolve themselves,” McCann said. “The game schedule is the game schedule; they need to be ready to go.” Each sports medicine specialis performs its duties wherever needed, but all work with the same goal: making sure the athlete is ready, mentally and physically, to do his or her best.

Text-Dependent Questions 1. Name one of the teams mentioned in this chapter that have full-time team doctors.

2. At what college does athletic trainer Bob Howard work? 3. By what process does a TENS device help heal muscles? Research Project

Look at which kind of injuries or medical conditions are more likely to be examined with an X-ray and which with an MRI. What technology does each use?

37

H ard at W ork