Forget March, We've got May Madness!
Tournament Time!
Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial start to summer. Spring sports are starting to wind down, the weather is warming up and everyone is happy to be outside! It’s also a huge weekend for tournaments, namely, the Needham Soccer Memorial Day Weekend Tournament, presented by Yokohama Tires. Precision AT has provided athletic trainers for this tournament for close to 10 years now, and it’s our biggest event of the year! This year, we are managing over 50 ATs at more than 30 sites for approximately 900 soccer games over the course of the weekend. As you can imagine, the logistics of this can be quite tricky! We’ve been working around the clock to try to get all fields assigned, and more importantly, to try to ensure that all our ATs are happy with their assignments.
Of course, more fun than the tournament itself is our annual Kick Off Party! This year it will be held at Donohue’s Bar and Grill in Watertown, MA and is open to everyone, even those not working the tournament. Entry is $20 and will get you a buffet dinner and a CEU (also available on live webinar)! There will also be a cash bar available, so enjoy a beverage, network with fellow ATs, and maybe even learn a thing or two. This is one of my favorite events because everyone always seems so happy. Go to our website to reserve your spot today!
Burnout
This time of year is also when a lot of ATs experience burnout. Between long hours, constantly changing schedules, overuse injuries starting to soar, and everybody feeling restless and anxious for summer, it’s hard to keep a positive attitude at times. Burnout is especially common in the profession of athletic training, due to the traditionally long hours and travel required.
If you’re feeling totally drained at the end of the day, like you’re not getting as much done with your day, or like you’re not as compassionate as you normally are, you might be burnt out. And if you’re anything like me, these feelings can lead to more stress about being burnt out, which leads to further burnout! So what do you do when you’re faced with a burnout spiral? Here are some of my tricks.
Exercise – I make time every day to get some sort of physical activity in. Whether it be a long run and a lift, a few minutes of yoga, or an evening practice, I like to take time to get in touch with my physical self. I find that when I get my heart rate up and get my body moving, my brain is better at putting together pieces of the puzzle of my life.
Mental Distraction – Take a few minutes out of your day to read a book (not AT related!), do a crossword puzzle or sudoku, paint a picture, or play some music. Recently I took up crocheting, and Mara is an avid knitter. It might seem like the AT grind is never-ending, but if you can take a few minutes to think about something else, it helps to put things in perspective.
Proper Nutrition – Do you skip lunch? How often do you eat dinner at your desk? Do the drive through employees at your favorite fast food place know you by name? As we all know, eating healthy foods keeps the body working at its optimum, but taking the time to eat a good meal can also help you de-stress. Fight off those hangry feelings and take a few minutes for a healthy snack before you go out to practice, or between a game and your end of day paperwork.
How do you know when you’re starting to get burnt out? What methods do you use to avoid these stressors? Let us know in the comments!
Link of the Month: https://www.nata.org/blog/beth-sitzler/mental-health-month-full-swing
It’s National Mental Health Month and the NATA put out a press release with some great resources. Most of these are targeted towards caring for our patients, but we can best care for others only after we care for ourselves!
#NMDT18 #Kickoff #MentalHealth #Burnout #Soccer #MemorialDayWeekend
