A Certified athletic trainer won’t be offended if you ask if they’re certified or what their BOC number is. If anything it shows that you know what you’re talking about by asking. You can even look up the information on your athletic trainer if you know their first and last name.

Look up an Athletic Trainer.

The CATA loves to hear about awesome Athletic Trainers who provide outstanding care. We also love to recognize supporters of the athletic training profession!

Check out our awards page to see the criteria for our awards and nominate an individual who deserves it.

Check out our Awards Page.

A very common misconception about athletic training is that it is the same as personal training. We have a pretty similar name, it makes sense. Personal trainers are usually found in your local gyms and provide guided exercises in a class or personal setting to improve their clients’ health.

Athletic Trainers differ in that they provide emergency care, diagnosis of injuries, and provide exercises to prevent injury or return to activity following an injury amongst many other things. Athletic Trainers also have a masters level degree that focuses on the above mentioned criteria and a lot more!

Personal Trainers are effective at what they do, but significantly differ from athletic trainers.

If your school provides athletic programs, start by asking your school who provides medical services for athletes? Someone should be taking care of injuries after school just like a school nurse takes care of injuries during school.

You can also talk to your school board about the need for an athletic trainers to keep kids safe. School boards will listen to their stakeholders concerns, and not having anyone to help an athlete if they are injured is a valid concern.

Short answer is No. We work all over the place!

The name Athletic Training was due to us working with almost exclusively athletes at all levels when the profession was first established. This is now commonly referred to as the “traditional setting.”

However, our profession has evolved significantly since the national organization was founded in 1950 and we have started to work with active individuals of all types, not just athletes. You can find athletic trainers assisting with injury prevention with the military, law enforcement, firefighters, even in occupational settings.

As we said, you can find us all over!

Well, you sure opened up a can of worms with that question!

Long story, short: Licensure provides regulation to a profession. Many professionals are licensed and it helps the consumer (thats you!) know the professional knows what their doing, and if they don’t follow the rules of their license they could lose it.

For instance, you could have your friend help you re-wire your house, who watched a YouTube video on it. But I’m sure you would feel a lot better hiring a licensed electrician to do the job!