Melinda J Flegel - Sport first aid

Melinda J. Flegel, MS, ATC, LAT, CSCS

Being a successful coach requires knowing more than just the skills and strategies of a sport. It includes being able to teach techniques and tactics, motivate athletes, and manage a myriad of details. And it involves fulfilling the role of being a competent first responder to athletes injuries and illnesses.

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) reported that 7,692,520 high school youth participated in sports programs in 2011-2012. In a study of nine sports (football, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, volleyball, and wrestling) from a randomly selected sample of 100 U.S. high schools in 2011-2012, researchers estimated that approximately 1,392,262 injuries occurred among athletes participating in those sports (Comstock et al., 2012). The researchers estimated that approximately 740,493 of the injuries occurred during competition, while 651,769 occurred during practice.

Ideally you would have medical professionals such as certified athletic trainers (ATs) or emergency medical technicians (EMTs) available for every competition and practice. Unfortunately less than 42% of U.S. high schools have access to certified athletic trainers who are specially trained to evaluate, treat, and prevent athletic injuries. If athletic trainers are available at your school, they wont be able to attend every practice and competition for every sport. EMTs or physicians may attend some competitions, but they arent at every competition or any practices. So as a coach, you will often be the one responsible for administering first aid to your injured athletes.

To help you meet the challenge of administering first aid to your injured athletes, the American Sport Education Program (ASEP) has developed the Sport First Aid course. This fifth edition of Sport First Aid serves as the text for that course. Sport First Aid and the accompanying Sport First Aid course covers protocols for these tasks:

1. conducting emergency action steps;

2. conducting the physical assessment and administering first aid for bleeding, tissue damage, and unstable injuries; and

3. moving injured athletes and returning athletes to play.

In addition to the Sport First Aid course, ASEP also offers the widely used Coaching Principles course and the Coaching [Sport] Technical and Tactical Skills courses. Together, these courses compose ASEPs Bronze Level curriculum (see appendix B). ASEP delivers these courses to interscholastic coaches throughout the nation through the ASEP Professional Coaches Education Program, adopted in whole or in part by 30 state high school associations.

Throughout its development and revision Sport First Aid was reviewed by experts representing key areas of sports medicine specialization. Their close scrutiny and invaluable feedback ensure that this is a scientifically sound, relevant, and current text for coaches. The protocols described here also have been revised to reflect the 2010 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care.

However, ASEP wants to emphasize that this is a sport first aid book, not a general guide to medical procedures. The contents of this text are tailored to the athletic context, with the perspective that the coach is the initial responder to most athletes injuries and is not medically trained to provide care beyond the initial first aid response.