In the last few weeks, I have had a bunch of injuries occur on my bench and between the players, coaches and referees my black medical gloves drew a lot of attention. It all started back in Lacrosse when the referees teased me about my one black glove and said I was a trying to be like Michael Jackson. I laughed it off and said just wait until I bust out my bedazzled ones! It was all in good fun until one of the referees took a lacrosse ball to the face and I was prepared with my black medical gloves ready to apply pressure. A similar situation happened just this last week on my hockey bench. One of the boys took a cross check to the arm and came off the ice but went and sat on the opposite end of the bench than me. He was reluctant to tell me that he was hurt and wanted me to look at it because he was skeptical about what I could do for him. After I assessed him and decided to use good old bio-freeze and kinesiology tape, he went back into the line up. By the end of the game he told me I had “magical” tape and that “I’m now his favourite trainer.”This info spread to another player who was having trouble with a carpal bone in his hand. The player approached me after trying to play through it and I mobilized the joint then used a little manipulation to get the sub-luxed bone back where it came from. My player was extremely excited to be pain free and ready to play. It is hard to gain the trust of new players on a team but news of good results spreads quickly and I have seen an increase in reported injuries in just the past few games.
Emma Van Ulden, BPE