What are alternate options for sports players who are injured/need training?

Athletic Trainers work with their patients in the patients' environment. 

The economic principle I’m exploring is Because of scarcity, people choose. All choices have an opportunity cost.

My research question to help me study the economic principle is “ How do athletic trainers differ from physical therapists and what do they do differently?” The article published by Study.com titled “Athletic Trainer Vs. Physical Therapist” demonstrates this economic principle by showing the difference between Athletic Trainers and Physical therapists, What the two do differently, and what else a player can use rather than an athletic trainer.

 First, the difference between an athletic trainer and a physical therapist is difficult to understand unless explained well. An athletic trainer work with athletes and players to help prevent injuries and giving workouts to assist a person if they are actively trying to prevent or treat an injury. Athletic trainers help prepare the athletes for practice and games-whether that’s wrapping a pitchers wrist or helping them stretch out better. They also assess and document the injuries that occur and document how they are treating them since they help the injured player with the treatments and workouts in order to bring the player back to their sport in a timely manner. A physical therapist only works with injured people-not only athletes but also elderly, people who have been involved in car accidents, and anyone else who have been injured. Physical therapists teach their patients exercises to improve their injuries, monitor their movements and progress along with making sure that their patients don’t have any issues with mobility.

 Second, the physical therapists and athletic trainers share some of the same responsibilities for their patients, but approach the situations differently. When a patient is injured, an athletic trainer can diagnose them with an injury and acknowledge what is wrong with the patient. The athletic trainer then comes up with plans to help the patient go back to their sport as fast as possible, while the physical therapist also helps them return to a sport, most of their patients don’t do sports so they don’t have to do things as quick as an athletic trainer would. Athletic trainers also work with the injured athletes everyday for large amounts of time and also give them exercises to do while physical therapists work with senior citizens, some athletes, kids/teens, people who have been involved in accidents, or people who have had surgery.


In my next blog post I will research the question: Who are the people that need athletic trainers the most? What do they NEED from the trainers?