Creating Harmony in Sports Health Teams

In this episode of the ICA Sports and Fitness Science Podcast, the host introduces John Walter, a longtime colleague and head trainer for the Rockford IceHogs. The discussion revolves around their experiences working together, the intricacies of managing a medical team during games, and the importance of communication and teamwork. They elaborate on the different roles within the medical team, how to effectively integrate into a sports health team, and provide advice for new chiropractors looking to get involved in sports teams. The episode also touches on the benefits of building strong relationships with other medical professionals and how those connections can enhance the care provided to athletes. Tune in to learn more about the vital role of chiropractors and athletic trainers in sports.

Transcript

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Hi, thanks for tuning in for another edition of the ICA Sports and Fitness Science Podcast. And today I'd like to introduce a friend of mine and a co, a colleague, coworker, I don't know the right word. A guy I've worked with for many years. John Walter. I first met John many years ago when I was volunteering at East High School with our friend JJ and John was at Boylan. High school with my other friend, Dr. Whitehurst, and we met the sidelines. And over time now we've worked together with the Rockford IceHogs. So, John, you introduce, you say hi to everybody and tell us there's what I left out. Yeah, no, it's it's a small world, especially in Rockford like that, where we or later we're all gonna work together at something. Point. And, and that's basically how I ended up getting into this role as the, the head trainer here in Rockford was the the, the previous guy that was in charge reached out to me because I'd been at Boylan for 26 years and, you know, he had known me. And so yeah, we just started a relationship that way. And thing you know, here we are and we're working together and yeah, so. You know, a lot of chiropractors talk to me like, how'd you get your foot in the door with the sports team? And I would say you being at Boyland High School, working with the head orthopedic doctor at the time or the hockey team probably opened some doors for you to get involved in the hockey team, correct? Oh yeah. I mean that, that, I think that I.'cause I, I, I know that Dr. Whitehurst probably talked with, with, dJ about me over time, you know, a number of times. And, and Dr. Whitehurst and I, we've got a really good relationship worked together with him. I think it was 17 years out at, at Boy and I think he was with me. And yeah. You know, it's good to have a good rapport and, and it's not just with, with him, it's with his entire group over at the Illinois. We all those docs over there, we've got to know each other really well. And, it's like we're talking, you know, we're, we're friends, right? We're, and, and it's really easy to have conversation and, and you know, if I've got an idea about something, I don't feel like I can't, you know, I can't approach them with this and, you know, they're gonna lay it to me straight and they're gonna give us the, the best route to, to take with the players. And you know, we, we, we follow that and everything seems to work pretty good. You know, that's kind of the point today I wanted to bring you on the podcast is a lot of chiropractors when they wanna get involved in teams, they don't know how to do the team approach. They've been in private practice by themselves. And you being the head athletic trainer and me being the team chiropractor, over the years, we've learned that you gotta be able to have a certain teamwork in order to do things together. And we talk a lot of times about staying in your lane and you, you run well. Why don't you tell us all who's on the medical team in a typical game? First, how many lanes we actually have. Yeah, that's I was gonna, I was after we got going here, I was gonna mention a couple other people, but yeah. First of all Dr. Jeff Anthiel is our, our head team physician now, and he's over at Ortho Illinois. But we've got a good group. We've got five doctors over there. That rotate. Each game we will have a, a orthopedic surgeon. We will have a chiropractor. We will have a, a, a dentist. We will have a internal medicine doctor, EMS, obviously, and we also will have an emergency physician on hand for every game we work. We got a really good relationship with the, the doctors over at Mercy Health right now. Our, our lead, practice, doctors and er docs and we've got a really nice system in place so that if we, if we need anything emergent or during a game or, or just if somebody, one of the players or their wives or staff members or their wives have a, an issue that needs to be addressed. And yeah, I. Basically I can pick up the phone and, and reach out to you or any of them. And, and you guys are awesome about getting 'em in right away. And, and like you said, it's teamwork and sometimes it's not the most convenient thing, and we understand that on our end when we reach out to you guys. But you know, it, it, it's appreciative on our end when, when you're able to, to, to get a guy in. I suppose with that, that many people there all working in one game, it would make your life absolutely miserable if a guy had separated his shoulder to mean the. Team Dentist said, let's, let's try that. Ah, we're gonna have to be in some bad shape before I start reaching that direction. No offense. No you know. you, you guys all, everybody plays a, a big role and, and on game, right? It seems like whenever there's anything that that does come up that we, we do need a, an assistant hand or another hand in there to, to help out you guys, everybody knows. Roles, like you say, and they can see if, if this is something, hey, can I help out? What can I do to help out? You know? And, and that's probably the best way to go about doing it, is just like you said, you sit back, you kinda survey the scene and, and decide, you know, do they need me to, to, to do, even if it's holding a door, whatever it might be. You know, something simple. But yeah, that's, that works best. I think I've had the position of crowd control more than once just to stick my butt in the air, so nobody records anything. yeah, yeah, yeah, And that, you know, it comes back to another really important thing when you're working as a team chiropractor is that's with the players. We have a practice before the season starts where you communicate with us what you expect to have happen should somebody get hurt. So the communication, you can't say enough about it. Correct. Right. We do that. You know, before the season we, we get all the staff in for just to go over emergency practices and, and policies and what, you know, lay out everything, what what we're gonna do different scenarios, you know, and that way everybody is on the same page. We'll talk about it actually before every game with our emergency medical services team. The EMS guys from Ridge come in before every game, myself and the, the head trainer from the other team we'll meet with, with the team physician as well as, vMS. And so we just review, and it might be something where they're on at our arena, you know, three days in that week or five days and two weeks or whatever, you know, but we still review it every day just to, to make sure that, know, nobody's forgot something or if there happens to be a new member that comes in, that everybody, everybody's aware of what's going on. Now you would go on the road too with the guys. A lot. And do you find that different teams have different ways of doing things like, or is it pretty universal? You know what, it's pretty much universal. And that's one of the things that we will discuss too when we have our little breakouts is you know, if it came to a spinal injury, how are we gonna handle that on the ice? You know, some teams will, will do a, a log roll to get a player onto the spine board. Other teams like to, to lift and slide. And it, and that's, you know, that's really important.'cause if that, it comes down to a situation like that and think one thing's gonna happen and another team thinks another thing's gonna happen. That, that's confusion, that doesn't look good and it's not the best scenario for the player or the staff. When something like that goes, goes on. Then Nate, you and I've been trying to guide this podcast for the, that wants to get involved into sports and I know we're talking about the IceHogs here and we have basically very similar setup up to the NHL as far as what's expected at the games 'cause it's the same players union, same levels of expertise required. I have to imagine what this gonna be. People, we talked a little bit about a communication chain. You wanna talk a little bit about the communication chain? Between us and Chicago, or Well, no. Like if I think a player's lower back is tight, you don't want me to go knock on the coach's door and say, this guy probably shouldn't go correct. yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. So if, so, if during a game, you know, if, if, if something. Occurs. And a, a player comes to, comes off the ice, I don't realize something's going on. and they come straight to you and, and they, you know, they say, I'm kind of locked up right now. You know, that's when it's you and I will communicate and you'll be like, okay. Can go forward with the treatment at that point and kind of decide what's, what's best for the player. And sometimes that, that little bit of an adjustment they will get them lined up again. They can get through the rest of the night. Other times just, it doesn't wanna go the right direction. And, and you know, that happens, right? And then you and I kind of talk about it and then we will, I will go into the coach's office like you say, and like, Hey you know. This guy can't go for the rest of the night. So Imagine if I walked in there. that's a tough, that's a tough conversation to have a lot of times too, you Yeah, that's, that, that goes with it. Fortunately, we don't have to do that as often as, you know we could, you know, so I imagine if I was going in there and doing that, that would probably be one of my last games, correct. I. We don't like to yeah, you and I would, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say probably the last game. I think we could probably figure something out. Conversation, but yeah. No, and that's, and that's the thing that's nice about you and your group is everybody understands that, you know, it's, it's my job to go in and, and say something to the, to the staff. Even if you were to mention something to an assistant, we don't, we don't even wanna do that. We just, it comes through me so that everybody knows. Especially the head coach and, and myself. We have to have that, that communication, that line of communication going. And then that, that also being said is we will also reach out to our general manager and let him know if a player's going to be returning or not returning, you know, and, and try to give him an idea so that he can start actually thinking about, all right, well we've got another game tomorrow night. This is where we're at with injuries, with our, with our team right now. I might have to call up another guy from Indy and, and, and, you know, go that route. So it's, yeah, it's, it's not just as simple as a, you know, second conversation. A lot. There's a lot of things that are going on, and, yes, you're right for, for, for, I'm the guy that, that needs to make that and communicate people above me. So. And that that extends more just a game day. So if it's a Tuesday afternoon and one of the guys. Rose into my office and tells me he's been having some hip flexer issues and lower back tightness. It's very, very important that I let you know that 'cause there's a chance you didn't know that guy walked in my office. Yeah, for sure. And that's one thing that's really nice too, is you guys whenever our players do go over that direction always get a, a note from you letting me know. So even if, you know, you get busy, I get busy, at least I see that email that comes through and then I can reach out to the, to the player. You know, the next day or even at night, I'll probably reach out to them and, and say, Hey, what's going on? You know, and then they can, they can tell me so. The nice thing is like when I see a guy come in, let's say I find he's guy a tor the pelvis with a tight Piriformis on one side, a tight Iliopsoas on the other. I'm able to communicate with you and then you're able to tell your assistant and the strength conditioning coach and the massage therapist rather than me have to call each one and tell each one what that's going on, and then you can share all that information from all of them to all of us. And it's a really cool how it works. Yeah. Right. And then that way the strength coach, massage therapist we got our strength guy is Paul Sawyer has been with us for a couple years. Patrick ch, my assistant is. had a great relationship for a number of years now. And then our our massage therapist, Harrison, may yeah, he's, he's an awesome guy too. He really knows his stuff. And he, right, if you, if you say that, that, you know, you got a certain area, you feel like a guy is kind of down a little bit, then, then we can address that with Harry. Usually, initially, especially if it's during a game. But even during the week. He'll try to do some, some work with him and then we'll take, go into talk with the strength coach and we try to pinpoint exercises and, and the two of us will work together. I've got a pretty good background with physical therapy then, so yeah Paul and I will try to then Sean patch on. We'll between the three of us, we'll try to come up with a plan to, to know, target those areas that are, are specifically the ones that are given player problems. Who's about the opposite of that? This was many years ago before you were there. We were in a different hockey league. We were the UHL Minor, minor league hockey team, and there was games and I went and it was just me, the trainer and the owner who was a dentist, and that was it. And you've been in situations where it's maybe just you and Dr. Whitehurst or maybe even less than that, and that's a whole different ballpark. So a new chiropractor getting involved, you might find yourself as one of the. But I had to make ice bags. Right. And do more than your job requirement. So Yeah, a little bit about that environment too. I know you've been in that environment too. yeah. So, yeah, that, that's, it is sometimes becomes an all hands on deck type of thing. And, and the, it's funny because I've thought about this times that higher level that you get in, in my job. I think, not that it's easier, but there are more people, ancillary people to help out with things from day to day and everything else. It's almost like, I'm not gonna say the job gets easier because I, I don't wanna, you know, but when you're standing by yourself in a, at a high school setting, or like you said in the, the, you know, UHL days when it was just JJ here and you, and you know, it's. There's things that that happened and you don't know if it's gonna be one thing that night or it could be 10 things that night. And so yeah, everybody's gotta, you know, again, you, you communicate. That's the big thing. What, what the plan is to do with the, with the player. But I think too though, when, when you guys get a chance to come in and get your hands on people a little bit and get involved, I think that that makes you feel good about, you know, what you're doing there that night too. And, and that's why, you know. I feel very comfortable with, with, with you and your staff and, and with our medical team that everybody just, they, like I said earlier, they just know their roles and we, it is fun, you know, you can make this as miserable as you want and, and as sterile as you want. Or you can make it in an environment where everybody sits back and relax and, and gets to know each other on a personal basis. And I think that's the key too. You gotta, you gotta know everybody's personalities a little bit, you know? So, i, I, you know, I, I think it works really well here. If you remember being at a high school game with JJ and I don't, the other team even had a trainer and we had about four people go down at once and JJ ran over and was doing quick assessments. Okay, you sit with this guy, don't let him move. I had to go over here. I just sat with him to talk to him a little bit and he's like, what kind of doctor are you? I said, doesn't matter. Just. Just sit here with me. Yeah. Yeah, Those are the fun days, right? that is, that is I, and that was the thing too. Yeah. When, you know, football was one thing where usually each team had, an athletic trainer on their sideline, but not always. And it never failed those nights I. like you say, those were the nights where, you know, you would have a, a kid from the other team get hurt and then one of your guys gets hurt, then your coach is looking for you here on the other sideline. And yeah, it's, it gets touchy sometimes back in the, know, the high school days. But yeah, it's, it's it is. And then. We've all gone through as athletic trainers, like those, those scenarios, those situations where, know, at the end of the night you just sit back and just take that deep breath, like, what just happened? Because it's just a crazy night, you know? So yeah. That's, that's, that's, that's part of the job, I guess, you know. If I wanted to summarize this to a new chiropractor, thinking about getting involved in the team, I would say the key is to stay in your lane, know your job, and do your job, communicate like crazy. Let everyone know what's going on and wait to be communicated back and be prepared. You're prepared for 'cause things can change real fast. Yeah, yeah. The biggest, the biggest thing is if, if no matter who you are, when you come into a, to a room, to a locker room situation setting, the, sometimes the, the less you say initially it is better, you know, less is more type of mentality, right? If people come in and they try to justify everything that they know and tell you everything that they know, and, and, and sometimes that's. be offput to the players and, and some of the staff members. So, you know, everything that's gonna, is going to work itself out, you know, in, in time with you know, a new situation when if you're, if we're new to a training world or hockey setting or football or whatever it might be, yeah, just. Just feel it out the first couple of, of, of nights or whatever, or come in and, and just do some observation first and, and decide whether, Hey, is this something I really wanna jump into or not? You know? And, and, and we, we try to do that here too, and we, when we bring new staff on or do docs that are kind of considering jumping in and, and, and joining our, our, our staff is, I, I, I tell them, I like, listen. We'd love to have you, but I want you to feel comfortable with this and, and come down and let's watch a little bit and you can get the feel of, you know, game nights sometimes can get overwhelming. Like you say, you know. Stuff that can happen just with the crowd and the, the intensity of the game or whatever it might be. Or it could be really bad night on the ice. And, and when that happens, then it's pretty somber in the training room. You don't want a whole lot of talking going on at that point. It's not time to sit and joke and laugh on those nights. So you, you gotta be really wise about that. Experience more. Anything else? And I was looking at my last three doctors that came into my practice, they spent a semester with me for shadowing. So they get to come down, like you said, and just shadow for a semester before they even got close to adjusting a player. So. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think we hit the topics tonight, unless I always give my stage to my guests. If you have any more final words you'd like to share with any young chiropractors sticking about getting involved in athletic team. Well, yeah. You know, I, I know that there's plenty of teams that are out there you know, looking for that opportunity to have somebody else come on, staff. It's really, it is, it's a it's, it's not mandated, but it's Sure, sure is appreciated. if, if you're, if you're looking to get into working with the team baseball, hockey, football, whatever it might be, you know it's, IM important to, to try to reach out and maybe establish that relationship with the athletic trainer you know, become familiar with the setting and the scene and, and initially it, it might be a voluntary thing and then, you know, as things go and then everybody gets more comfortable with the situation, the teams sometimes then will, will reach out and, and, know, get reimbursement towards you know, towards you as a chiropractor. And there's always, you know, you can be pretty creative too is how you, you can get reimbursed as well. So I think we've got a pretty decent setup the way we do things. And I think it works for you guys and, you know, but that's, that's probably the biggest thing is, is totally appreciated. And you know, the more hands sometimes that you have, the more tools that you have as a, as a athletic trainer to, to get your guys back to playing. That's the best. I said too, a lot of times in not the a hhl, the NHL level, but some of the lower leagues, sometimes you could be the reason a free agent comes in the team, they want to go to a team with a chiropractor. And so by having you on that team, you, you kind have a selling point too. So, but yeah, it just comes down to communication, relationships and doing your thing and not getting involved in other people's thing until you're asked. You got it. Well, thanks for joining us tonight. If you like what you're hearing or seeing, feel free to like and subscribe to this podcast. Try to come at you every two weeks. Dr. McDougall and I last podcast talked about the how when you become a team chiropractor, you're probably not gonna go out and buy a new boat right away. You're doing it for the love of being there. You're doing it for the love of sports and the love of being in the locker room and part of the excitement more than anything else. And we do have some live webinars coming up, so make sure you keep watching and following us. And thanks for tuning in. And John, I wanna thank you for taking time during your off season to spend it with the guy you have to hang out with during the season. So thank you. was great. It was great seeing y'all for sure. All right, well, we'll say goodbye everybody.