This training center is home to some of the world’s best training and competition venues. You can make this 155-acre facility home if you're and elite athlete and want to bring it to Olympic levels.
I interned here under the Sports Medicine Department, and I got work with some of the best providers and athletes doing circuit rehab, taping, acupuncture, chiropractics, physical therapy, and athlete training. The type of work in this department consists of different fields, as you can see I listed them above. These fields give elite athletes the best care and treatment to injuries, and injury prevention. My role as a high school intern was help with rehab classes, assisting athletes with treatment/equipment, and maintaining a healthy clinic.
Down below is a transcribed interview, internship project, and photo essay that I documented throughout this amazing internship!
I interned here under the Sports Medicine Department, and I got work with some of the best providers and athletes doing circuit rehab, taping, acupuncture, chiropractics, physical therapy, and athlete training. The type of work in this department consists of different fields, as you can see I listed them above. These fields give elite athletes the best care and treatment to injuries, and injury prevention. My role as a high school intern was help with rehab classes, assisting athletes with treatment/equipment, and maintaining a healthy clinic.
Down below is a transcribed interview, internship project, and photo essay that I documented throughout this amazing internship!
Transcribed Interview
Life of an Olympic Athletic Trainer
Interview with Kevin Pierce, DC DACBSP | Sr. High Performance Health Care Provider-Doctor of Chiropractic, By Jonah Karty, May 22nd, 2018.
Here is an interview that I conducted with my mentor, Kevin Pierce (Head of Sports Medicine Department), while I was interning at the Chula Vista Elite Training Center. It was in his office, on May 22nd, around 2pm. This interview was also conducted with another student named Josefina Ramos as she was also interning there. I chose to only include the questions I asked, as those questions were the ones that mattered to me. This interview was essential to know about how it would be like if I chose to have a medical career as a future career.
JK- Jonah Karty
KP- Kevin Pierce
JK: So, the first question I want to start off, is just how would you describe one of your typical work days here?
KP: It’s a pretty good question so, I think part of our day is always different. So a typical day for us will be. I don’t know, it’s kind of interesting to answer what a typical day is because they’re always so different, but there is some similarities. I think the biggest part and the most similar part if we had to say would be coming in very similar to yesterday’s schedule where it’s anywhere from six to ten patients each day, with a couple meetings, so a typical day for us would be again, to come in and login and we already have a bunch of emails since we are on the west coast, so the east coast is emailing us, mountain time is emailing us. A number of things are coming in before our day truly starts, and a normal day for me starts with my drive in since I live a little bit farther away in orange county is I’m on the phone early in the morning with our providers in California and out of state. And so it’s integrating care from a perspective of who you referred from most recent weeks or the day before we send in a lot of referrals throughout the week and so most mornings it’s quickly checking my email to see who’s contacting from one of the different training centers on a different time zone and then providers that we’re integrating with when it comes to athletes care. So the morning starts out with quick email return, while I eat my breakfast at home, and on the drive in it’s planning out who I need to call on the phone since I have a fair amount of time in the car to coordinate that day’s care or future imaging/surgeries in the week to then communicate that to the staff that’s here. That kind of starts my day learning who’s on my schedule, what things are coming in, so that a little bit later, someone like Hannah, or Nicole, is integrating or Alex are calling to say hey this person is on your schedule now, we just added them. So the answer to what a normal day would look like, well it starts out in the morning then anything after that is like a free-for-all, because I have patients and meeting, but meetings can be moved, or we accept another case to come through throughout the day because an injury happened that day. Your day can start out with two patients then go to ten.
JK: Just like that?
KP: Just like that. So there is no typical day..(laughing)
JK: So there is no normal routine throughout a work day.
KP: Exactly, if that makes sense.
JK: No, yea it does make sense..
KP: The only things we know for sure is that we are going to see athletes, send emails, and have meetings.
JK: Mhhm
JK: That actually needs me to my next question, you were talking about having a lot of meetings, and that communication is important. How would you describe the corporate culture here?
KP: Our culture?
JK: Yes.
KP: I feel like as a team, and with in our team, all of us are here to help the athletes, but also each other, and I think why we are so successful is because we don’t say no enough.
JK: I see.
KP: Even if we have a full load, we will still help somebody, because we know we will make a difference, in helping that athlete and even though we can’t give them a full treatment, we can ease their mind. Sp we will always make an attempt to squeeze somebody in, no matter how jam packed we are. Also we have been told by other clinics that our personality types together, are diverse, yet easy going. Which means we can handle says that may be super chaotic, but we can’t show that on our outsides.
JK: You don’t let it affect your work.
KP: Exactly.
JK: My next question actually consists of how you got to where you are, I know it take lots of year of school, getting your doctorate, also residency. What motivated you throughout the year?
KP: I don’t know, I actually don’t know. I don’t know how to answer that one.
JK: Yea I was just wondering because a lot of people aspire to be someone in your place, or a doctor of a different field, but they can’t afford the school, or have a hard time through it. I just want someone that has already done the school and everything, to explain if they have any insight on what can help someone through it.
KP: I never looked at it through financial implications, but yea I look at that now as I pay it back.
(laughing)
KP: There are quite large loans that you have to take out, so you have to be committed to being a chiropractor and really driven. When I found out there were opportunities to work with sports teams and continue to be a physician for different teams, that’s where I saw myself going. I sort of envisioned that during high school, while I was still playing sports and stuff. During my collegiate career I was managing my academic side and my athletic side, so I was a student athlete, so I looked at time management then, it was a lot to handle. I don’t how or why I have always been pretty driven for the path that I set myself out for.
JK: That brings me to my last question, you were saying that this is the career you truly wanted, so what parts have been the most enjoyable or rewarding from this career.
KP: I think the most rewarding part is actually getting to see other achieve their goal, because we don’t get a chance to be on the center stage, and compete like they do. To see someone achieve their goal no matter how little, it can be some of these guys who have a chance to stand on the olympic podium with a medal around their neck, but it could be something smaller, like a rehab goal for somebody. That’s a smaller goal with the hopes of a larger goal. That is rewarding itself because something clicked for them after an injury. Watching now get a chance to live their dream again and go from I may not be playing this sport again to I am now playing the sport I love again. Victories small or large drive us on the medical side We need to bring our best everyday as if it’s our game day for them to achieve their goal on their gameday.
JK: Wow, that makes a lot of sense and it’s really cool how their achievements are because of your effort. That was my final question though, thank you!
KP: Of course!
Interview with Kevin Pierce, DC DACBSP | Sr. High Performance Health Care Provider-Doctor of Chiropractic, By Jonah Karty, May 22nd, 2018.
Here is an interview that I conducted with my mentor, Kevin Pierce (Head of Sports Medicine Department), while I was interning at the Chula Vista Elite Training Center. It was in his office, on May 22nd, around 2pm. This interview was also conducted with another student named Josefina Ramos as she was also interning there. I chose to only include the questions I asked, as those questions were the ones that mattered to me. This interview was essential to know about how it would be like if I chose to have a medical career as a future career.
JK- Jonah Karty
KP- Kevin Pierce
JK: So, the first question I want to start off, is just how would you describe one of your typical work days here?
KP: It’s a pretty good question so, I think part of our day is always different. So a typical day for us will be. I don’t know, it’s kind of interesting to answer what a typical day is because they’re always so different, but there is some similarities. I think the biggest part and the most similar part if we had to say would be coming in very similar to yesterday’s schedule where it’s anywhere from six to ten patients each day, with a couple meetings, so a typical day for us would be again, to come in and login and we already have a bunch of emails since we are on the west coast, so the east coast is emailing us, mountain time is emailing us. A number of things are coming in before our day truly starts, and a normal day for me starts with my drive in since I live a little bit farther away in orange county is I’m on the phone early in the morning with our providers in California and out of state. And so it’s integrating care from a perspective of who you referred from most recent weeks or the day before we send in a lot of referrals throughout the week and so most mornings it’s quickly checking my email to see who’s contacting from one of the different training centers on a different time zone and then providers that we’re integrating with when it comes to athletes care. So the morning starts out with quick email return, while I eat my breakfast at home, and on the drive in it’s planning out who I need to call on the phone since I have a fair amount of time in the car to coordinate that day’s care or future imaging/surgeries in the week to then communicate that to the staff that’s here. That kind of starts my day learning who’s on my schedule, what things are coming in, so that a little bit later, someone like Hannah, or Nicole, is integrating or Alex are calling to say hey this person is on your schedule now, we just added them. So the answer to what a normal day would look like, well it starts out in the morning then anything after that is like a free-for-all, because I have patients and meeting, but meetings can be moved, or we accept another case to come through throughout the day because an injury happened that day. Your day can start out with two patients then go to ten.
JK: Just like that?
KP: Just like that. So there is no typical day..(laughing)
JK: So there is no normal routine throughout a work day.
KP: Exactly, if that makes sense.
JK: No, yea it does make sense..
KP: The only things we know for sure is that we are going to see athletes, send emails, and have meetings.
JK: Mhhm
JK: That actually needs me to my next question, you were talking about having a lot of meetings, and that communication is important. How would you describe the corporate culture here?
KP: Our culture?
JK: Yes.
KP: I feel like as a team, and with in our team, all of us are here to help the athletes, but also each other, and I think why we are so successful is because we don’t say no enough.
JK: I see.
KP: Even if we have a full load, we will still help somebody, because we know we will make a difference, in helping that athlete and even though we can’t give them a full treatment, we can ease their mind. Sp we will always make an attempt to squeeze somebody in, no matter how jam packed we are. Also we have been told by other clinics that our personality types together, are diverse, yet easy going. Which means we can handle says that may be super chaotic, but we can’t show that on our outsides.
JK: You don’t let it affect your work.
KP: Exactly.
JK: My next question actually consists of how you got to where you are, I know it take lots of year of school, getting your doctorate, also residency. What motivated you throughout the year?
KP: I don’t know, I actually don’t know. I don’t know how to answer that one.
JK: Yea I was just wondering because a lot of people aspire to be someone in your place, or a doctor of a different field, but they can’t afford the school, or have a hard time through it. I just want someone that has already done the school and everything, to explain if they have any insight on what can help someone through it.
KP: I never looked at it through financial implications, but yea I look at that now as I pay it back.
(laughing)
KP: There are quite large loans that you have to take out, so you have to be committed to being a chiropractor and really driven. When I found out there were opportunities to work with sports teams and continue to be a physician for different teams, that’s where I saw myself going. I sort of envisioned that during high school, while I was still playing sports and stuff. During my collegiate career I was managing my academic side and my athletic side, so I was a student athlete, so I looked at time management then, it was a lot to handle. I don’t how or why I have always been pretty driven for the path that I set myself out for.
JK: That brings me to my last question, you were saying that this is the career you truly wanted, so what parts have been the most enjoyable or rewarding from this career.
KP: I think the most rewarding part is actually getting to see other achieve their goal, because we don’t get a chance to be on the center stage, and compete like they do. To see someone achieve their goal no matter how little, it can be some of these guys who have a chance to stand on the olympic podium with a medal around their neck, but it could be something smaller, like a rehab goal for somebody. That’s a smaller goal with the hopes of a larger goal. That is rewarding itself because something clicked for them after an injury. Watching now get a chance to live their dream again and go from I may not be playing this sport again to I am now playing the sport I love again. Victories small or large drive us on the medical side We need to bring our best everyday as if it’s our game day for them to achieve their goal on their gameday.
JK: Wow, that makes a lot of sense and it’s really cool how their achievements are because of your effort. That was my final question though, thank you!
KP: Of course!
Internship Project
Here is what my mentors and I constructed for my internship project! It is a circuit rehab workout that we would use for the athletes through their rehabs, but this specific one was designed for me and what I needed to work on! This required tests displaying what I was capable of to show where I need the most progress!
Photo Essay
First day of internship! I was able to take a picture with the active therapy equipment with the olympic sports medicine polo they gave me! I feel like I look ready to tackle any task they have to throw at me, but I know I was definitely feeling nervous throughout this day.
Here I decided that these structures of anatomy were very worthy of a photo because many therapeutic activities revolve around these structures! Also these are the most likely structures to be related to an injury as of late. We started using these structures everyday of week one to learn about anatomy!
Here is when I visited the Easton archery center with my co mentor Nicole. I got to meet some of the top archers for the USA team! One of them was kind enough to let me hold her bow, which was really heavy by the way. We did this on a tour of the whole facility, it was really nice of them to show us around before we dived into work.
In this picture, I will first address that I needed to block out the background because some of the athletes faces got into it, and I am not allowed to show faces. This the first time I got to try out what is called the, “NormaTec”. This machine is super compression on your muscles, and you tell by my face that I was feeling it! It was really cool that they had us use it to understand how it works, so I know how to assist athletes if they need it when trying to use it.
Here in this picture, I am showing the desk my co intern Josefina and I work on when learning about anatomy, or writing our reflections and photo essays. I always work on the left side of the desk, where you can see a hydro flask, salmon notebook, and a laptop. I have learned so much already at this very desk only being her for a week!
This picture was taken on the day I got to visit the visitor center of the Olympic Training Center which is ironically the last place I visited in the whole complex. I didn't get to visit this building on the tour, but I am lucky I am getting to see it during my second week! I really love this picture because it captures many Olympic moments. As you can see, there are pictures on the wall of special moments and competitors, which was really cool to me because I see the people in those pictures everyday I am here.
I took this picture when coming back from a quick visit to the visitor center. This picture was taken right outside of the athlete check in center, and I really liked the sign with the BMX course in the background. This is one of the first signs you will see when entering the area!
This image above is the test cards from the King Devick test. The first square is a demonstration card, that is just supposed to let you know how you’re supposed to read the numbers. As you can see in test one, the number look very much in a straight line, and they have lines in between each number. This to me is the easiest one and should be, as it is the first test out of the three. As you go on you see how test two, there aren’t anymore lines and the numbers look spread and not in a straight line. They are in a straight line! That is what makes this test confusing and it may be easier to skip a number or a whole line, compared to the last one. Now take a look at test three! No lines and the numbers are even closer together. This makes it really hard to keep reading in the correct line, as well as say the correct number that is next!
Here is a picture of my baseline test scores! As you can see right below my name is my baseline score! I got 37.98 seconds, and that is the result from the three tests, which you can see were recorded below. The best score from my first test was 11.33 seconds, then the best from second test was 12.08 seconds, then the best from the third test was 14.60 seconds. Which added up to my baseline score! If I were to get any head trauma, this is what I would refer to if I needed any more evaluation.
To start off, definitely not the best picture of me, but it is a picture my co mentor made me take because she absolutely loved how I looked. In this picture I am wearing what it looks like to be some sort of futuristic tutu. I can confirm that it wasn’t a tutu and yes it was very tight fitting. Moving on, this piece of clothing/equipment I am wearing is part of the Alter G machine. I have to wear this because it zips me up into the machine. You will understand more in the next picture!
This is the Alter G! As you can see this isn’t your typical treadmill. As I was discussing in the last photo caption, that tutu that I was wearing, zipped me to this machine. In this machine my body weight was altered to where there was points where I was running on only 55% percent of my body weight! Which like I discussed in one of my reflections is used for athletes coming from an injury that can’t run on full body weight yet. Also you can see my legs through a window at the bottom and my shirt is inflated because some air is escaping but that’s normal
In this picture, I was having ultrasound being done on my quad. Josefina is actually the one controlling the ultrasound. I didn’t get to see what was going on inside my quad because we weren’t able to hook up the ultrasound machine to a computer that would allow us to see my muscles, ligaments, etc.
These are the 12 cranial nerves and I studied and still am studying about this topic a lot! It was complex at first, but as I dived deeper, parts that I didn’t understand, connected to other parts, which made me able to understand it. I still currently don’t completely memorize what every cranial nerve is responsible for, but I am determined to learn!
This is the picture of my ankle that has been wrapped properly by an athletic trainer who has been doing this for 33 years! Learning this was so important to me, even though I don’t fully know the taping process for his specific way of taping yet, I have the basics down. I have gone through so many ankle injuries in my past, I have never learned how to properly wrap my ankle, which I believe was involved with me not properly knowing how to prevent an ankle injury. Now that I know how to wrap it for my specific injury, hopefully it will stop any injuries that could happen to me throughout my life from now.
This picture was taken around 8:30 in the morning, and I remember being very tired then, but I remember getting excited really fast because of how fascinating this game of rugby was to watch! My first time getting to see rugby being played right in front of my eyes, and not on screen! It made me want to try and play, but definitely not with these women, I would probably get crushed.
I really like this picture because it has to do with food, and I got that “Team USA” logo in it! This I took at the cafeteria because the cafeteria is my favorite place in the whole complex and it is very deserving of having a part of my photo journal. In the next picture I will show you a reason why I love this place so much. I am surprised I haven’t talked about this place more.
In the second to last day I am here, I brought in my thank you to all my mentors for allowing me to have this amazing experience. I made sure to bring everyone breakfast muffins in all different flavors as well as a little dessert with the cinnamon rolls!
Couldn’t help but photo bomb my co intern Josefina’s “solo” picture with the muffins I brought. Also look at the sign she made for them, as you can see it is drawing people’s attention because there are some muffins that have been taken.
This is an official USA rugby backpack they gave me! This is so cool to me, especially because I have got to learn so much about rugby since I have been here. It was such a surprise to be gifted this as well as other gifts inside this! What a gift to remember this experience.
On my last day here, my mentors wanted me to have the experience of being an actual athlete through their rehab! This was the best experience of them all!
Look at this beautiful team! Hannah is on the very left, Jen right next to her (which is one of the two Jens we have here, this one is a massage therapist), Naxiely right in between Jen and I, Me in the middle of course, Kevin right next to me, Nicole right next to him, and Alex at the very end! What a great picture to end my time here!