UNLV Professor Provides Expertise for Olympic Games
Ever wonder what happens to injured Olympic heroes after the cameras pan away?
That's when the world's top athletic trainers, armed with the latest research in injury management, step in.
As the Chinese Olympic Committee prepared for the 2008 summer games in Beijing, they called upon UNLV kinesiology professor Bill Holcomb and several national experts to present an injury management workshop for national team doctors.
Holcomb, a certified athletic trainer, is one of only 43 fellows of the National Strength and Conditioning Association and a leading researcher on techniques to prevent and manage injuries. Workshop topics included immediate management of common athletic injuries, evaluation of athletic injuries to the upper and lower extremities, sports taping, and techniques to prevent overtraining and under-recovery.
"Being invited by the Chinese Olympic Committee to teach a workshop for their doctors was the pinnacle of my professional career so far," Holcomb said.
Up-to-Date Injury Information
In addition to the workshop, Holcomb and the team viewed the elaborate training facilities for the athletes and consulted with the Chinese team doctors and the rehabilitation team to ensure they had the most up-to-date injury management information.
"Missing the Olympics due to injury is tragic because the next opportunity is four years away," Holcomb said. "Therefore, injury prevention and proper management of those inevitable injuries is critical."
Holcomb's experience with the Olympics dates back to 1996, when he served as an athletic trainer at the tennis venue in Atlanta.
His latest research examines how stretching affects athletic performance. He's found that some types of stretching may actually diminish power in a given activity, while others do not seem to affect athletic performance. The results of the study will appear in the November issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.
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Bill Holcomb
UNLV Kinesiology Department
