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Terrebonne General Medical Center is keeping student athletes busy this summer.
Through its Sports Performance Training Center, the hospital is working hard to teach injury prevention that will be helpful to young locals when school sports roll back around.
TGMC has hosted a series of Summer Speed Camps in recent weeks, touring each local high school and putting in more than four hours of work over a three-day period.
The camps teach athletes of all sports fitness basics – tools the Sports Performance Training Center staff hopes will result in fewer injuries when the fall rolls back around.
“We wanted to find out a way to get athletes better and help them prevent injuries,” TGMC Sports Performance Training Specialist Zach Voss said. “All the coaches wanted to get their athletes better and quicker. We talked to the coaches and we decided this would be a way our center could be a resource to the people. This is a good thing that’s blossomed and we’re helping lots of people.”
The summer speed camps are sparked by local demand.
Voss said throughout the year, he talks to coaches in an effort to gauge the things that they feel could be better in terms of local sports medicine.
Through those conversations, Voss said he and his colleagues learned a lot of local injuries could be prevented if athletes are taught proper running techniques or if proper stretching takes place before the workouts.
Knowing that, Voss said he enlisted the help of Bommarito Performance athletic trainer Gabe Barahona and the two got to work.
The fitness camps started on June 6 at South Terrebonne.
From there, the hospital toured Vandebilt from June 13-17 and Terrebonne High this past week.
This week, they’ll be at H.L. Bourgeois and from July 11-15, they’ll visit Ellender.
Students at Covenant Christian and Houma Christian are invited to attend the Ellender camp.
“The coaches are appreciative of what we’re doing,” said Candace Banks, an athletic trainer at TGMC who is assigned to Terrebonne High School throughout the year. “It helps them a lot. These kinds of things take pressure off them, because we bring in experts who are able to give them some things that they’ve not seen before. We can’t prevent all injuries, and we know that, but if we can prevent some, then it’s ultimately a job well done.”
At the camps, the kids work hard.
But Voss said it’s productive work and a learning experience for all.
“We get a lot done,” Voss said. “Those sessions seem to fly by.”
Voss said a lot of the 90 minutes are spent teaching the basics – things that many people think that they know how to do, but aren’t actually doing with proper technique.
The TGMC training specialist said student athletes are taught how to run properly, using techniques that are less stressful on the body.
Student athletes are also shown ways to improve their linear speed, as well as the ability to quickly change directions – skills that Voss said are useful in any sport.
Dieting tips are also shared, as well as tools for proper hydration and stretching.
The sessions have been overflowed, with more than 100 student athletes attending at South Terrebonne, Vandebilt and Terrebonne alike.
“The kids are enjoying it,” Voss said. “We’re talking to them before and after. We ask them if they picked up something along the way and they seem to be receptive to what we’re doing. They seem to be learning things that will help them. We’ve had kids from every sport. Anything that’s played in our high schools, we’ve had kids here who represent those teams.”
And they’re getting results.
Barahona said the running technique drills he’s teaching at the speed camps are the same ones professional athletes use in their day-to-day routines.
He said something as simple as having the right balance can be the difference between finishing a season injury free or having nagging aches and pains from pulled or strained muscles.
“It’s about how to coordinate their arms with their steps,” Barahona said. “(It’s about) how to have proper weight balance and footwork. The biggest reward is seeing how much the kids improve from day one. You can seem them kind of getting it that first day and then by day three, they’re all so much better.”
And less likely to get hurt, too, which is the goal.
Jaime Gaudet, a nurse practitioner at Gulf Coast Orthopedics said she works with student athletes throughout the year, adding that the most common injuries she sees are to the knees or shoulders.
Gaudet said events like the TGMC speed camp are useful, because it gives the student athlete power over their careers.
Like everyone else, Gaudet said the hospital can’t eliminate all injuries, but through tools like the speed camps, they can eliminate the avoidable ones, which is useful in and of itself.
“Our goal is for you to be healthy and competitive the whole year,” Gaudet said. “If your ankle gets hurt, I got you. If your hip’s bothering you, I got you. If you have foot or back problems, I got you. But there are things I can’t do for you.”
“And that’s what we’re teaching at these events,” Voss added. “The ways that they can prevent injuries before they happen. That’s a big goal we have – prevention.”
For more information on the camps, call (985)-850- 6206. •
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