Taylor Brown
Taylor Brown stands at the end of a treatment table, her left hand pressing down on Angela*’s quad.
The Chicago Red Stars player grimaces as she pushes back against Brown. She’s been dealing with some groin and quad issues, and her muscles are still in resistance mode, tightening up in an attempt to prevent further injury.
But she trusts Brown, who has worked hard to build a rapport with the players in the short time she’s worked as an athletic trainer for the Red Stars. And Brown knows that the quickest way to get Angela back to playing professional soccer is to help her muscles feel safe to stretch again.
To do so, Brown is using an advanced stretching technique called proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, a skill she learned in the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology’s athletic training master’s program.
In fact, Brown is technically still a student, although the majority of her coursework is finished. She’s working with the Red Stars for her immersive clinical rotation, in which athletic training students embed with an organization of their choice for as many as 40 hours a week, working under the supervision of certified athletic trainers to gain on-the-ground experience before they take their own certification exams.
“One of the big draws of U-M for me was knowing that one of your semesters is supposed to be completely immersive,” Brown says. “I loved the idea of, before you graduate, spending a lot of time in that one rotation getting to know your athletes.”
All athletic training programs in the country are now required to include an immersive clinical rotation that lasts at least four weeks. Many universities incorporate the immersions during the final semester of the program, in the winter/spring.
Adam Lepley, the clinical education coordinator for SoK’s athletic training program, says the flexibility of U-M’s offering sets it apart. Michigan Kinesiology students must complete their immersion in the second year of their master’s degree, but that rotation can take place in any semester, allowing students to work during the most relevant season for their interests.
Brown, for instance, knew she wanted to work with a professional women’s soccer team; she’d played the sport since she was 3 years old and had traveled internationally to watch Women’s World Cup games. So she planned to take her immersion during the summer and early autumn during the National Women’s Soccer League season.
Still, Brown wasn’t sure whether all the stars would align; while pursuing her undergraduate degree in athletic training at a different university, she’d contacted plenty of sports organizations to see if she could intern with them.
“It never worked out. I never got the right connection,” Brown says. “I think being at U-M helped me. Knowing that you have a big block M behind you can help you get a lot of places you want to go.”
With the Red Stars, Brown is involved in everything from pre-practice massages and stretching to discussions with athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, and the nutrition team about the niggles each player is experiencing to more extensive rehabilitation plans for athletes with more serious injuries. In other words, she’s not treated like she’s only there to bring the players water, Brown says.
“I’m fairly frequently working by myself, even if my preceptor [in this case, a certified athletic trainer who oversees students’ work during the rotation] is listening in on what I’m doing,” Brown says.
“Taylor’s jumped at every opportunity,” says Emily Fortunato, the head athletic trainer for the Chicago Red Stars and Brown’s preceptor during her rotation. “She’s been eager to learn.”
Brown says the Red Stars’ particularly supportive culture has helped raise her level of confidence over the past few months.
“I’ve been through all the classes, sometimes two times, because I did my undergraduate degree in athletic training, too,” Brown says. “I know the material. I have all this knowledge. But sometimes I don’t want to speak up, even though I think I know the answer, in case I’m wrong. But in this rotation, they’ve made it so clear that they don’t care if I’m wrong. They’d rather have me take a guess instead of not saying anything at all. And that’s made me feel so much better.”
“I tell the students all the time to be confident in yourself but also be confident in knowing that you don’t know everything,” Fortunato says. “This is your chance to make mistakes and ask questions and be a sponge and soak up as much as you can.”
*Player's name has been removed to protect her privacy.
Knowing that you have a big block M behind you can help you get a lot of places you want to go.