Do you want to become an athletic trainer? Yes, it is true that there are many factors for a person to consider having a career in this field. Others do it because they love sports but somehow, they couldn’t see themselves being the athlete. Others pursue a career as an athletic trainer because it is a medical field that has more to do with physical fitness than the other traditional practice of medicine. Although those things really matter, let us be honest. One of the factors that make people choose a particular career is the pay or salary. So perhaps now you are asking how much is an athletic trainer salary?

You need to understand that just like any other career, you will not get paid a tremendous amount as an athletic trainer – especially, now if you lack of experience and fairly new in the field. With time, however, as you build your resume and gain more experience, you are sure to notice that your “market value” will increase and your salary will increase with time. In fact, you will realize that titles really matter (which is true for most careers) because the better your title is, the higher your rank and your salary will follow suit.

So let us talk about numbers now. As they say, numbers do not lie and if you want to know more or less how much you are going to make, you will surely have an idea now. The median athletic trainer salary every year is about $36,560 per annum with the middle 50 percent’s salary ranging between $28,920 dollars to $45,690. As of 2008, the statistics were updated and the median athletic trainer salary increased to $39,640 while the middle 50 percent made around $32,070 to $49,250. Those who just started their careers made the lowest 10 percent of the cut and they earned less than $23,450. However, those who are already veterans and have been in the field long enough made as much as $60,960.

The numbers alone attest to the fact that in order to have a successful career as an athletic trainer, you have to stick to your professional because it pays off. With more experience and a higher rank, your pay will increase significantly by as much as 200 percent of what you were originally making.

Aside from the experience and the length of time one has been practicing as an athletic trainer, another factor affecting the salary is the work setting. Are you working for a sports team, a school or a hospital? Is the sports team in the professional level; is the school well known and what is the hospital’s reputation? All those things have an effect on your monthly and yearly income since the work load varies from one job to the next.

So you want to be an athletic trainer. Do you have any idea what you will end up doing after? There are in fact a lot of careers and jobs available in this field for you to choose from. Here are some of them. It is important for you to read closely and know the responsibility of each option because people who choose to take an athletic trainer job in one industry have very different sets of responsibilities from another similar job in another industry.

Athletic training jobs are very different from what a personal trainer does. A personal trainer helps a person come up with a work out plan in a fitness center or a gym and helps the person keep the right form all throughout the work out. An athletic trainer, on the other hand has one main goal and that is to prevent any form of injury among athletes and people who lead a very active lifestyle. Hence, as there are a lot of active people in different forms of industries, there are a lot of options available now.

If you love school and you enjoy being around with students, especially athletes who have the potential to make it big someday, you can opt to get jobs in athletic training in high schools and colleges. You can coach their sports team on first aid, how to play the sport in such a way that the muscles will not be overworked and of course, treating the young athletes in case any of them have an accident and suffer an injury. Sometimes, an athletic trainer ends up teaching in that particular college or university as well. That is possible but aside from one’s BOC certificate, he also needs to have a teaching certificate. A lot of professionals in the field opt for this job among the many other careers.

Of course, you can also opt to work for a professional sports team. You can even choose what sport to go for since the athletes all lead an intensely active lifestyle. This, perhaps, is the dream job among the athletic training careers that one can choose. After all, it is considered to be the most prestigious and it does have its perks. Not only do you get to meet your favorite sports athletes and work closely with them but it also means that you go wherever they go. Aside from traveling, however, the pay in this profession is also very desirable and so a lot of athletic trainers want to try their luck in this particular career path.

Another choice will be working for the military, for artists and medical care patients. Regardless of what path you take, you need at least an athletic training degree.

If you want to be an athletic trainer and you have done some research, you need to know that the minimum requirement to pursue a career in that field is a bachelor’s degree. However, it is not sufficient to simply get one from any college. You need to be a graduate of an athletic training college which is accredited. Now if you are wondering what the top athletic training colleges, no more wonder for you because here is a list of the best colleges and what they have to offer for aspiring athletic trainers such as yourself.

You would definitely have to consider enrolling in any of these three,

• The Ithaca college in Ithaca New York,
• The University of Texas in Austin, and
• The California State University in Long Beach.

The Ithaca College in Ithaca New York is among the top athletic training colleges because of its school curriculum that fuses theory and experience. It also helps a great deal that it has all the facilities that one could ever need to learn and that includes a fitness center that really encourages physical activity because aside form the usual equipment, it has a wall climbing option, an indoor and an outdoor pool and a gym that is made of wooden floors so that it is kinder to the knees. They offer the following degrees – a bachelor of science in athletic training and if you wish to pursue higher studies, you can go for your masters in science in exercise and sports science.
Another top college will be the University of Texas located in Austin. They offer a degree as a bachelor of science in athletic training and for those who would like to take masters, they offer one as well that allows students to finish with a master of science in clinical exercise physiology.

Now if you want to study in a place where the sun is up with the peaceful view of the sea; why not consider studying in the California State University located in Long Beach? This university is surely among the best as it was ranked fourth place in the list of best public regional universities in the west. They offer a bachelor’s degree or science in athletic training and exercise science. For those who would like to pursue further studies, they also offer a Master of Science in Exercise Science.

Choosing which among the athletic training colleges to go for is vital because it marks the start of your career. With any of the 3 schools, you know for a fact that you are getting quality education that would surely be of great advantage when you take the exam conducted by the Board of Certification. By enrolling in any of those colleges, you can put your mind at ease because you know that you will be prepared for the challenges that your chosen field will hurl at you.

Before you even start to dream to become an athletic trainer, you must first know and understand who he is and what he does. Contrary to popular belief that they are into the fitness industry, they are actually medical professionals who are educated and trained to treat sports injuries specifically. Hence, more often than not, they find themselves employed by professional sports teams and schools who are in need of a medical professional with the expertise of one because of the intense level of physical activity in what they do.

The question now is how to become an athletic trainer. Well, these are the steps to go about it. Take note, however, that although it looks very simple on paper, it would require dedication, time and brains on the person who wish to become one.

To become one, you must first be an athletic training degree holder from an accredited college. In order for you to be considered as an athletic trainer for any professional organization, you must at least hold a bachelor’s degree. Otherwise, you need to study further before they can recognize you.

Next, you need on-the-job training and internship on a sports field. To do that, you need to study the following and your trainer should be a certified and approved instructor.

• physiology
• psychology
• therapeutic exercises
• human anatomy
• nutrition

Certification is a requirement before you can practice as one. There are other requirements as well and you need to complete everything before you can start working. These requirements vary from state to state though so before you head off and start applying, it is best to first take time to check the laws in your current state or wherever it is that you wish to work. In that way when you apply, everything will be ready and there will be no reason for them to delay your application or worse case, turn you down.

Once you are certified, you will be ready to start your career. You can then opt to work for a sports team. Whether it is baseball, basketball, football or hockey, the choice is all yours. Although it is a lot of work since injuries are bound to happen considering the level of physical activities in those games, being an athletic trainer for those teams has its perks too. You get to meet different personalities, travel and the pay is not too shabby either. Your dream to become one is almost a reality at this point.

So now that you have decided how to go about your career, you can start applying for jobs. After all, you are now ready to become an athletic trainer.

Do you know that having an athletic training degree is just like having a medical degree? That is because contrary to popular belief, athletic trainers are in fact medical professionals. They are not like professional trainers who help people to have the perfect work out plan in the gym. These people need to get certified in order to start working and getting that certification means passing a 3 part exam that can be likened to a board exam. However, you cannot get that certification unless you first have a degree for athletic training.

The minimum athletic training degree that one should have in order to pursue a career in the field and get certified is a bachelors degree and you cannot simply earn that degree from any school. It must be a college or a university that is accredited to make sure that your quality of education is at part with the standards. There are 350 accredited programs for undergraduate students in 2009. The numbers are adding up as a career in athletic training is getting more and more popular. In order to prepare students for the real life setting in their chosen field of work, they are given training both in and out of the classroom. That means that they are exposed to clinical settings so that they have an idea of what their environment would be like the moment that they start working.

However, one need not be content to have only a bachelors degree because there are higher degree options to pursue. To those who would like to increase their chances of advancement in the field, they may opt to pursue a masters degree. In fact, statistics released by the National Athletic Trainer’s Association reveals that 70 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree in athletic training pursue a master’s degree.

While a master’s degree is an option, another thing that an athletic trainer must have aside from a bachelor’s athletic training degree that is a non negotiable is licensure and certification. One cannot practice without it. Consider it as the bar exam for lawyers and the board exam for physical therapists. Needless to say, the rule is simple – no license, no job. And so every athletic trainer needs to pass the 3 part exam that comes with the certification. This is administered by the BOC or the Board of Certification Inc. The exam is meant to measure one’s skill in handling on the job stresses and workload as well as head knowledge of the course. After all, both are important on the job. Hence, the test consists of a multiple choice exam, a practical section in order to evaluate the applicant’s skill and a written exam that simulates real life situation and challenges. Once a person passes this test, the person can then start applying for a job as an athletic trainer. That is how vital it is to pass the BOC exam.

Are you planning an athletic training career but do not know where to start? Well, before you answer the question “how” you must first determine the answers to the question “what”. Do you even really know what athletic training is or what the job of an athletic trainer is? Before you start planning your route to success, you must first answer those questions. After all, you should know exactly what it is that you are getting yourself into before engaging into it, right? So to answer your “what” questions, this article aims to answer what you need to know about athletic training. Treat it as your crash course in this field of practice.

The main job or goal of every athletic trainer is to prevent injuries among athletes and everyone who lead an active lifestyle as much as possible. That is the core of athletic training and that is what it is all about. A lot of people confuse it with personal training or being a personal trainer but the two are light years apart. Personal trainers are in charge of helping a person get fit usually in the setting of a gym or a health club. Hence, they come up with a diet and exercise plan that their client should follow. They also make sure that the person keeps the right form as they exercise. Athletic trainers on the other hand are medical professionals. In fact, they cannot practice their course of study unless they are certified. You may even go as far as calling them board passers because before they can be licensed, they need to pass a 3-part comprehensive exam that includes knowledge of the field and skills in their practice.

So let us a say that a person passed the exam and is now licensed in this field. What career path can they take? It is a mistake to think that all athletic trainers will be working in a school or in just one particular industry. In fact, the choices are so varied because wherever there are people who are physically active, the services of an athletic trainer is required. Hence, you can go in a school and find an athletic trainer working with the young athletes there. You can check out your favorite basketball team or any of your favorite sports team. For sure, they have an athletic trainer too. Even actors, military personnel and industrial employees have one because injury prevention is important and in case it does happen, there is a medical professional who is certified to deal with the problem.

What are the qualifications needed to practice in the field of athletic training? Aside from the certifications, athletic trainers must also be able to mix well with different kinds of people. Interpersonal relationships are always part of the job. He must be able to handle stress well too. Consider it as part of the job.