The Role of the Modern Athletic Trainer – With Andy Bliz, Buffalo Men’s Basketball – Ep. 4

Welcome to the Firstbeat Sports Podcast where we talk with coaches and sports scientists to explore the latest in performance monitoring and how it is making a difference in NCAA and pro sports alike. We’re going to connect you with practical advice from the best in the business to help you take your athletes to the next level.

On the line today is Andy Bliz. Andy is in his 6th year as Athletic Trainer for the University of Buffalo Men’s Basketball program. During this time, the Bulls have won 3 MAC Championships and appeared in the NCAA Tournament four times – including this year as 6 seeds. Andy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Athletic Training and a Master’s degree in Sports Management. He has previously worked with the Michigan State University football program.

Andy is here to discuss the role of an athletic trainer in DI sports, why he promotes a proactive rather than reactive approach to sports medicine, and the value of data in informing coaching decisions and the return to play protocol.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• The day–to–day role of a DI Athletic Trainer
• Techniques to secure player buy-in to monitoring
• Taking a proactive rather than reactive approach to sports medicine
• How data informs decisions at different stages of game week and season
• Injury prevention and return to play protocols

Would you like to listen to more content like this? Subscribe to our mailing list

Timestamps:

• How Andy ended up at the University of Buffalo (1:45)
• Jumping from Football to Basketball – What’s different? (2:16)
• Andy’s day-to-day roles at Buffalo (3:25)
• How much Andy uses his own protocols on himself (4:34)
• What’s behind the team’s success in the last 2 years? (5:12)
• Proactive vs. Reactive approach to sports medicine – how does it differ? (6:05)
• How student-athletes buy into prehab (7:05)
• Andy’s mentors (8:13)
• Why did he choose to work with Firstbeat? (8:55)
• What metrics Andy and coaches look for (10:09)
• How easy was the buy-in from the coaches towards data? (10:38)
• Why is the game data so valuable? (11:51)
• TRIMP scores for different practices and games (13:11)
• Andy’s return to play protocol (14:06)
• Soft tissue injury numbers in the last two years (15:30)
• Are all soft tissue injuries preventable? (15:55)
• How does the proactive approach differ in season and tournament time (16:48)
• Examples of data influencing training decisions (17:23)
• Using Firstbeat as a recruiting tool (19:15)
• Buy-in from the players (21:11)
• How much Firstbeat adds to Andy’s weekly workload (22:39)
• How things are looking for the basketball program next season (23:24)

Thanks for listening. Catch up on all previous Firstbeat Sports Podcast episodes here!