Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group, LLC Blog

I’ve been blessed my whole life by having unbelievable mentors by my side showing me the right ways to do things, and more importantly being  there to tell me when I’m clearly off track.  Below is a quote from a mentor I’ve been lucky enough to cross paths with.  Joe Donahue is not only a true historian in sport and performance but he is also considered one of the very best throwing coaches in all of track and field.

“You will be a better coach if you write an article, or two.  It helps your mind focus on what it is that you do and how you do it.  Clinics are also a fine way if you combine them with practical result.  It sharpens your skills and helps you to define objectives. You don't need a "string of athletes," (to be successful) you start with one, watch the result and go to the next one always refining what you do.  In the end your success will be on the field.  Did your athletes run faster, throw further, jump higher?  If they did not, what you believe has no basis in reality. There is marginal effect from the weight room on an athlete's result the further you remove yourself from specific event needs.  It is more likely how you train than how much you lift.

It is a new beginning every day.”

Thanks Joe.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.
 

Imagine you move into a new community and sign a four-year lease agreement just to find out you are only allowed to see a certain local dentist.  The decision has already been made for you.

You’re a plumber so you go see the dentist for all the plumbers. 

This might not be a problem at first since all dentists are the same right?  The trouble however is that the dentist now doesn’t really have to be that good.  They don’t have to keep up to date on the newest cleaning technologies or the research on gum disease because they know that you have to see them.  Sure there are other dentists in the community that you could see, but they’re busy taking care of waiter teeth or the gum lines of taxi cab drivers and really don’t have time for you.

Sound crazy?

The same scenario eerily exists on a college campus near you. 

In college athletics, there is no real incentive to be great. It’s about getting by and fulfilling your job description.  You don’t have to be a really great athletic trainer or strength coach because your “customers” already signed up for four years. They’re locked in.  There's no competing with your fellow office mates, or even other colleges once they've signed up.

Your customers HAVE to see you. There is no other choice. In fact, if they get upset and stop making an effort to see you, life actually becomes better not worse, doesn’t it?  More free time to play around on Facebook right?  By the time the college athlete gets so upset at the way they were treated, they are walking at graduation and are soon forgotten.  Bring on the new batch of freshmen!

The challenge then, is developing a community of dentists that not only appreciate their customers, but also strive to collectively raise the level of care in their community while also fostering an environment that promotes the sharing and referral of complicated and interesting cases in the search for better education and healthcare for everyone.

But that just seems too difficult, forget I even mentioned it.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

Nothing says recovery after a conference road win like a stop at the neighborhood Friendly’s.  I mean, there are some good choices there right?

Double Thick Milkshake – Vanilla 770 cal, 32 grams of fat
“What? It’s made from milk?”

Honey BBQ Chicken Strips, 6 strips 1670 cal, 81 grams of fat
“Look, no bun! I’m watching my carb intake”

Chicken Caesar Salad   1030 cal, 84 grams of fat
“Watching your weight? A light salad is perfect”

Happy Ending Hot Fudge Sundae 330 cal, 17 grams of fat
“Hey, we won. Coach says when we win we can order dessert!”

TOTAL     3800 CAL, 214 grams of fat

I’m utterly baffled when I hear stories of sports teams and sport coaches that commit their very souls to winning, the ones that basically sleep at the gym drawing up the winning inbounds play into the wee hours of the night, yet overlook the most controllable factor in all of their training program – Nutrition.  It’s hard to control a referee’s call, a delayed flight, or even whether or not your luggage arrives when you do, but the choice you make for your team regarding where and when to eat is totally within your control.   So when your team is running out of gas in the fourth quarter and they can’t seem to find the energy to break the press, think about the all-you-can-eat Waffle House you went to for pre-game.

But whatever you do, don’t blame Friendly’s… that’s for post game!

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

Let's say, hypothetically speaking, that we have an employee (let's call him LJ) who is so good at his job that he is sought after by every corporation in his particular industry.  LJ's current contract has expired and he is exploring his options.  His current corporation is offering more money than anyone else and a chance to stay in the only company he has ever worked for with the opportunity to take them to new heights.  Unfortunately for his company and customer-base, LJ decides to take his talents elsewhere and try something new.  Unfortunately for LJ, after making his decision he makes a big spectacle of his departure, giving his company zero notice, zero chance to replace him, and crippling them for the near future.  LJ's CEO (let's call him DW) is so upset with the slight that he makes a rash decision to publicly denounce LJ and blame him for all of the shortcomings of his company.  LJ's situation is immediately the talk of the industry and the talk is centered around how he could not have played his situation any worse. Once an enormously popular employee with limitless potential, LJ has now succeeded in alienating a large number of his coworkers and customers, all former supporters, that he worked so hard to amass. 

During the course of your career you will have at least one instance where you have the opportunity to take your talents to a different employer.  That is part of the game.  Situations change, your performance and skills evolve, and new opportunities arise.  Though these partings are not always amicable and relations can become strained, it is counterintuitive to burn a bridge that you have spent so much time and energy constructing.  Not only did your old company, coworkers, and customers play a part in getting you to where you are today, but they might still play an important role for you down the road.  Even when the situation behind your departure might not be ideal, it is always better to take the high road than a parting shot.  Losing contacts, prospective employers/ees, or customers because you were unhappy at the end is never the smart way to go. 

Sure, LJ is doing just fine for himself right now in Miami (or wherever, because this is purely hypothetical), but you never know when he might need that bridge after all. 

Shaun Bossio is the Assistant Business Manager and ProShop Manager at Boston University FitRec.
He can be reached at sbossio@bu.edu

What does it matter?

Your doctor wouldn’t ask you what field you work in before taking you on as a patient.

“Sorry, I prefer to treat only plumbers with hernias.  You work in finance.”

I’m still amazed that we continue to advertise jobs that emphasize what team you’ll be working with, i.e. job descriptions that read “primary job responsibility is working with women’s soccer and tennis.”  When did treating low back pain of a volleyball athlete become so different than treating that of the soccer or tennis athlete?  Shouldn’t our job descriptions read something more like, “primary job responsibility is to practice patient centered care and evidence based medicine”?

If all your work environment has to offer is working with one or two sports in particular, then maybe you haven’t created an environment worthy of the best professionals.  You know, the ones that like to solve interesting problems, continue to develop their skills and pursue best practice. Maybe you just want someone to come in, put their head down and work with that sport.

The trouble is, you’ll get exactly that.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

What’s keeping you from doing your job –I mean your real job?

Remember? The job you signed up for – practicing sports medicine.  I know I signed up to provide care for collegiate student-athletes aspiring to make it big. I signed up to help and I know the vast majority of you did too.   Unfortunately, as time passed I found myself practicing sports medicine less and less and spending more and more time filling water bottles, filing insurance claims and cleaning up at the end of the day.
I also remember the day it all changed back to the way I envisioned.  

It was the day I decided to stop doing the “3-C’s” and started practicing sports medicine again.  Tom Cronin, a mentor of mine and the Director of Sports Medicine at MIT in Boston, told me about the “3-C’s” over breakfast as I was complaining to him about all the work I was doing.  He kindly pointed out to me that the majority of my work day was not being spent doing the work that I signed up for, but instead work consisting of the “3-C’s” – Catering, Clerical and Custodial.  If you could manage to take away all the tasks involving any one of the “3-C’s” how much time would you have left in the day to actually practice your craft? No more cleaning whirlpools, filling water bottles or chasing down insurance companies for authorization of services (I had a co-worker who once proudly told me they sat on the phone for over 40 minutes obtaining pre-authorization for an MRI – how many patients could you have seen and cared for during that same time?)

So when you walk into work tomorrow, find just one task that is keeping you from actually doing your job and stop doing it.

There, feels good right?

Now get back to doing your job! The real job you signed up for.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

Though my department does not have a dedicated IT specialist anymore, there is a small group of individuals that services our particular area of campus.  Out of three desktop support personnel, two of them know exactly zero members of our staff, are severely lacking in response/response time, and let's just say that small talk is not their strong suit.  The third individual however knows the name of everyone in my department.  He also responds almost immediately to every inquiry sent his way, even if it's to say that he is working somewhere else, but will be by at an approximate time later.  What is his best quality?  When problems arise he doesn't mutter under his breath and he takes the time to not only address the issue, but to explain to the staff where the problem originated in terms they can understand.  Who do you think is going to get the better reviews when their boss calls around to the various departments for feedback?

One of the things that I always find interesting is when someone says something to the effect of, "Yeah, well I'm not in customer service."  Maybe it's time to take another look at your business model.  Aren't we all in some form of customer service?  Whether they are internal or external, we are all serving someone as a customer base.  How likely are we to return to the doctor that spends 30 seconds explaining what's wrong with us vs. the one that takes the time to break down all the angles.  I think we have all had that fantastic experience AS a customer somewhere whether it's at a doctor's office, with an IT guy, or at a retail establishment.  If they didn't make you a customer for life, then at the very least they significantly increased their positive word-of-mouth.  In an age where information and opinion travels instantaneously to millions of potential customers, how can you afford not to put your best face forward?  I mean, we are all busy, but are we ever too busy to go the extra mile for our customers? 

Can your operation afford not to?

Shaun Bossio is the Assistant Business Manager and ProShop Manager at Boston University FitRec.
He can be reached at sbossio@bu.edu

Ok, you work hard.

You’re in every morning on time, you only take a lunch break during the time you’re suppose to and you never leave early.

Now show me what you’ve shipped.

No, not the emails that you responded to promptly, not the insurance paperwork that you filed away or the suggestions you’ve made for this year’s staff retreat. Show me what you’ve shipped.

There’s a major difference between showing up and doing your job day after day and showing up and “shipping”.  I first heard the term “shipping” during a Seth Godin conference that was held in Boston in the summer of 2010. I used to call it “getting SH*^T done”, but Seth’s term works as well. 

When you ship, there is a measurable, tangible and sustainable change or difference that has taken place. It’s not answering the phone; it’s figuring out how to hire a student worker and establishing a student work force to answer the phone for you and your staff.  It’s not licking envelopes and mailing summer programs out to athletes and patients; it’s creating a website that describes exercises and shows video clips that your athletes and patients can access while on vacation 24/7 so they can continue to do their exercises while they’re away from college. It’s not telling your athletes/patients that a lean source of protein at each meal is important; it’s creating a comprehensive nutrition plan that involves teaching them to shop, cook and budget properly so they can make educated decisions on their own when they’re away from the training table. Shipping is about change. Shipping is about pointing to your resume and proudly saying, “I did this!”

I never hired anyone because they fulfilled their job description. I only hire people that ship, and ship on time.

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.

Several years ago when I first started working for my current employer, I was dealing with clients and colleagues that were significantly older than myself and I encountered a problem wherein I was not being taken seriously.  I came to the conclusion that while perhaps part of the problem was in my youthful appearance (no longer a problem unfortunately), part of the solution lay in making my work attire more professional.  As I work in recreation, even describing our dress code as "business casual" would be a stretch.  I improved my appearance and my problem went away.  Did I get some of my coworkers ribbing me because I was "overdressed"?  Sure, but they also used to give me a hard time for getting to work an hour before them every day.  I wonder where that insecurity comes from?

Somebody much smarter than myself once said, "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have."  Maybe it's not practical for you to wear a suit to work, but that saying is an excellent metaphor for all aspects of your job performance.    Doing the bare minimum that is expected of you in any situation is never going to put you ahead of the curve.  Do most of your coworkers arrive at work just at their expected start time?  Do they have their bags packed when that imaginary whistle blows at the end of the day?  Do you hear people say things like, "That's not in my job description?"  These are all areas in which people are meeting only their minimum expectations and also easy opportunities for you to distinguish yourself.  When it comes time for that open position to be filled or when another prospective employer comes calling for a reference, these are the types of things that your boss will remember.  Well, that and the excellent work you do anyway right?  

So let's revise our saying . . . Work for the job you want, not the job you have.

Shaun Bossio is the Assistant Business Manager and ProShop Manager at Boston University FitRec.
He can be reached at sbossio@bu.edu

If your grandfather (first risk factor) walks into his primary care physician for his annual physical and presents with elevated insulin levels (second risk factor), low HDL cholesterol (third risk factor), and abdominal obesity (fourth risk factor), chances are that he’ll be suffering from insulin resistance pretty soon.

Just having one of these risk factors alone doesn’t necessarily predict future disaster. But put them all together and mix them up?  Well, you have a nice recipe for some serious problems.  Assessing multiple risk factors and contributing their sum towards an end pathology or disease is common in all fields of medicine.  Another example would be the patient with elevated LDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, and insulin resistance.  Mix these all up and I’m pretty sure you’ll be tipping the scales with obesity soon.  And yet another set of risk factors predicts hypertension and so forth.

In Sports Medicine and orthopedic screening, this concept has been lost.  Let me elaborate.

So, a tight achilles with a loss of dorsiflexion compared bilaterally without pain by itself surely never deserves a referral to an orthopedic doctor? Neither does a weak right glut medius muscle, a single leg hop discrepancy left to right, right knee valgus collapse during an overhead squat, and of course a tight right psoas muscle from sitting all day surely doesn’t deserve orthopedic referrals when observed by themselves.  I mean, your athlete can run and jump just fine, right?

Again, all of these by themselves do not deserve a referral, but all of these combined certainly spell future knee pain or other pending disaster, agreed?  Yet, we usually don’t do anything until the knee hurts, or worse, when the athlete hobbles in on crutches after tearing up their knee.

Why are we waiting until an athlete’s season is over to address contributing risk factors?

For example, we measure blood pressure and refer immediately after obtaining an abnormally high reading, but did the heart initially hurt?

What gives?

*Suggested Reading and Inspiration provided by: Why Zebra’s don’t get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky

Art Horne is the Coordinator of Care and Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Men’s Basketball Team at Northeastern University, Boston MA.  He can be reached at a.horne@neu.edu.