Learning from the Legends April 3, 2013 Jim Mackie, M.Ed., ATC, LAT

I recently had the honor of attending the Southeast Athletic Trainers Association Annual Clinical Symposium. In attendance were a number of older AthleticTrainers who probably all totaled nearly 400 years of combined athletic training experience. While we are a young and evolving profession, male and female, we have so much to learn from those gone before. Those who put the evidence in evidence based medicine before it became a buzz word. Those who share the stories and the information we may not learn in a formal lecture. We should give Continuing Education Credits for the times share in the lobby educational sessions. At a past directors breakfast were in attendance these men and women each with a younger member in leadership or the Hall of Fame. It was so encouraging to see each with their mentor. Even in the historical session of our program the older ones were showing those who mentored or taught them a trick of the trade along the way. Yes we all work hard to get where we are today but we are successful when we ‘learn from the masters’ along the way. We are all in a continual learning profession and that what makes it timeless and priceless. It’s the relationship s that make it special along the way.