UCLA’s Club Sports Training Center opens new treatment options for athletes

Tracy Ayers knows that for any athlete, club or varsity, an injury can be devastating.

“People come to me when they’re at their worst, when they’re really really hurt and they’re scared. Granted, it’s not an NCAA sport but this means a lot to them, I mean, these kids dedicate a lot of time,” said Ayers, the athletic trainer at the new Club Sports Athletic Training Center. “And you do it because you love it so much, you have to do it.”

Two athletes who have experience with those scary moments are fourth-years Michelle Rodriguez, an art history student on the women’s club rugby team, and Kyle Knoll, a German and history student on the men’s club rowing team.

Ayers sees many club athletes cycle in and out of the training facility, which opened in January in the John Wooden Center, when they need help with injuries. But some, like Rodriguez and Knoll, are in there every day in hopes that they can continue participating in their respective sports.

Shouldering the weight

Rodriguez did not think much before joining the club rugby team.

As she perused the Activities Fair last September at the start of her senior year, Rodriguez was asked to join by a couple current players. Knowing almost nothing about rugby, she said yes.

“It was the most impulsive decision I’ve ever made,” Rodriguez said. “But it turned out to be a really good stress reliever and I’ve met a lot of really awesome women. It just really worked out.”

Not everything went well, though. Within her first two months in the sport, Rodriguez sustained a concussion.

After being dragged down by two opposing players at a tournament in San Diego last November, Rodriguez blacked out momentarily as her head crashed against the ground.

Minutes after the game ended, the athletic trainer present at the tournament informed her she had a concussion.

When she got back to UCLA, Rodriguez assumed it would be easy to make an appointment with the sports medicine doctor at the Ashe Center. She was wrong.

Rodriguez said she wasn’t able to see Dr. Dena Florczyk, Ashe’s provider of sports medicine care, for her concussion because Florczyk was not Rodriguez’s primary care doctor.

“I had to go through my primary care doctor,” Rodriguez said. “I ended up getting taken care of but it was a very complicated process.”

That was before the Club Sports Athletic Training Center opened.

When Rodriguez injured her right shoulder during a game in March, she found it easier to meet with Florczyk than it had been in the fall. Ayers was able to quickly refer Rodriguez to Florczyk for treatment.

“It was really nice when I did see Dr. Florczyk for my shoulder for her to be able to understand that this is specifically for an athlete,” Rodriguez said. “I think it just made things easier when Tracy came in.”

Besides receiving a referral to Florczyk after her injury, Rodriguez began to visit Ayers at the center every weekday to receive heating, icing and electronic muscle stimulation.

Although she did stop wearing her backpack over her right shoulder, Rodriguez found that the treatment curbed any restrictions caused by the injury.

“I can tell that she really didn’t want to limit me with what I could and couldn’t do,” Rodriguez said. “So she would help me find stretches and would … (give) me (electrical stimulation) and ice me and heat me up so I can continue to play.”

Rodriguez said Ayers’ presence was essential as she tried to work through the injury.

“Without her, I think it definitely would have gotten worse because I would have tried to figure it out on my own,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t know anything about my own body, about the mechanics of it.”

Ayers is now helping Rodriguez prepare to attend a rugby camp in Colorado where she will play with many members of the national team.

“My mom was super excited when she thought the season was over,” Rodriguez said. “And then I said, ‘Well, I might join a club or something.’ I think it’s a lot of people’s dreams to be able to say they played for the national team.”

Elbow room

For Knoll, injury prevention is a daily habit.

“When you do higher-level athletics, part of being an athlete is knowing that it’s not just all the fun stuff, it’s the whole thing,” Knoll said. “You can’t have the rowing in the morning and all the hard training and everything without the maintenance on the other end. Learning that is part of maturing as an athlete.”

Knoll said he didn’t fully learn that until he faced a frustrating injury last year.

Years of competitive high school volleyball had taken their toll on his elbow, causing loose bone fragments and cartilage to float around the joint.

In his third year of rowing at UCLA, Knoll found that he couldn’t fully straighten his elbow.

Before he could meet with the sports doctor he sought, however, Knoll had to make it through several hurdles in the medical system.

“I knew I was injured and I saw the main doctor, but I had to have a gap before I could get the sports doctor,” Knoll said. “Had the (club sports) training center been there, I’m not saying it would have prevented the injury, but it would have made the process for getting a referral to Ashe Center and going down that road to surgery much easier.”

The injury and resulting surgery forced Knoll to miss his entire junior season of racing.

“You never really realize how much things matter to you until you don’t have them,” Knoll said.

So now, as he prepares to compete with the varsity four boat at the national championships in Georgia over Memorial Day weekend, Knoll spends half an hour each day in the Club Sports Athletic Training Center working to prevent another devastating injury.

“The most important thing you can learn is that you have to do it every day, or you have to do it as frequently as you can,” Knoll said. “There’s no real magic thing that’s going to fix your injuries except constantly paying attention to them, knowing your body and just giving them the care and the service that they need.”

With the help of Ayers, Knoll is able to receive ice every day, a task that was trickier before the center opened.

“Before the athletic training center was open, all the icing and things that you had to do was basically buying an ice pack and keeping it in your freezer at your apartment. Or maybe trying to pawn ice from the A-level of the Ackerman food court and trying to get it out of the ice machine and rub it all over yourself,” Knoll said. “So as soon as the center opened, I’ve been in there every day just to do a lot of preventative things. … I’ve definitely had better quality of life both athletically and just walking around.”

As for his ability to see Florczyk at the Ashe Center, Knoll said it’s easier these days because of the new training center.

“This year, when I’ve had little injuries that I wanted to get seen for, at the training center I could get a referral for the next day to the sports doctor in Ashe,” Knoll said. “All those little things over time prevent large injuries like the one that I had last year.”

As the chair of the club sports executive council, Knoll said he has been able to appreciate the progress of the center.

“I’ve seen it grow from an idea three years ago to being open and being usable now. I’m just extremely grateful that it’s open and extremely grateful to the university and the department for putting the effort into it and the funding,” Knoll said. “It makes a huge difference. I don’t know if I would be on the water without the training center.”