Mercy Sports Medicine Joplin 6151 N. Main Street Rd. Webb City, MO 64870

Mercy Sports Medicine Joplin 6151 N. Main Street Rd. | Webb City, MO 64870

417.556.5356 |

September 9, 2018

To Matt Street,

Mercy Clinic Joplin Sports Medicine department received a request from Matt Street, the
Athletic Director at Pierce City High School, to evaluate Mr. Brad Hocker’s weight lifting course for safety with emphasis on making sure there was nothing that was contributing to knee injuries.

Although Mercy does provide athletic training services to Pierce City High School athletics,the sports medicine department decided not to send the athletic trainer that provides sports medicine services to the school so that a more objective perspective could be provided. Ryan Palmer MSEd., ATC, LAT, ACSM cPt has over 20 years of experience in Athletic Training and is also an American College of Sports Medicine certified personal trainer.

Mr. Hocker provided the written workout to Mercy for review. Nothing stood out with the written workout plan as comparing a typical plan. Weight room observations were made on two separate days. During the first day of observation, the weight lifting class had a substitute teacher and the instructions were written on the board, with students who were on task and safety was being observed. Students were asked if they had any safety concerns. All students said that they thought the class was safe and that it did not seem to them that anything they were doing in the class caused injuries. The second class observation was with Mr. Hocker instructing the class. Students were generally using good form and the lifts were the standard lifts done in most every weight lifting class. Antagonist muscle groups were exercised on alternating days, functional movements were integrated into workouts and core exercises were also done.

Based upon my observations of the classes, I recommend the following:

1.Spending more time with dynamic warm-ups.

2.Include more body weight only lifts for students with low strength/ coordination so that they could improve their biomechanics.

In closing, the classes that I evaluated were safe and the athletic trainer who covers Pierce City had no concerns about the volume or cause of injuries at the school. If there are any specific concerns about the safety or effectiveness of the weight lifting classes please contact me to discuss the situation.

Sincerely,

Ryan Palmer