Alumna Pushes Students to Look at Science Behind Athletic Training

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Gretchen Oliver

Gretchen Oliver learned a strong work ethic from her parents as a child growing up in Stuttgart. When she attended the University of Arkansas as a young adult, she found that same work ethic. Now, she’s passing it along to her students.

“When I was an undergraduate, Sally Mayes, Kelli Sheffield, Dean Weber and Dave England’s influence re-instilled what I knew as a kid,” Oliver said about the Razorback athletic trainers she worked with. “They promoted an ethic of hard work. That’s how I grew up. Whatever you were asked to do, you did it and did it to the best of your ability. Doing your best was an expectation. I found that same environment in the athletic training room. You were expected to go above and beyond or be left behind. They really promoted working hard and giving your best every day.”

Oliver is the recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award in Health and Human Services from the College of Education and Health Professions. Oliver earned a bachelor’s degree in 1996 and a master’s degree in 1999, both in kinesiology from the University of Arkansas. She then went to Texas Woman’s University, earning a doctorate in kinesiology in 2003, and returned to Fayetteville to teach in the fall of 2006. She was promoted to associate professor before leaving last year to join the faculty at Auburn University.

“I am very surprised and extremely honored to receive this award,” she said. “It is early in my career and I did not realize the impact of my work. I am very blessed.”

Oliver was herself an athlete in high school, playing basketball and tennis. When she was an undergraduate at Arkansas, she discovered the sports medicine aspect and athletic training.

“I wanted to be an athletic trainer but I wanted to do so much more,” she recalled.

She passed the certification exam after getting her bachelor’s degree and had worked for a year as a graduate assistant athletic trainer at North Central College in Illinois when she decided to return to Fayetteville.

“I was the head football athletic trainer and I realized that there was much more in the field of sports medicine that I desired to explore,” she said. “For me, diagnosing an injury was the easy part; it was the ‘why’ that needed to be determined. The majority of injuries that athletic trainers diagnose are overuse. So, the easy part is diagnosing the injury and treating the pain, the challenge is to determine the cause of the injury. If the cause of the injury is not determined, then the athlete will keep experiencing the pain-injury cycle. In an attempt to determine the cause of the injury, you have to thoroughly understand the body’s mechanics and how it functions throughout dynamic motion.”

At Arkansas, Oliver involved not only graduate students but also undergraduates enrolled in the university’s Honors College in her research in sports medicine and biomechanics. At Auburn, she has yet to become involved with the honors program. She has been focused on setting up her new, 120-foot-long biomechanics lab that centers on sports medicine and movement in the new kinesiology building on the campus of Auburn University.

“In order for students to be successful, they need to tap into all aspects of the profession,” Oliver said. “A lot of times, students would tell me, ‘Well, I just want to be an athletic trainer.’ I try to open them up to the research world. They have to be able to see how they can find answers to some of their clinical questions. Understanding research and keeping informed about it enables students to excel in their profession. They need to expand their outlook and be able to talk with others about their questions. It’s OK if you don’t know something; seek answers, don’t just stop. It’s all about problem-solving.”

Oliver has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and presented at national and international conferences on her research into throwing-motion injuries and the biomechanics of preventing injury. At Arkansas, a generous donor who had long been a benefactor of Razorback athletics saw Oliver’s passion for helping young athletes and wanted to contribute to the work she was doing. Bob Carver of Mena donated funds to help her buy a real-time 3-D motion-capture system to gather baseball and softball pitching data.

In addition to pitching, Oliver also investigates the throwing motion of baseball and softball catchers and position players, football quarterbacks and, now, youth lacrosse.

Three of her students followed Oliver to Auburn. She’ll take a group to Brazil this summer to present their research to the International Society of Biomechanics. And, Dr. James Andrews, a surgeon who co-founded the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Ala., which is the leader in research about preventing injuries in baseball pitchers, is visiting her lab later this year.

“We are the leaders in the softball research literature,” Oliver said. “Auburn is moving forward in the field of sports medicine. In our new building alone, we have four biomechanics labs with specific focuses of upper extremity, lower extremity, sports biomechanics and rehabilitation biomechanics. In the very near future, it is hoped that we would become the School of Kinesiology. The direction and vision of the Kinesiology Department at Auburn is reaching national prominence.

“This award gives me an incentive to do so much more. I know I have done well; however, I feel like I am just getting started and I am excited about the future. I guess I just get lost in my work. … This award made me reflect on what I had actually accomplished, but also allowed me to focus on what yet needs to be accomplished.”

The college will honor Oliver at its commencement ceremony May 11 along with Betty Winfield, recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award in Education, and Jessica Sliger, recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. A profile of Winfield appeared in Arkansas Newswire earlier this week, and a profile of Sliger will appear later this week.