Improving Human Movement

Sports Medicine and Kinesiology are elective ROP classes offered at SJHHS during the school day that give you 10 elective credits. Sports Medicine is offered first and second period, and Kinesiology is third period.

Both classes are taught by Micah Ohlen.

Kinesiology is the science of human movement, the history of human movement, and it studies concepts like bioenergetics. The class is geared more towards the general science of personal training.

These classes don’t assign a lot of homework; it’s more hands on work, such as labs.

“Our class is built around trying to give the students a good idea of what kinesiology is going to be like in college.  We cover different sections a little basic human anatomy and physiology, we talk about kinetics and kinematics, we talk about basic performance enhancement and injury prevention.  We try to learn in the book and then go apply things outside through labs,” said Ohlen.

Sports Medicine is concentrated more on the overall concept of athletic training and physical therapy.

“We start off with learning about administration and athletic training, then we work into each injury. The first semester of sports medicine focuses on lower body injuries and the second semester is focused on the upper body so were looking at injury evaluation, management in treatment of injuries,” said Ohlen.

The class gives students experience that they may use in future careers.

“You learn to care for athletes who in most cases have to keep playing. Learning these basic first response skills such as splinting, taping, CPR, or even just blood control are a good gateway into the medical field and are skills everyone should know,” Michael Cara (12).

The class is looking for future junior and senior students to join in the following years.

“People interested in physical therapy, a chiropractor, or want to be involved with athletic training should definitely consider taking Sports Medicine or Kinesiology next year,” said Max Berger (12).