Every athlete, regardless of their age and sport, should be evaluated before competing, says sports doctor Wilbour Kelsick, who will be conducting a seminar this weekend at the Bermuda College.

Brought in by the Bermuda Track and Field Association, Dr. Kelsick will share his knowledge of sports medicine with coaches and officials from various sports bodies during a seminar beginning today.

Dr. Kelsick will cover seven main areas: The science and medicine support team, athlete health and safety, conditioning/training, physical preparation and assessment, nutrition, fueling performance and mental training, preparation and planning.

"One of the things I'm going to try to home in here is what we call pre-participation evaluations which is something that has been neglected not just in developing countries but also in North America,'' said Dr. Kelsick, who was born in Dominica but has been living in Vancouver, Canada, since 1979.

Dr. Kelsick specialises in the field of sports injuries, musculoskeletal rehabilitation and conditioning of some of the world's top athletes, including top Canadian sprinters Robert Esmie, Tara Perry and Dana Burrows -- the two fastest women in Canada -- plus Bermuda's Brian Wellman and Troy Douglas. He is also the team chiropractor of the NBA's Vancouver Grizzlies.

"We're trying to get associations and clubs and coaches involved in pre-season evaluations because it is a very important tool in identifying weaknesses and strengths of an athlete before they participate,'' said Dr.

Kelsick.

"A lot of people get scared about pre-season evalations because they feel it is going to eliminate them from the sport but it actually enhances their own capabilities of getting them involved in the sport because we are able to identify deficiencies.

"Once we identify the deficiencies we can help them improve the deficiencies and do better in the sport and not get frustrated.

"Suppose we have a young player playing basketball or cricket and he has a weak muscle in his shoulder and he realises he can't bowl properly so he gets frustrated. But it's not too much of a problem to identify the problem. We can help strengthen the muscle.'' Dr. Kelsick said there are high risks of injuries even in supposedly harmless youth sports. One he referred to is the condition called "little league's elbow'' where too much throwing in baseball at a young age can be harmful.

"Age doesn't matter,'' he stressed. "As long as the criteria is sports involvement they should be evaluated. Some careers never got started because of injuries. "When I was growing up in Dominica I saw some of my friends get injured and never play again. We didn't have the resources, technology or knowledge to pursue it if something needed to be done about it.'' Dr Kelsick, who spends time sharing his expertise in the Caribbean region, will also talk about "over-use injuries'' in sports which is the most common.

"Over-use injuries are due to repetitive motions and actions in sports like tennis and basketball where you have to keep repeating the activity to develop the skill,'' said Dr Kelsick, who lectures to large corporations about health, fitness and wellness.

"In recreational athletes you'll find a very, very high incidence of over-use injuries, which can come from lack of knowledge, lack of skill and the fact that they are not fit and prepared for the sport.

"I'm a firm believer that education in any field is one of the fundamentals and basically I'll be trying to get that message across.'' Dr. Kelsick will try to help coaches participating in the seminar identify a problem and educate the athlete. "The coach is one of the most important soldiers in the fight against injury prevention,'' he says.

"There are several components of fitness, muscular strength, muscurlar endurance, flexibility, agility, reaction time, body composition which deals with weight, general cardiovascular endurance, hand-eye corordination, a general well being and mental stability, how you deal with stress.

"If you can't satisfy those components then I don't think you can consider yourself to be fit.'' There are still some spaces available for the seminar which is open to coaches, club officials and individuals. The fee is $275 for three representatives from an organisation and $100 per individual.

DR.WILBOUR KELSICK SPORTS SP