Yasmine Jutt

Biography

Yasmine is a practicing member of the BC Association of Kinesiologists (BCAK) and works as an Athletic Trainer for two sports year-round. In the winter she works for ice hockey teams and in the summer she works in box lacrosse. Yasmine has worked in the following leagues: BCHL, PJHL, MML (Hockey) and WLA, BCJALL, BCJBLL (Lacrosse). In addition, she is the founder and owner of the company Optimize Sports Medicine. Through her company she does rehabilitation, strength and conditioning, first aid coverage, and also consulting projects such as research and building educational materials. 

QUESTIONS

1) What is your current position? What does a typical work day look like for you?   

Currently I am the athletic trainer for the Vernon Vipers (winter) and Langley Thunder (summer). I am also the founder and owner of the company Optimize Sports Medicine.

As an athletic trainer there is a great amount of variety to my days. On a practice day I am usually focusing on rehabilitation for injured players not in the lineup, and individualized strength and conditioning programming for those that need it. On game days my focus shifts to players in the lineup and getting them ready for the game. This could involve supplemental warm-ups, soft tissue work, or prophylactic taping. During the game I am on the bench for first aid and injury assessment. In between there are many travel days.

Through my company I often work events such as tournaments or camps for first aid coverage and injury assessment. In addition it allows me to work with individual clients outside of the sports teams. I always enjoy hearing ideas and being able to execute them. For example I have one client whose child needed to improve mobility so I taught sport-specific yoga classes to a small group of teammates to help them move better as young athletes.

2) How did your education in BPK influence your career?

Taking BPK 241 was a great introduction to the clinical side of injuries, and gave a strong foundation for further learning. In upper division courses I think reading many scientific studies helped me understand the research process and how clinical evidence is developed into rehabilitation protocols. I believe all courses in the BPK program helped me build strong critical thinking skills which are needed in my current roles.

3) Who in BPK had an impact on you and why?

I really appreciated that Dr. Kevin Lunnie who taught BPK 241 made time to have meetings with me when I was just getting started in the field after taking his course. Even now when I have unusual cases and contact him he is still willing to have a discussion.

4) What is your favourite memory of your time at SFU as an undergraduate?

I really enjoyed my directed studies course which I took with Dr. James Wakeling. I joined his canoe slalom lab where I conducted a full literature review on the sport science of canoe slalom. I wrote about everything from exercise physiology to the biomechanics of the sport. I also learned to code using Mathematica and created a simple biomechanical computer model for the sport. In the future I would like to do more sport science research.

5) What advice would you give to today’s BPK student? 

SFU's Kinesiology major provides a solid foundation for any career direction that you could choose. I think it's important to take advantage of the many opportunities on campus to test the waters on career paths, but also to build an academic and professional network. Lastly I would encourage BPK students to be creative with their career and think outside the box.