North Dakota State Football - Firefly Use Case

NDSU Football is still very new to Firefly and its benefits. With that said, we have found nothing but benefits from using the units. At about the middle of fall camp, when guys started complaining of heavy/tired legs, we gave units out to all of our 1s and 2s. I found that most of them would use the units immediately after practice when they were on their way to the dining hall for lunch. Some would then reapply for a treatment during afternoon meetings. In hindsight, maybe handing out the units at the beginning of camp would’ve helped avoid the heavy legs altogether, something to try this year.

Once the season rolled around, I handed out another pair if/when needed. Most guys used them following our Tuesday and Wednesday practices as they are our heavy practices. I also found that a handful of guys would bring them with them to our away games and apply them for the flight home. Some would keep them on their night stands and do a treatment right before bedtime.

I used all on lower body applications except for one instance. We trialed a unit with one of our quarterbacks by applying the unit to the ulnar nerve. He reported feeling less soreness in his arm following treatment.

From an injury perspective, I saw benefits in the post-acute phase of the recovery process. I mainly trialed the units following ankle sprains and had good success.

Due to budget reasons, we limited our guys to 2 pairs, which was plenty. I stressed that they need to be properly shut off to preserve battery life. Once handed out, our units were in the athlete’s possession the whole time and they were the ones solely responsible for their personal units.

Firefly has allowed us to free up a ton of free time both from an athlete and an Athletic Trainer perspective. I no longer have guys hanging around the training room for an extra 20-30 minutes to get their recovery in and they are off to their next task in a timely fashion. They also help me free up our other recovery machines for use with guys that actually have injuries.

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Mason Ankenbauer Head FB AT