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Drink up, fellas.
High school football players who intend to play at their peak while avoiding a serious, even potentially deadly, physical breakdown on the field had better drink plenty of water.
Practice begins Monday in Pennsylvania for fall sports participants, and that means everyone involved – coaches, trainers, parents and especially players – should put an emphasis on proper hydration. Those mid-August workouts, characterized by tropical-like humidity and blazing temperatures, can be brutal.
Unfortunately, not everyone fully grasps the new rules of conditioning. Certain daffy, old-school coaches around the nation have been known to discourage, even prohibit, their players from taking extended breaks and filling up on fluids. And young players sometimes mistakenly consider that going for long stretches without a sizable gulp of H2O is a sign of toughness.
How wrong they are.
The Gatorade Sports Science Institute in 2002 released a researcher’s document indicating that each year about three young players die of heat stroke.
“Exertional heat stroke currently ranks among the top three causes of deaths in sports,” cautions USA Football in its online practice guidelines. Concerned coaches and others can read its recommendations for slowly increasing the intensity of preseason workouts by visiting usafootball.com/practice-guidelines.
Often, tragic news reports of heat stroke cases coincide with the summer startup of football practices when, according to the USA Football website, “athletes are unprepared to cope with environmental conditions and physiological demands.”
For safety reasons, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association encourages football programs this week to follow its “pre-season heat-acclimazation guidelines.”
Under this system, players gradually get introduced to workouts. For instance, they first practice while wearing shorts, helmets and shoulder pads, rather than full uniforms.
Parents and other advocates for the prevention of sports injuries can help by insisting young athletes have unlimited access to, and are encouraged to frequently visit, hydration stations. Similarly, learn to recognize the signs of heat-related illnesses, and encourage coaching staffs to follow prevention tips. (For starters, visit coachsafely.com/heat-illness.)
Also, remember that runners and other student-athletes prepping for the upcoming season are similarly susceptible to the heat during these dog days. Marching band members can overexert themselves, too.
If you’re a student gearing up for physically challenging practices this month, don’t be among the parched souls who get sidelined by heat cramps or other poor-hydration conditions.
Drink up, and play on.