Balancing Act
“Sport is quite a simple thing. It is play, and in play, people of all ages find the chance to engage their most profound emotions-love, fear, excitement, disappointment, anger, and joy.”
~Timothy Shriver
In my recent travels across this most beautiful and engaging country of ours, I was able to see something that transported me back to my high school days of long ago. As I drove past rural high school after high school in the warm August sun, I could see clouds of dust rising from the practice fields as young gridiron gladiators were preparing for the upcoming football season during their long and tiring two-a-day practices. Two-a-days mark the start of the football season when there are generally two practices a day for four or five days when a coach will have a four-hour practice in the morning and a four-hour practice in the afternoon. The days are typically long, hot and physically demanding as the young men give their physical all to try and stand out to their coaches. A byproduct of this extensive physical activity in the searing summer heat is often heat related illness for some players and in some rare cases, total collapse. It’s not just football players who are gearing up for the coming school year…there are a whole host of fall sports that have started their practices and training sessions in the summer heat that must take precaution against minor injury or more catastrophic events. It seems like every year there are athletes who die from some form of heat related complications during the arduous training schedule, at all levels of athletics. As our summers seem to be hotter and hotter each year, more and more precautions need to be taken as young men and women take to the field of competition each school year.
I am a huge fan of athletic competition no matter what the sport. I believe that the spirit of competition provides a good platform to teach life skills to young people, to help them build resilience in the face of adversity, confidence through the process of performance, and honing the skills of building teamwork cooperation. All these abilities are life skills that no one should be without. I understand that not every child is available or desires to compete in organized athletics, I’m not diminishing that pathway because play and the skills learned from play comes in many different forms. What I am talking about today is that there are those that love to play on a larger field and for the glory and honor of their school or their club, community…etc. Play is an important component of growing up no matter what one is playing but it is also critical that when our young men and women are engaged in play for whatever reason, that they be protected and watched over to ensure their safety of health and wellbeing. The best way to take care of our young people is to make sure that the coaches and volunteers that are guiding the athletes on the field of play are trained in such a manner as to help mitigate injury. Athletes get hurt, ankles get sprained and muscles get bruised, minor injury due to physical exertion happens and nothing will ever change that short of the termination of the sport being played. Injury due to heat illness is preventable in every sense of the word preventable. Coaches and volunteers need to be acutely aware of conditions such as temperature, humidity, the number of water breaks, and the overall conditions of the training schedule in the heat. What is acceptable and what is dangerous? Every organization that offers athletics needs to have guidelines in place and to know that the coaches have an understanding of these guidelines in order to prevent a possible tragedy. Coaches want to produce winning teams because the schools, parents and fans expect their team to win. Athletes want to win for the joy of the victory through hard work and sacrifice. While everyone wants to develop a high performing team or athlete to bring home the honor of victory, there needs to be a balance of desire to perform and the need for safety during these hot and humid days of summer.
Best of luck to all the young men and women who have embarked or are about to embark on their athletic seasons. Be it football, cheer, soccer or tennis…cross country, water polo, volleyball or lacrosse, no matter what the sport, good luck. As I leave you today, remember to take care of yourself and each other, whatever sport you follow or play, we’re all in this together.
Wm Reid
Best Home Care Services
325 N Eastern Ave
Connersville, IN 47331
765-827-9833
wmreid@bhcshealth.com