Heads up Football

There is some good news regarding the safety of youth football: coaches that have completed the ‘Heads up football’ training have decreased concussions on their teams than untrained coaches.

Since concussions, and especially concussions in football, are such a big concern right now, it is great to see that there is some training being done to address the issue.

From my personal observation of covering football the last 8 years I have noticed that there is a lack in a systematic approach to training athletes how to tackle properly. When athletes have a helmet and shoulder pads on they tend to use them as a way to initiate their tackle, instead of getting themselves into a proper tackling position. This contrast is very evident when I watch rugby, who do not wear pads and are therefore forced to tackle differently.

I hope that more research is performed evaluating the effectiveness of this type of training for football coaches and that it becomes a part of the mandatory curriculum in order to be eligible to coach at any level.

I will make sure that any coaches who work with my boys, when they are older and if they choose to play football, have had this training.

http://www.athleticbusiness.com/more-news/study-tackle-training-tied-to-safer-football-play.html?topic=2,200&eid=277204494&bid=1014894

Throwing prep

This is a great article on the steps that a high level sport Physical Therapist uses to get his athletes ready for throwing both pre-season and in-season.

He breaks down the routine into different components that are time efficient and effective at breaking up soft tissue adhesions and prepping the musculature for throwing. The components are soft tissue release, stretching, and muscle activation.

Putting this into practice with yourself, or your own athletes, can maintain the health of the throwing shoulder during the season.

http://www.mikereinold.com/2015/02/how-to-prepare-your-body-before-you-throw.html? utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mikereinold+%28MikeReinold.com%29

When Little League becomes Big Business

The Little League World Champions will have to forfeit their title after an investigation discovered that the team was drawing players from outside its geographic boundaries.

 

Presumably, in order to field a stronger team, players from different districts were recruited to play for the team. This decision has meant the loss of a title to the youngsters who actually played the game to achieve it.

 

When did Little League become such a big business? Or, when did youth sports in general become such big business? From a sports medicine standpoint we want to encourage young individuals to play many different sports form a young age in order to instill healthy habits and foster a lifetime love of activity. Now, athletes are being pushed to specialize at a young age, they are not playing other sports so they don’t fall behind their peers and they are facing a lot of pressure to succeed at a young age. If they do succeed they get compared to adults and people wonder how great they will be when they make the pros. Unfortunately, a very small percentage of individuals go on to play professionally. Perhaps some of the reasons for not continuing are a hitting an early ceiling. If you play one sport and work on only that sport you reach a point where it becomes harder to improve. If you peak early you will great as a youth, but mediocre as a high schooler. It may be that playing that one sport used to be fun, until it wasn’t. The pressures just weren’t worth it any more so they walk away.

 

From a business standpoint, parents have money they are willing to spend on equipment, club dues, coaches, camps and training. Each of these areas wants a slice of the economic pie and the justification is that they are willing to pay for it. We all want our children to be successful and do the best they can, but we also need to recognize that they are still children and need support, guidance and encouragement from parents.

 

With the amount of money being spent on youth sports, you can bet this will not the last violation in order to succeed. Let’s just hope that the ones who do succeed, do so for the right reasons.

 

http://www.athleticbusiness.com/recreation/little-league-champs-stripped-of-national-title.html?topic=4,100&eid=277204494&bid=1011296

Social media guidelines in sports

As I have been reading more and more in the news, and overseeing the social media platform at work, it got me thinking of whether school, teams, clubs and franchises have any social media guidelines for their staff and players.

Each of the major sports leagues have different policies that vary league to league and the team may have additional policies on top of the league.

Similarly, the NCAA has rules, and the schools may have additional policies.

If you are in charge of social media at the school, or are a student looking to attend a school it is vitally important to understand what the code of conduct is for that school. Social media in its current form may not be here permanently, but we can be sure that the openness and ease of information will not be drying up anytime soon. With that in mind, make sure that what you  post is in line with the team, school or league that you are affiliated with and that it also reflects on you positively.

The link below is to the USC policy of its student athletes and it can serve as a good reminder of what should and should not be published on social media sites.

https://saas.usc.edu/files/2012/08/USC-Student-Athlete-Social-Media-Policy-Sign-Off.pdf

Youth sports

There is currently a trend in youth sports toward early specialization, club sports and competitions. While, we want to encourage young people to be physically active and participation in team sports can be great for building confidence, teamwork and discipline, it can also have negative consequences if they do not feel they fit in. When coaches push winning at all costs and play the better athletes (for that age group) all the time, neglect skill development of all the players and play as many games as possible, young athletes can feel burnt out, frustrated if they do not feel they are progressing, and worst of all, they may feel that sports are not fun and quit.

 

Growing up I was huge into sports and winning. I always wanted to win and would get upset when we lost. I understand what it is like to want to excel and win as often as possible, but from a coaching perspective, this may be missing the boat on athletic development.  

 

Youth sports should be fun for the kids. They should be learning skills of the sport, making friends and learning how to cooperate to reach a larger goal. From the sports medicine perspective, early specialization in one sport can lead to greater incidence of injury. 

 

Youth athletes should be encouraged to play as many sports as possible, learn as many skills as possible and have fun in the process. For those athletes that want to win and get frustrated by losing, a club sport may be the right choice, but do not forget to encourage playing other sports and make sure that they are still developing skills.

 

This article is a great read on how youth sports are following an adult culture that is not in the best interest of youngsters.  Evaluate the needs of the individual based on their goals, and not the adults around them and make choices with their best interests in mind.

 

https://stevenashyb.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/the-enemy-of-excellence-in-youth-sports/

 

You never know what you're going to get

The New York Attorney General has requested that 4 companies release their processing plans to him in response to DNA testing of herbal supplements. Products that are labeled by Wal-Mart, Target, GNC and Walgreens were shown to inaccurately reflect the ingredients in the bottle.

While this is an obvious problem for those companies and products, it brings up the larger problem that nutritional supplements are not regulated by the FDA. A company is allowed to produce a product and label it without having to prove what it contains. There are limitations on the claims that can be made for the efficacy of the product, but the product itself is not tested. When it comes to supplements, you really do not know what it contains.

There are several labeling companies that will review the product and verify the contents, but it is not required for a company to do this. If you are a competitive athlete it is very important that you understand how possible it is to take a supplement that you think does not contain any banned substance and test positive. This happens quite frequently with athletes because there is no guaranteed way to know what you are consuming.

When possible, focus your efforts on following a solid training program, getting adequate nutrition to support your goals and enough rest to repair. If you choose to take a supplement stick with brand names and look for labels that say it is free of banned substances and take them at your own risk.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/ny-ag-takes-aim-popular-herbal-supplements-n299161

HGH use in football

We've all seen the size, and presumably strength, of professional athletes increase over the years and with that increase comes the question about performance enhancing drug use. There are a lot of theories on both sides of the issue and that is part of the problem. No one knows how prevalent the use of performing enhancing substances is.

Aside from a lack of knowledge surrounding prevalence is the definition of performance enhancing drugs. There are a lot legal and illegal substances that can increase performance and the challenge is testing for the illegal ones. Finding that information is proving to be difficult.

Over the years the understanding of athletic development grows dramatically. The community understands a lot more about muscle and exercise physiology, nutrition, injury prevention and recovery, strength, speed and power development. How much of the player's gains in size, speed and strength is due to working with professionals who understand how to develop these attributes vs. taking a substance that can improve your ability to add volume, weight and improve recovery from workouts? I do not think that any of us know the answer.

What we know is that athletes ARE bigger, faster and stronger and the potential for devastating collisions is increasing, but we do not definitively know the reason why. Asking players to answer a survey is surely not without bias and testing for substances is not an exact science, as we have learned from Lance Armstrong.

I personally believe that another key question to ask is why do athletes feel the need to take PEDs? Once again, we can surmise their reasons for doing so, but without working to identify the real reasons behind the use, can we really solve the problem?

http://www.athleticbusiness.com/more-news/as-players-gain-size-debate-rages-over-hgh-test.html?topic=5,200&eid=277204494&bid=1006288

Economic impact of the Super Bowl

I read this article on Forbes this morning and it is very well written.

 

The author discusses the challenge in estimating the economic impact of an event to the host city, and the mayor of Glendale believes they will lose money on the Super Bowl.

 

With all the money in the league how is it possible that host cities actually lose money to host events? I think that there are a lot of variables to that, but some of them are:

 

Competition for hosting the big game. When competition is high, the NFL ultimately wins.

The Stadium agreements. How much of the revenue generated by the stadium returns to the City where it is located? If there are tax incentives this might not be as much as a city would like.

Cost of public safety. As the article points out, having more police officers on duty and earning overtime is a very fast way to spend a lot of money.

Local taxes and hotels. Ideally, when visitors come to the town they stay in the hotels, eat at the restauants, shop at the local stores and spend a lot of money in the local economy. In turn, the City would make more money from this spending come tax season. Time will tell how many non-locals came to Glendale and stimulated the economy.

 

While the big game can shed some light on the host city, it may not be as much of a financial boon as some would like.

 

But, with the popularity of football, and sports in general, we can expect the competition to host events to continue.

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2015/02/01/salaries-ads-security-whats-the-real-cost-of-super-bowl-xlix/?utm_campaign=Forbes&utm_source=GOOGLE_PLUS_PAGE&utm_medium=social&utm_channel=Investing&linkId=12094888