Sponsorships are already common in club, college and professional sports. Are they soon to become popular in high schools, too?
For years, schools have faced budget cuts that have resulted in fewer allocated dollars to after school programs, including athletics. This decrease in available funding has forced some schools to cancel athletic teams or adjust the number of sports that are offered. While booster clubs have tried to provide more funding they face an uphill battle. What is so nice about corporate sponsorships is that the school and the organization form a relationship that is mutually beneficial: the school receives much needed income to offset the cost of their offerings, and the organization becomes a prominent, proud supporter. Like any sponsorship, it is only effective if the organization can leverage its affiliation through activating the sponsorship via marketing efforts, promotions and affiliating with the school. In this way, they have a vested interest in remaining engaged with the schools. The downside of sponsorships is what this article points out, the increase in corporate money flowing into the school can have the appearance of conflict of interest. Another concern I have heard based on conversations with athletic directors is the impact on Title IX. Schools have to be careful with accepting money directly that goes toward one sport. If money is only coming in for sponsorship of the football team, for instance, that can be a problem. In today's day and age of decreased funding to schools, I think more and more high schools are going to look at building relationships with the local businesses for additional revenue through sponsorships. As long as the schools are careful who and how they choose to allow sponsors, they can put themselves in strong position to bolster their athletic budgets to provide the best opportunities for the students. http://www.athleticbusiness.com/fundraising/school-board-oks-business-signs-at-sports-venues.html?eid=277204494&bid=1305550
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We take sports for granted in North America and it is an ingrained aspect of our high school culture. Now a school board is looking to determine just what the role is for the athletics program in the district, and I think this is a great idea.
There have been several studies that have assessed the link between physical activity and higher test scores and attendance in school, but much less has been done on sports (or any after school program) and higher test scores. I applaud this district for undertaking the research to determine just what the culture of the sports program is, who is participating (or not participating) and just what the link is between participation and other quantifiable assessments such as test scores, GPA, etc. The results of this should be illuminating, not only for the school district, but for others. Understanding what exactly occurs with the athletics program and the development of the students can lead to more funding, participation and appreciation for the role of athletics in high schools. http://www.athleticbusiness.com/more-news/school-board-ponders-sports-role-in-academic-success-br.html?eid=277204494&bid=1138672 As a young baseball player, it is not normal to have medial elbow pain (pain on the inside of the elbow) that is restricting your ability to throw. It can be caused by an irritation of the growth plate or from an injury to the ulnar collateral ligament. Often, an injury to the ligament results in Tommy John surgery.
As this surgery gets more and more common, it can be misconstrued, that this is normal for baseball players and especially pitchers. It is not. This injury is caused by repetitive trauma over time that causes a breakdown in the ligament. If a young player is having this injury it is often the result of too many pitches at a competitive level. We all want our children to play and have fun and to excel in the sport that he/she chooses, but we also need to keep in mind that we want them to be healthy adults. Participating in one sport year round at a competitive level has negative consequences including injuries, sometime serious injuries. We all need to encourage young athletes to play multiple sports, take time off their main sport, and start a strength and conditioning program. For those athletes, that have a passion for one sport we can work with them to develop skills and have fun, but to limit the competitiveness in the off season so that they have a chance to recover. This is a great article on Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz discussing his surgery and his recommendations for young players. http://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcook/2015/07/26/in-hall-of-fame-speech-john-smoltz-warns-against-tommy-john-surgery-for-teens/?utm_source=followingweekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20150727 I enjoy programming workouts with the objective of getting stronger. I find that the development of strength is one of the easier goals to program for and achieve. The main concept behind the development of strength is to be just a little stronger tomorrow than you are today.
The two programming techniques that I employ the most are a periodized program with the reps decreasing and the weight decreasing over time and a heavy/light routine with one workout of the week being heavy and the other being lighter. Both of these methods are extremely successful if your main goal is the pursuit of strength. The added bonus of strength development is that the workouts are shorter, since fewer exercises are being performed. You can do 3-5 exercises per workout and still get stronger on a consistent basis. As always, it is important to eat enough quality calories to fuel recovery and replenish energy stores, as well as getting adequate sleep. When your goal is to get bigger or smaller, the program has to change and nutrition becomes a huge component of your training plan. But, strength development is the simple application of doing a little bit more every time you workout. Currently, I get to lift 2-4 times a week and follow a weekly linear periodization program descending from 15-6 reps and then repeating. Push: Incline DB Press Standing shoulder press lateral raises skull crushers Pressdowns Pull: Trap bar deadlifts Bent over rows EZ bar curls Incline curls Push 2 I exchange DB presses with pushups since my shoulder has a tendency to flare up with too much pressing. This is also why I don't do flat pressing, personal preference to decrease my discomfort Pull 2: I exchange deadlifts for Bulgarian split squats and Bent over rows for one arm dumbbell rows As you can see, there is nothing fancy with this program, but if you add more weight every week, you will definitely get stronger. The American Academy of Pediatrics released a study looking at tackling in football. The authors of the study performed a literature review looking at the mechanisms of head, neck and catastrophic injury in football.
Not surprisingly, the act of performing a tackle, or being tackled, is a leading mechanism of injury in football for head and neck injuries, catastrophic injuries and other serious injuries. One of the leading causes of concussion in youth and high school sports is head to head contact. The main recommendation in this area is to continually stress proper tackling technique and educating players and coaches on the importance of keeping their heads up and making contact with their shoulder pads, thus reducing the mechanism of head to head contact. The authors summarize their findings of tackling in football by exploring the idea of limiting contact in practice to reduce the overall occurrence of head contact throughout the season, but do point out that it is not fully known how much of an impact this will make. They also discuss increasing the age at which players initiate contact and the possibility of non-contact leagues. This would allow those that are interested in playing, but are concerned for head injuries, an outlet to enjoy the game with a decreased injury risk. As athletic trainers, we play a key role in the recommendations made by the authors. The last two points that they recommend on tackling in youth football are to institute neck strengthening programs and have an athletic trainer on hand for contests. We have the ability to educate coaches, athletes and administrations on the risk of head injury in football (and sports in general) and the implementation of programs to reduce to the risk, including strengthening and skills based technical training. Having an athletic trainer available to athletes allows injuries to be detected and treated earlier. While the risk of injury will not be eliminated in sports, we can hopefully continue to make progress with our educational material to keep all of our athletes healthy and active. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/early/2015/10/20/peds.2015-3282.full.pdf We all know the dangers of dehydration, but there is danger of hyperhydration, too. When you have too much fluid intake this is called hyponatremia, and can be a life threatening condition.
The challenge is that when you are hydrating you are diluting the sodium in the blood vital for cell function. As the water content grows, the body starts to shut down. Drinking a sports drink can help mitigate this for longer term activities, but the sodium content is still not enough to offset the water content. The general recommendation is to prehydrate, drink water for activities less than 60 minutes in duration and sports drinks for longer than 60 minutes of duration. It may also be a good idea to increase the sodium in your diet if you are going to be very active through adding salt to foods or consuming chips, pretzels or popcorn. You can tell if you are drinking too much during activity if your weight is more at the end than it was at the beginning. Some mild weight loss is normal for activity, but overweighing with activity is a sign that you may be drinking too much. Cut back, drink when you’re thirsty and check out the new guidelines. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150709092727.htm A new research study was published that showed the benefits of balancing for treating chronic ankle instability. If you have ever injured your ankle, rehabilitation is of vital importance. The simple act of balancing on your foot can help strengthen the muscles that support your ankle and decrease feelings of instability.
Incorporating a balance routine into your exercise program can help keep your ankles strong and decrease the chances of suffering an ankle sprain. To make it harder, add in different exercises to change the stimulation. There was a recent article in the Journal of Pediatrics that looked at the rates of overuse injuries in high school athletes. The results will not come as much of a surprise to those working with high school athletes: girls had higher rates of overuse injuries than boys and the most commonly injured sites were the lower leg, knee and shoulder. The sport played largely determined the injury site, swimming and baseball for shoulders, gymnastics for backs, track and field for lower leg. The really interesting finding was that rates of injuries changed during high school with boys having more overuse injuries as they got older and girls have fewer overuse injuries as they got older. The authors are not sure why that is occurring, but it is probably related to growth, intensity, competition and neuromuscular control.
Since girls and boys have differences in neuromuscular control when they mature, it makes sense that the younger girls would be at increased risk of injury during that time until they got stronger and had improved mechanics. Why the boys got injured more as they got older is an interesting finding to keep track of in the future. I think that these studies are interesting in that they confirm what we suspect, but it also gives us an opportunity to utilize the findings to create better programs aimed at decreasing injury risk. If you work with young athletes then understanding these results can help you be a better coach. If your team is younger females then spend more time on neuromuscular training, strength training and controlling the volume in practice. If your team is older boys then continue to strength train, but control the volume and intensity in practice. Participation in athletics carries an implicit risk of injury that cannot be fully mitigated, but it can be better understood. Knowing your athletes, your sport and the common injuries can help to create better programs. If you are not sure the best way to structure a conditioning or training program talk with your school’s athletic trainer (if you have one) or a certified fitness professional. You can find the study here: http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(14)00888-9/pdf During a conversation with some colleagues yesterday, we were discussing the true benefits of physical therapy. Personally, I am lucky to work and collaborate with some very talented physical therapists. Still, the reason that people go to physical therapy are different than those who work with strength coaches, personal trainers, and so on. The main goal of PT is to decrease pain, improve range of motion and mobility and restore function. This is not the same as improving function or functional performance, which is a different goal.
Physical Therapy is great for soft tissue therapy and release of adhesions, improving flexibility and joint mobility and improving postural stability and neuromuscular control. They work with patients to regain some pain free motion, firing patterns and control after an injury or a surgery. All too often, however, the patients use physical therapy as a fitness program or a fitness consultant, which is an improper use of their expertise. In an ideal world (one where insurance does not determine treatment decisions) patients would work with a therapist on their specific injury and work with a qualified fitness professional on maintaining their global health while they recover from their injury. I stress qualified because this changes with the specific injuries and diseases that patients have. A qualified strength coach may not be the best choice for a diabetic with heart disease. This population has specific guidelines and needs that need to be properly understood. When the therapist and the fitness professional work together to help individuals return to, and improve, their physical capabilities, the patient wins. They are now able to have improved use of their injured limb and maintain and increase their global strength, endurance and capacity for exercise. I personally believe that it is time for treatment programs to focus on the holistic health of the patient and develop programs that help them address and improve all facets of their health. By focusing on one small area, we do patients a disservice. The key with therapy is to address and correct the causes leading to their pain and dysfunction while still exercising around their injury so they are maintaining their fitness and improving other aspects of their physical well-being. The ACSM released a study investigating the risk of injury based on their relative age. During sports, athletes are generally grouped together based on age with an arbitrary cutoff. This study looked at whether those 'younger' athletes were more at risk compared to their 'older' peers.
The study assessed how many injuries were sustained and where the athlete fell in the age range. Their results demonstrated that those athletes whose birthdays were closer to the cutoff and thus were younger, chronologically, speaking were more prone to injury. I think this study is pretty interesting in that it is demonstrating that just because athletes are the same age, does not mean that they are equal. It is important to remember that an athlete's birthday falls in one of twelve months and their may be pretty large physical differences for those that are on opposite ends of that age spectrum. When working with youth athletes it is important to match them based on maturity and skill in practice. This is not easy to do in games, depending on the sport, we have all seen those enormous size mismatches on opposite ends of the field. But, every effort should be made to allow kids to have fun, learn a new sport and play safe. I will be looking forward to seeing if they expand on this initial study to ascertain the effects of chronological age in sport on a larger scale and what ramifications it has not only for injury, but skill development, drop out and long term success. http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/pages/results.aspx?txtkeywords=relative+age |
AuthorI write on sport management, fitness, sports medicine and business topics to help you reach your goals Archives
January 2024
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timkoba@fingerlakesathletics.com (607)279-6791 *This site is for educational purposes only, it is not meant to diagnose, treat or replace medical advice. Before starting an exercise program always make sure that you are healthy and able to do so safely.* |