Start me up safely: Five things to consider for a new fall sports season
Cones are set up. Equipment bags are dusted off. Complaints about two-a-days hang in the air.
Fall sports season is here – or on the horizon, depending on where you are in the country – and games that count are looming for high schools, colleges and the pros.
In many places, this time of year also means practicing, sometimes twice daily, in sweltering temperatures and suffocating humidity.
If this is your first time preparing for an organized fall sport – or your child’s first time – understand there’s often an adjustment period. Gearing up for a sports season in high school or college may be more daunting than anything you’ve previously encountered on athletic fields.
Some preparations are standard for any season and any time. Proper sleep is important, as is good nutrition. Here are some other to-dos to keep in mind as a new sports calendar arrives.
Get a baseline concussion test
An annual sports physical, also known as a pre-participation physical examination, is required before athletes can compete at the high school level or above.
Another exam that’s not universally required but is highly recommended is a baseline concussion test, a computer-based cognitive assessment that takes approximately 20 to 30 minutes to complete.
Administered by health care professionals (like our trained sports physical therapists and athletic trainers), it tests athletes’ reaction times, memory and cognitive processes through a series of questions and mental tasks. It’s typically given before a season begins and while subjects are exhibiting no concussion symptoms.
It’s an extremely crucial resource during the season, when trainers are trying to determine if specific athletes are concussed and when they’ll be ready to return to sport. The initial cognitive baseline is compared to subsequent tests to make those decisions more accurately.
Contact sports in which the head, neck and face often absorb collisions, such as football and soccer, are typically the ones in which preseason baseline tests are administered. All athletes, however, are susceptible to potential concussions.
Cross country runners must avoid falls, swimmers deal with navigating walls during turns and volleyball players can be clunked in the head during net play.
Making sure a cognitive base is established is a smart precaution, no matter the sport. So, ask an athletic trainer about being tested if it isn’t required by your league.
Oldie but goodie: Stay hydrated
It’s a command that has become ubiquitous in athletic circles: Stay hydrated.
Although specifics can be debated, the clinical consensus is dehydration can impair an athlete’s health and performance, particularly in the heat of summer.
Thankfully, the days of coaches withholding water breaks due to a team’s lack of energy or execution is mainly a thing of the past. Team officials, generally – and athletic trainers, specifically – stress the need to stay hydrated to keep body temperatures lowered and players as healthy as possible during strenuous practices.
It’s not simply about physical health, however. Dehydration also affects cognitive function, which can lead to issues with decision making and reaction time, key components of competition.
There is some disagreement as to what to drink to best stave off dehydration and how much one needs to consume to stay sufficiently hydrated. Overhydrating or hyponatremia, when the body’s sodium level drops to an abnormal level, can be caused by excessive water intake.
The best thing to do is listen to your body’s natural signals when making sure you’re properly hydrated. Dark colored or low quantities of urine often is a sign of dehydration. Another basic warning: significant thirst.
If you are really thirsty while exercising, practicing or competing, drink water or other sugarless fluids. If you are not experiencing thirst cues, you likely are not significantly dehydrated.
Drinking water is the best remedy in avoiding dehydration, but consuming low- or no-sugar electrolyte drinks are also beneficial while adding flavor. Be careful, however, with some of the more popular electrolyte drinks due to their high-sugar content.
Sugar can cause water to be pulled into the gut, creating bloating and the feeling of cramping. If you want to consume electrolyte drinks containing sugar, it’s best to dilute each bottle with some water.
Ramp it up before mandatory practices
This is a twofold suggestion: Gradually increasing activity as well as increasing exposure to heat and humidity will make those first few practices go much more smoothly.
The first part is hopefully something you have been doing for weeks: It’s unrealistic to think you can go all offseason without training and suddenly be the strongest, fastest or fittest on the team.
Training in the offseason really is the best way to be physically prepared for the preseason. Lifting weights, incorporating sports-specific exercises and doing cardio are important before practices begin for the athlete that wants to be stronger and ready to compete for a starting role.
If your team requires running a certain number of miles in a specified time in order to make the roster, don’t try it for the first time on the opening day of official practice. Build up to the required level with increasingly longer runs over a period of days or weeks.
The same is true for getting accustomed to exercising in August weather. Ramp it up.
Working out in an air-conditioned gym all summer certainly has value, but it doesn’t prepare you for outdoor conditions. Get acclimated by doing strength work and cardio outside for small periods of time, and extend the duration every day or two until you are ready to practice for a couple hours in the heat and/or humidity.
Many football programs, especially in the south, already employ this philosophy. They start initial practices without pads, and then gradually add gear as the players become more acclimated to their environments.
Get to know your athletic trainer
There’s an old joke in jock circles: “He’s hurt so often, his best friend on the team is the athletic trainer.”
You don’t have to be become best buddies with your team’s or school’s training staff, but make an effort to get to know the members on a personal level. Chat with them, maybe stop by on occasion when you don’t need to be treated and engage in small talk.
There is nothing more important in sports than open lines of communication, and having that avenue with a training staff is crucial.
Not only will it be easier to ask questions and get advice when you need it, but as you get to know them, they will get to know you. They will better understand your personality, your work ethic, your medical history, and all of that helps in delivering the best personal care when you do need their full services.
Most medical professionals – including athletic trainers and physical therapists – will agree that the better they know their patients and what makes them tick, the better they can serve their needs and help them with their goals.
Trust your athletic trainer
This goes one extra step.
Athletes must understand the No. 1 goal of medical professionals in the athletic field is to get their patients back to competition when they are ready to thrive physically and mentally.
That’s their whole enchilada.
They aren’t trying to keep you from your sport. They aren’t trying to take away your playing time. They aren’t trying to make your coach angry. They are just ensuring you are ready.
Many athletic trainers have been doing this a long time. They understand what factors to look for and what are the best indicators to follow for a return. They also may have data involving your situation you don’t know about.
The last thing they want is to clear athletes for play only to have them return a week later with the same, but now a more significant, ailment. So, let the trained professionals make the call and trust that it is in your best interest.
Bottom line for athletes
Every athlete wants to succeed on the fields and courts. Along with talent and hard work, success takes preparation, patience and, perhaps, most of all, good health. Training properly and approaching tasks smartly goes a long way to staying in the game.
That begins by dealing with heat, humidity and a new season of challenges.
If you suffer an injury this summer or fall, a team of clinicians, including athletic trainers and physical therapists, can get you back to your sport in a reasonable time, both healthy and ready to flourish again.
Clinical contribution to this blog provided by Josh Hayes, director of sports medicine.