Effective sports training programs and injuries
If you’ve read through some of the blog posts here, you’re probably aware that I believe the impact of fatigue to be a large component of sports-related injuries.
Fatigue has been shown to alter proprioception, muscle activation patterns, stability, etc. This only reinforces the importance of effective training programs for athletes based on their specific needs.
I came across this article at mmajunkie.com today that discusses the same subject and thought you’d like to take a peek at it.
Rant warning…
Back in the days before big screen TV’s and internet when I played football in high school, we were allowed to have supervised summer conditioning programs but no organized practice until two weeks before the season started.
Now the programs have absorbed the entire summer of our fall sport athletes by having organized practices and conditioning sessions. Sure, the programs may be offered as voluntary, but you and I both know that “voluntary” means “manditory if you want to play this year.” Now you have to make the 7-on-7 team just to get noticed by the coach.
Two things are really bugging me…
One, from this day forward football players, your summers will never be as fun and relaxing as they should be. Now don’t get me wrong. I loved playing football. I love preparing to play football. But I also loved having down time from school and formal schedules. (note to parents who think your kids need to be in school year round…you’re all idiots. It won’t make your kid any more intelligent. The guys that sent other guys to the Moon and back got their summers off when they were in high school.)
Two, having seen some of the conditioning programs from the local high schools, it’s clear that most sports team coaches know very little about preparing their athletes to perform when they need to perform. Nothing like getting beaten up and exhausted before the season even starts.
I predict a record injury rate this season.
I hope I’m wrong.
Bill
Bill, wondering if you’ve read Outliers? One of the issues Malcolm Gladwell looks at is that of summer vacation from school. His contention is that summer vacation is the biggest problem with the US educational system. He presents an interesting point. If you think about it, summer vacation wasn’t really intended for relaxation but for working the fields. I believe most European schools run closer to year round but have longer “mini-vacations” throughout the year – like 2 weeks for Easter. One of the stats Gladwell points to is that after an international math test given at the end of grade 12, students were asked how much of the subject matter they had previously learned in class. For Japanese students the answer was 92%; for American students, the answer was 54%!
I have always been an advocate of not doing the same sport year round, but I am starting to wonder if in fact kids would do well to play year round but maybe with frequent mini-breaks? Just a thought.
Yep, read it and totally disagree.
Too many factors to attribute their success in math to year round schools (incentives, motivation, parents, competition, teacher quality, differing technical curriculum in elementary/middle schools, etc.). The 2001 McMillen study also refutes it based on over 300,000 test scores comparing year round schools to traditional. You also need to factor in that more US students work part-time and spend more time in extracurricular activities.
Want math scores to go up? Increase competition and raise the incentives. Being extreme to make a point, if you threaten the lives of those taking a test that they must pass it or die, my guess is that scores go up.
I would also argue that Math scores do not equate to intelligence as there are many kinds of intelligence. Ever hear Eddie Van Halen play a guitar solo? He never had a single guitar lesson.
I’d also disagree on the matter of early specialization for young athletes. Generally speaking, the broader their movement experience the better the athlete they will become at the appropriate time of specialization.
I’d go spend some time at http://www.iyca.org and I’m sure you’ll change your mind.
Bill, I hate to say it, but the ‘record amount’ of injuries have already been happening, IMO. Ever since I’ve seen 3-4 sport athletes train for each sport on an almost year-round basis (usually playing one and conditioning for the other 2-3, literally), I have noticed in most basketball games how the number of ACL braces & Ankle braces combined can meet or exceed the number of players on the team itself. Especially in females, and personally, I think they have it the worst as far as pressure from all their sports. Take a girl who is playing softball right now in the summertime for a summer team, who just got out of her spring season that started in February, now she is doing softball practice/games in the midst of summer open gym times for volleyball and basketball collectively, plus there is usually one night a week of volleyball ’summer league’ and one night as well of basketball ’summer league’. These ’summer league’ concepts are nothing but wastes of an athlete’s time, because if they just took off the summer to get stronger and train decently, they wouldn’t need to be doing all these additional leagues and team open gym scrimmages throughout the summertime. Now, the enjoyment of sports has now become the equivalent of a part-time summer job when you add up the hours a typical athlete will spend on conditioning & summertime games/leagues, not to mention the ever popular ‘team camps’ of tourneys on the weekends.
Testify!