Prepare for Heat Stress: Two-A-Days are Coming

Washam

Most people in football circles have heard of Darrell Royal. He coached briefly at Mississippi State in the 1950’s before moving on to the University of Texas, where he compiled a legendary record with the Longhorns. He is perhaps best known for being the first to install the innovative “Wishbone-T” offense in 1968, which resulted in back to back undefeated regular seasons and a national title in 1969.

Royal was from the “old school” of southern football coaches who essentially took training methods derived from World War II military PT programs and used them during August practices to whip large groups of potential players into shape for upcoming seasons.

He also used those practices for another purpose: to run off players who were out of shape or less dedicated. Royal said of his tough preseason practices held under the grueling south Texas sun, “You bet it was hard…you wanted it stern enough to find out who wanted to and who didn’t…you have to push them hard enough to find that out.”

Royal was typical for the time, but in one way he was very innovative. Royal insisted that his players have full and free access to water at all times on the practice field in an era when water deprivation was a generally accepted method of “toughening up” athletes.

So why was a traditional old-school southern football coach of the 1960’s so different from his peers in this respect?

In 1962, one of Royal’s players had suffered a heatstroke during fall practice, went into a coma and died four days before the season opener. Royal was greatly affected by the player’s death, and often wondered whether he and his staff were responsible. As a result, from that season on, his players were properly hydrated on the practice field.

The days of water deprivation have pretty much receded into history as coaches have become more educated on the hazards of hot weather practices—and as the number of deaths and illnesses have become more widely publicized. Despite this change, heat illnesses still occur, and it is quite probable that this fall we will read the very sad news that some kid somewhere will die of a heat stroke during football practice—even though the player may have been “properly hydrated.”

What are some steps that parents and coaches can take to reduce the risk of heat illness? There are some things that can be done…but it must be stressed that even taking proper precautions, exercising in extreme heat is by its very nature hazardous, should never be taken lightly. Here are some suggestions:
1. Hydration: water, water, water. As much as they want, and as often as they want. Cold is best. Sports drinks are generally too sugary, and can actually retard fluid absorption. If they aren’t able to go “tee tee”, and their urine is still yellow, they probably haven’t been drinking enough.

2. Skin exposure: make sure that plenty of skin is exposed to air so that sweat can evaporate. Sweating DOES NOT cool anything…only evaporation of sweat from exposed skin causes cooling.

3. Clothing: light colored clothing reflects heat, dark colored clothing absorbs it. Helmets should be removed when not needed because considerable heat loss is via the head (the ban on helmet removal during practice is another antiquated coaching tradition that needs to be eliminated). Clothing that allows free flow of air underneath to pads is preferable.

4. Creatine: a popular supplement with football players that can increase the potential for dehydration and heat illness. Its use should be discontinued during fall practice season.

5. Acclimatization: if your child has been sitting inside in the air conditioning all summer he is more likely to experience problems with the heat. If you know your son is going to be playing football in the fall, you might want to encourage him to get outside and get acclimated to the heat several weeks before practices start.

6. Body composition: overweight kids may experience greater problems with heat stress than others. It is impractical to suggest that you drop 30 pounds of fat from a child over a summer, but you should remember that these kids need to be observed very carefully during practices for signs of overheating.

7. Humidity: watch the humidity as well as the temperature. High humidity keeps sweat from evaporating, and this increases the likelihood of heat stress.

One final note…never, never wrap a kid in plastic and exercise them in order to get them to lose weight. The only weight they lose is water weight, which they gain right back when they drink. You can’t melt fat off with plastic garbage bags. I know this sounds crazy, but I have actually seen it. Those rubberized exercise suits that are so popular and people think look so cool are essentially the same thing, and are a really good way to give a kid a heat stroke.