Free Special Report on the most common mistakes youth coaches make
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Many parents and some players are concerned about injuries in freshman high school football.

Generally, football players can expect bruises and lacerations. These are painful, but it is the sort of pain that players are expected to ignore.

We have an excellent trainer in Kevin Amaral. He has nine years of post-high school education (bachelors and masters) in his field and we are fortunate to have him. All players who have injuries that might be serious must report to Kevin immediately. He will make a preliminary diagnosis then refer the player to medical personnel if necessary.

A top-notch, orthopedic surgeon sports-medicine doctor is also affiliated with the team. Parents are not required to use our sports doctor, but they are strongly engcouraged to use only a sports medicine specialist. Emergency room doctors and other non-sports doctors think nothing of placing a player in a splint and telling him to take six weeks off physical activity. Freshman head coach Jack Reed once took his son Dan to the emergency room after a knee injury in youth football. That doctor prescribed a splint and lengthy inactivity. The team’s highly qualifed trainer said there was nothing wrong with Dan. By the time a sports-medicine doctor confirmed that, Dan has missed a game in which the coaches had intended to rely on him more than normal. It turned out the injury was just a bruise.

Coaches have nothing to do with decisions on whether an injured player may play. Those decisions are made only by Kevin Amaral or doctors chosen by the family of the player.

Some injuries hurt, but do not affect the player’s ability to play. When playing does not risk aggravation of the injury, such players will generally be cleared to play.

Some injuries prevent a player from playing because they reduce his ability to move adequately. These players will not play even if there is no danger of aggravation.

Other injuries prevent a player from playing because they may be aggravated by playing or healing may be delayed by playing.

In 2003, we had about five players miss at least one game because of an injury. However, every player was healed and able to play in the final game and there were no injuries in that game.

According to an annual study of football injuries, eight high school football players died in the most recent year studied—2002. Three died from head trauma and four died from heart attack and one from an asthma attack. The latter five died from exertion that is common in all sports, not from any actiity that is unique to football.

There are 1,500,000 high school football players. That is a death rate of 8/1,500,000 = 1/187,500. In other words, one player died for every 187,500 high school football players. If the Monte Vista Freshman football team has 55 players on the final roster as we did last year, it would take us 187,500 ÷ 55 = 3,409 seasons to have one death. Of course, such a death can occur this season and then not again for 3,408 seasons. But the main point is that deaths among high school football players are extremely rare.

The main cause of death among high school age kids is motor vehicles often when used in combination with alcohol or drugs. Monte Vista football does not allow players who use alcohol or drugs to be members of the team so our players have an additional incentive to avoid those dangers.

Heat stroke

Heat stroke is a frequent cause of death in football. There were no heat stroke deaths in football at any level in 2002, but this was unusual and was probably the result of several high-profile heath stroke deaths at the college and pro levels the previous year. Heat stroke is caused by not drinking enough water during hot weather exertion. All players must bring one gallon of water to practice each day.

To encourage the players to drink as much as possible, the water should be cilled and in a container like a thermos that will keep it cold. Players tend to drink sweet liquids like sugared kool aid more than plain water so sweetened liquids may help prevent heat stroke. Sports drinks like Gatorade are acceptable. They reportedly replace not only water, but also minerals and salts lost through sweating.

Cramping

We did not have any cramping last season among the freshmen players, but the varsity had lots of cramping. That suggests it is age related. A study done at the University of Oklahoma football team recently found that cramping is caused by genetic predisposition combined with lack of sodium. Some people sweat more than others and some people’s sweat contains more sodium chloride than others. See http://www.defeeters.com/GatoradeNews-TheSodiumSolution.doc.

Sodium exists in human bodies mainly in the form of sodium chloride (table salt). The average adult has a half pound of salt in his or her body. This is crucial to proper functioning. Heavy exercise like football cause the body to lose 10% to 25% of its salt.

Cramping is not caused by lack of potassium as many think, therefore eating sources of potassium like bananas has no effect. Taking salt tablets was common in the past, but it is no lengor recommended. Rather, players should eat more salt in their food when they are engaging in football training or play. Some teams now provide pretzels and potato chips for that purpose. Sports drinks also provide some salt.

Paralysis

Parents are also concerned about paralysis in football. Paralysis is caused by making contact with the top of the head while the chin is near the chest. Such contact usually does not result in injury, but all football neck injuries are the result of such contact. To prevent such contact, we show the players a viedo on that subject (“Prevent Paralysis: Don’t Hit With Your Head”) the first day of freshman summer camp. We also admonish the players daily to keep their head up in hitting drills and we go ballistic whenever we see a player lower his head for contact in practice or a game. If necessary, we will cut a player from the team for cause if he habitually lowers his head when making contact.

We use a number of different phrases to get this point across:

There is an article on this subjet at http://www.hendrickshospital.org/ourservices/Spearing_Football.pdf.

85% of paralysis injuries occur in motor vehicle accidents, violent crime, and falls. 7.5% result from sports injuries. A teenage football player is more likely to be paralyzed in a car accident, fist fight, or fall than in football practice or a game.

Tape

Taping of ankles in common in football. It is not recommended unless the player has a particular injury that requires such temporary extra support. The tape adds weight and restricts movement. More importantly, it wastes time and tape. Players who are late for practice are punished. If an uninjured player is late because he was getting taped, he is punished. Only players for whom taping is a medically indicated therapy may be excused from being late for taping. No player, injured or otherwise, may put any tape on the outside of his shoes or unfiorm.

Always keep your head up when you hit.