AS YOU START mapping out plans for two-a-day practices later this summer, make sure that you consider the serious impact heat and humidity can have on your players.
According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina, 17 football players died from heatstroke between 1993 and 2000.
Doug Casa, a certified athletic trainer at the University of Connecticut, maintains each death could have been prevented. He suggests your staff watch for nausea, dizziness, vomiting, headaches, loss of concentration or irrational behavior as heatstroke symptoms.
Prevention Pays
When practicing in the heat, Casa says you should decrease the intensity of activity by moving practices to earlier or later in the day, scheduling more rest time, providing plenty of fluids and practicing indoors if possible.
The rehydration rule of thumb is to have your players weigh themselves before practice and then drink enough fluids before the next workout to replace all of the lost weight. For a 300-pound lineman who might lose as many as 15 pounds in a workout, that may mean drinking 20 to 30 8-ounce glasses of water.
Watch Your Linemen
Casa says hydration is normally more serious with your larger linemen. The larger your players, the more heat they store due to higher body fat or more muscle mass. In fact, they can sometimes create so much heat that they can’t participate because they can’t sufficiently cool themselves.
Pay close attention to the impact heat and high humidity may have on your players during practice. Spending a few minutes going over ways to prevent these problems with coaches, trainers and players could help you avoid serious consequences.