No More 2-a-Days?

So it's not even July and here in Arkansas we are flirting with the triple-digit mark on the thermometer. Nice to think of what July & August will bring us.

Last week I attended the National Athletic Trainers Association's (NATA) Annual Meeting in San Antonio. This educational session & trade show brought over 9000 of my colleagues together to learn the "latest & greatest" in sports medicine. An interesting item that was announced last week was the call for the reduction or elimination of 2-a-day football practices for high school football players in August. A report issued by the NATA outlined the dangers of the grueling training sessions and noted 39 heat related football deaths since 1995.

While this is just a position statement and cannot be enforced, it does bring up some interesting points. Read them here.

Highlights of the recommendations:
1. A 14-day acclimatization period---during the 1st 5 days athletes can only practice once per day
2. A total of 3 hours per day
3. Recovery periods
4. The recommendation that a certified athletic trainer be on hand to monitor both climate conditions & the athletes' conditions

Several other groups collaborated with the NATA on this consensus statement: American College of Sports Medicine, Gatorade Sports Science Institute, National Strength and Conditioning Association, United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine and American Academy of Pediatrics.

OK...so there will be (& already has been) a lot of push-back from this. Many coaches are saying that since they have an athletic trainer (AT) at practices, then they are OK because they listen to what they say. Others say this is not needed because they take precautions & grant access to water. All of this is good. But these aren't 100% guarantees that there will be no heat-related issues.

Coaches say they need twice-daily practices to get their teams ready for a grueling season. I would tend to agree...however, times are different for the typical high school football player. Football is now a 12 month sport: 10-plus games in the fall, followed by off-season lifting/walk-throughs, then there is spring football. Summer rolls around and there are camps, clinics, and 7-on-7 games/tourneys. Now you are right back at 2-a-days. Couple all of this with extra speed/strength training on their own (obviously I highly endorse this!), or other sports, and, well, they are busy! My point is that the average high school player SHOULD be in better shape than the average player 10 years ago. So, I throw this out.....are two weeks of 2-a days still needed? A coach would like as much practice time as they can get, and I don't blame them for this. But, are some schools still doing 2-a-days just because "that's what we have always done"?

Times are different than just a few years ago.....that warrants a reassessment of the status quo. Is there a better way? Are today's athletes at more risk for heat illness?