Troy University Athletics
Days In Camp Run Together
8/2/2008 5:00:00 AM | Football
Saturday, August 2
7:45 a.m.
The past two days have been carbon copies of the first, with treatments at 9:15 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., taping at 5:00 p.m., then to the field until 9-ish and post-practice treatment until 10 p.m.
I'll be the first to tell you that I am dreading the fast approaching span of time from Sunday night's practice to Thursday morning. In that short amount of time we will tape and practice six times, have at least 10 hours of treatment, and wash a million towels.
My co-workers are probably dreading that time span as well because they are already telling me that I get grumpy without my nap! Nap time ? just so you know ? is from 1:00-2:00 p.m., after lunch, and is a well-deserved down time scheduled into the daily routine. Not only is this beneficial to my co-workers, but encourages the players to take their time at lunch and make sure they are getting a well-deserved mental break.
The hours between practices and treatments are mainly filled with paperwork, laundry, and set-up/clean-up. There is a lot of work that goes into putting the team on the field, making sure everyone is medically cleared and has the appropriate insurance information on record.
The Athletic Training staff maintains confidential medical records on each student-athlete. For each of the 105 football players that have reported for camp, we have touched each file probably 10 times in the last week ? making sure they have a pre-participation physical, and checking, double checking, and triple checking prior medical histories, alerts, and insurance paperwork.
The paperwork is transferred into a computer database that allows us to track injuries and treatments, as well as demographic and insurance information. That's the boring stuff, but is essential to the accountability of our staff and the well-being of the student-athletes.
There are three main areas to this profession in relationship to injuries: education and prevention, immediate care, and rehabilitation. The most significant area at this time of the year is the prevention of injuries. The NCAA mandates an acclimation period to ease into full contact and decrease the amount of high heat exposure.
Prevention of heat illness is high on the radar right now, especially since the temperatures on the turf in the middle of the day can be well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I've been running on campus at 11 each day and can hardly stand to jog on the football field ? the heat waves coming off the turf resemble what you'd see in the desert at high noon! I think there's a mouth piece melted to the turf in the south end zone!
We have been blessed with late afternoon practices that have made the occurrence of heat problems low so far, but there are still a few guys who are prone to cramps that have been spending a lot of time with a gallon jug of Powerade.
The amount of fuel it takes to run these machines we know as football players is tremendous! To keep the weight they have worked so hard to add in the weight room over the summer and perform in a workout and three-hour practice each day, they will need to consume around 6,000 calories! That's four meals, countless glasses of juice, Powerade, and water, and all the ice cream sandwiches they can eat!
Those that don't eat and drink enough will most likely end the day with heat cramps. Just ask any of them that have experienced it and they will tell you they wished they would have eaten more during the day!
That's it for now...GO TROJANS!
Alyson
