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Next Level of Athletics

Introduction

There will be many things that an athlete can expect at the next level (College or Professional Athletics). Everything will change. Practices and pressures will intensify. Game strategies will get far more complicated and require more studying. In academics, classes will be much harder and require more homework and studying. Peer pressure will be knocking at the athlete’s door begging the athlete to engage in sex and alcohol. There will be high expectations of the athlete from coaching and administrative staffs. It is up to an athlete to be responsible. At the next level, the athlete will be on his/her own.

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Stress

At the next level stress will be a big issue. There will be immense pressures to do well. In professional athletics, coaches and organizations will spend up to millions of dollars on players. These players must perform well. Pressure will come from all angles (coaches, press, family, teammates, etc). The athlete will receive criticism from the press and public, especially if they are in a high profile position. It is imperative for the athlete to cope with the stress. A stressed out athlete will experience a decrease in performance. Any kind of positive support that the athlete can receive and any stress that can be alleviated from the athletes life will help.

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Long Days

Athletes can expect long days especially during the season. The day starts with a good breakfast. Nutrition is important and breakfast is a very important meal. If there is a conditioning workout they usually begin at 5-6:00am before class. From 8:00am -2:00pm athletes are in class. If the athlete is injured or hurt, they may be required to go to the training room for treatments in between classes. Again nutrition is a big factor. They must replenish themselves from the morning workouts and get ready for afternoon practice. A lot of athletes will use supplements to help them meet their nutritional needs. In between classes, athletes will have to go to team meetings and possibly attend film review sessions. From 2-3pm athletes will be required to be in the training room for treatments and taping. Usually at 3:00pm practice begins and will go until 5-6:00pm. After practice athletes will shower up and get some food. They will then be required to meet with tutors and/or attend study hall from 7-9:00pm. That is the typical day of an athlete during the season. In the pros it is relatively the same except there is no academic class. However, in the pros there will be classes on learning plays and viewing films all day.

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Strength and Conditioning

Athletes can expect a tempo unlike anything they have ever experienced before. Their work outs will be faster, more intense, and longer. The intensity factor may elevate so high that athlete’s start vomiting while running or doing drills because the exercise is so hard. Upper level athletes train on the verge of torture. This type of training would cripple the average man or bring him to tears; this is where character plays a large role in the success of an athlete at the next level. In athletics you will have to push your body to its limit, if you are not pushing your limit, you are not giving it your maximum effort. If you want to be the best, it starts with your conditioning and giving a maximum effort.

The conditioning schedule depends on the team and the facilities. A lot of teams will do conditioning in the mornings around 5-6:00am. Training sessions are about 1-2 hours. Then the athletes are released to shower up and go to class, treatments, or team meetings. They will be expected to go to bed early, eat right, eat breakfast, and be at conditioning on time. This means they may have to get up at 4:00am to eat breakfast and let it digest. If they don’t allow enough time to digest their food, chances are they will see the food again during conditioning (i.e. vomit). If they require taping or treatments, the athlete may be required to be in the training room at 4:30am. Some teams issue curfew so that athletes are assured to get the right amount of rest before having to get up for the morning conditioning periods and also to keep them out of trouble. Sometimes conditioning periods are scheduled during the day or in the evening.

Usually there is a practice session in the afternoon and a small amount of conditioning may be done there also. It will depend on what was done in the morning session and what the goals are for the practice. Sometimes coaches will run the athletes to fatigue before practice to teach the athletes how to deal with fatigue during the game. Therefore, a conditioning period might be scheduled before practice.

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Sports Medicine

At the next level athletes can expect the best medical care they have ever received. That is to say, if they attend a big division I university or professional team. Each team will usually have a head athletic trainer for that sport (swimming, basketball, etc), one graduate student (GA) athletic trainer per team, and one to two student trainers. The athletes will have 24 hour access to the graduate assistant and or intern. Athletes will call their GA’s at 3:00am from the dorm room to help take them to the hospital for fear of alcohol poisoning, car accidents, injuries from fights, injuries from practice, injuries from drunken falls, food poisoning, and many more problems athletes encounter. Athletes will have round the clock 24 hour care. It is great to have this because athletes sometimes will not realize they are hurt from practice or training until they get home and will then need medical attention.

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Medical Insurance

Depending on how well an athletic program is funded, usually if an athlete gets injured it is at no cost to the parent or guardian. If it is a sport related injury, the athlete’s primary insurance carrier will pay for it’s portion of the bill. The remainder of the bill will be paid by the university or the universities insurance company.

Other professionals athletes will have access to.

  • Massage Therapist
  • Sports Nutritionist
  • Sports Psychologist
  • Net Work of Doctors (other than team physician)- Cardiologist, Ophthalmologist, Internal Medicine Doctor, and more

Malingering

Freshman college athletes during preseason training are put under grueling stress. The athletes are usually out of shape and some may not even be acclimated to the region. These problems when combined with very rigorous training and environmental factors can apply great psychological stress to an athlete. The athlete under pressure from the coach, teammates, family, and commitment to the university may look for an alternative means to lessen the stress. The means usually sought out is to malinger. Taber's Medical Dictionary explains malingering as “to fake injury, to arouse sympathy, and to escape work.”

A combination of the athlete missing their family, sleep deprivation, digestive problems/inadequate nutrition, and extreme heat, cold, or altitude adjustments can lead to malingering. The coach’s expectations may be very high and the athlete may not perform up to those expectations (if the athlete knows this), this will lead to psychological stress and possibly malingering. Other teammates may have to carry the freshman’s weight in practice, if the athlete is not up to par, which could be another reason to malinger.

The athlete’s advantage to malinger is to escape from the stress. All the factors playing against the athlete can soon be alleviated by just faking an injury. This will earn the athlete sympathy from the athletic training staff, a cool or warm training room, and something to drink. Most importantly the negative coach and teammates, the heat/cold, and total exhaustion will stop. Coaches and trainers sometimes use six ways to deter this type of behavior, they are as follows:

  • To make all rehabilitation workouts harder than practice work outs (a down fall to this would be it may motivate athletes who are injured to not come forth and present the injury in fear of the difficulty in the rehab workout, thus causing the injury to become worse)
  • To encourage coaches to allow athletes (who are not from the region) to come to school ten days prior to preseason to allow for the acclimatization process to take place
  • To encourage coaches to positively reinforce athletes through praise and constructive criticism, and to not negatively talk down to the athlete when the athlete is not performing up to par
  • To encourage coaches to require a nightly bed time during preseason training to avoid sleep deprivation
  • To encourage family to stay in close contact with the athlete and positively reinforce them during preseason
  • To encourage the cafeteria manager to offer a wide variety of food. Athletes are used to 18 years of moms home cooking; they may not adjust easily to not having her cooking anymore. Meals in the cafeteria may not stimulate the athletes taste buds.

When these factors are implemented, then the battle against malingering can be won, but it takes the combined effort of the various staffs, family members, and the individual. The end result should be a happy, healthy young athlete that will become successful in his/her sport, through the help of family and the university staff. Remember team means Together Everyone Achieves More, and together they will.

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Sex and Alcohol

Binge drinking remains a problem among university athletes and rookie professionals. Most studies report that more drinking is done by athletes than by regular students (50% athletes vs. 44% non athlete students). Some studies suggest that as much as 60% of female athletes engage in binge drinking in the off season and 35% binge drink during the season. It has been noted that athletes in sororities account for an increase in binge drinking over athletes who are not in sororities.1 It is of concern that half of the women in theses studies complain of regretting their actions after a night of binge drinking. In addition, it is alarming that 98% of female collegiate athletes at one school that were sexually active had a perceived risk of sex without condoms subsequent to drinking.2 Thus, putting these young athletes at an increase risk for STD’s and unwanted sexual activity (when they are sober, they wish they had not had sex when they were drunk).

At the next level athletes are celebrities. Their faces are plastered all over town, on TV, and in papers and magazines. Girls throw themselves at boys and boys throw themselves at girls. In some cases athletes can live the rock star lifestyle. With that comes sex and alcohol. Athletes are randomly tested for drugs, therefore many do not use them. Generally athletes do engage in sexual activity and drinking. Some schools and pro teams teach and preach to the athletes to use condoms and protect themselves. A STD can greatly decrease performance, or it will end an athletic career. If you have never been a college or pro athlete or been around it, it is hard to imagine the things that go on. Girls and guys will do anything to get close to a big time college or pro athlete.

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Education

Some athletes want to use athletics as a route to professional sports, while others want to use athletics as a means of paying for college. Athletes must set their dreams on professional athletics but realize that they need a back up plan. That back up plan is an education. Very few players make it to the pros. It is almost like winning the lottery. Once one makes it to the pros, many wash out do to injury, performance, and pressure. They must have an education to fall back on. Many athletes leave college early to play professional sports. Many are too young to manage their money and they spend it like water. Soon they go broke. What do they have to fall back on? They must have an education.

Athletes time and time again get injured while playing. These athletes sustain injuries that decrease their performance. Some injuries athletes can bounce back from quickly, and physically they will be 95-100%. However, some athletes never fully recover physically and/or psychologically. This can greatly decrease performance. They fear the injury will happen again. Then there are those injuries that athletes sustain that can affect them the rest of their life. Athletes die from injuries sustained in high contact sports, others become crippled, and some slip by with only minor injuries. Therefore, it is very important that an athlete receive an education, so they have something to fall back on.

Some professional teams will draft athletes out of high school and college. They offer contracts that will pay for school should the athlete stop playing. If an athlete goes early, it is highly suggested to take this option. It provides them the opportunity and privilege of a college education.

One thing college scouts look for other than talent is good grades. Most universities require a 2.5 GPA in order to play sports. However, they must maintain a certain overall team GPA. This is where it pays to study. Some kids will be offered scholarships more for their grades than for their talent on the field. They will use this athlete’s high GPA to boost the team average.

It is hard to get a player into a university with bad grades. There are rumors of college and professional athletes that could not read or were on an elementary school reading level. The only thing these athletes know is their sport, and they were so good at it that they got pushed through the system. College football teams make as much as 35 million dollars a year. That type of money tends to push things through the system.

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Academics

Each university will have an academic advisor that will be assigned to each athlete. In addition, the athletic department has one as well. Athletes may want to take the minimum course load during the season. The reason for this is because athletes will have to do a lot of traveling during the season. Therefore, they will miss class and it will be hard for them to study their sport (play books/tactics) and keep up with school work as well. By taking the minimum class load, they can alleviate some of the stresses of school. A normal minimum class load will be four classes or 12 hours of class per week. This is usually accompanied by 1-3 hours of homework or studying (depends on university and major) per class hour. Student athletes should also take classes in the summer and attend summer workouts (are usually optional).

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Reference

    1. Martin, M. The use of alcohol amoung NCAA I female college basketball, softball, and volleyball athletes. J Athletic Training. 1998;33:163-167
    2. Department of Psychiatric Medicine, Division of Prevention Research. Health Behaviors Survey: Spring 1999. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia; 1999