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By ANAHAD O'CONNOR
by Stephanie Smith
CNN
February 5, 2010
For more than 20 years, former San Francisco 49ers lineman George Visger has lived his life out of hundreds of small yellow notebooks. In them he scrawls the minutiae of his daily life: "4:45 am left house. 2 stops to find coffee and a roll. Paper work till 9:25. 10:05 Ed called."
The notebooks are the last vestige of his memory.
"I always have them. They sit in my back pockets," said Visger, 51. "The movie '50 First Dates,' this has been my life for 28 years. I get up in the morning and I have no clue what I have to do that day. If it's not written down it doesn't exist."
Visger said his memory began fading in 1982. During his brief, injury-shortened career playing for the 49ers, he said, a jarring tackle caused a concussion.
Recommendations and Guidelines
To safely and sufficiently acclimatize in the early season and improve the safety profile for each player, teams should use graduated repeated exposure to heat stress,
training intensity and volume, and the football uniform, combined with appropriate alterations of practice intensity and duration, equipment cover, and betweenpractice
recovery time. This will allow players to adapt more safely and effectively.
Staff PR Newswire
Baton Rouge, LA
February 1, 2010
Former player with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Eddie Davis, has developed an online television network for amateur, youth and student athletes, called RawSkills.com. The site allows athletes to upload, stream and download their games and other content, enabling them to promote themselves to college and major league scouts. The site also allows scouts to view users' footage to search for talent. Sports teams, organizations, and other sports companies can also upload, manage and monetize their games and sporting events to consumers using the RawSkillsTV platform.
In addition to increasing player exposure and providing schools at every level an innovative fundraising method, RawSkills also aims to provide highlights of the games, in an ESPN SportsCenter-style, as well as educational material and training advice from the pros.
by Matthew Ondesko
Metro Western New York
January 28, 2010
When playing a sport like hockey everybody knows injuries are part of the game. A player can deal with a broken finger or a sprained ankle every once and awhile. But, what players of all ages are having a hard time dealing with is concussions.
Concussions are becoming a big part of the game - especially now that the players are bigger and faster and the equipment is also better.
"The game has evolved," stated former National Hockey League great Mark Messier. "Players are bigger, stronger, faster. Equipment is more sophisticated and the playing area has changed. It is a chain of events over time that has led to where we are today. The evolution of the equipment is the factor."
As high school and college football practices begin in the summer heat, it has become especially important to monitor health and the effects of heat stroke, according to a report on catastrophic injuries in sports released Tuesday.
Increases in football-related deaths because of heat stroke is one of the most concerning issues raised in the 25th version of the report, issued by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Frederick O. Mueller, who wrote the report, examined "catastrophic injuries" -- defined as fatalities, non-fatalities with permanent severe functional disability, or serious injuries with no permanent functional disability -- in high school and college sports.
Rachel Ullrich
June 26, 2009
© Copyright 2009, The News & Observer Publishing Company
Athletes are constantly tinkering with their nutrition and training plans to gain an edge. But a study performed by Stanford University researchers suggests that good old fashioned sleep, and plenty of it, may help an athlete's performance as much as anything.
Student-athletes at Stanford University have been experimenting with a potentially significant performance enhancer. They're not reaching for a needle or pills, but rather hitting the pillow--getting as much as 11 hours of sleep a night. According to a research abstract presented at the 2009 SLEEP Conference, Stanford women's tennis players who extended their nightly sleep improved performance over the course of the 10-week study on a number of drills conducted after each practice.
Kyle Garratt
July 6, 2009
Copyright© 2009 MAG, Inc
Superintendent Sheldon Berman said he was "outraged" that Pleasure Ridge Park football players were told at a practice last August that they would have to continue running until one of them quit the team.
But releasing the findings of what he called the most extensive investigation in the history of Jefferson County Public Schools, Berman said Wednesday that neither then-head coach Jason Stinson nor his assistants violated state rules or district policy at the Aug. 20 practice where sophomore lineman Max Gilpin collapsed from heat exhaustion and later died.
Antoinette Konz and Andrew Wolfson
The Courier-Journal
July 1, 2009
Q: My grandson has several energy drinks a day. Is this bad for his health?
A: It certainly could be. Energy drinks come in a variety of formulations but most contain lots of caffeine and sugar - and possibly herbal stimulants and a supplementary amino acid known as taurine. However, it can be difficult to determine what's in them or how much.
Having an occasional energy drink isn't necessarily bad, especially those that contain about the same amount of caffeine as a cup or two of coffee and a similar amount of sugar as a can of soda. But many energy drinks contain much higher amounts of caffeine and other substances.
Alina Popa, M.D.
6-29-09
Copyright © 2009 Daily Herald Inc.
The continued popularity of energy drinks, especially among young athletes, has health experts warning of the consequences.
An average cup of brewed coffee has 95 milligrams of caffeine, but cold drinks such as Rockstar can offer twice as much. Caffeine taken in moderate amounts is not harmful, but excessive doses can lead to someone feeling over-stimulated and jittery, said Lisa Wojahn, clinic dietician at MeritCare in Fargo. And for athletes, another big factor is often overlooked.
"It affects sleep patterns and that can compromise an athlete's recovery for their training session," she said. "If they're drinking mostly energy drinks, they don't get the nutrients they need. When the stimulants wear off, they don't have any energy left to go on.
Jennifer Johnson
July 3, 2009
Copyright © 2009 The Daily News
Much was made of Old vs. Young in this year's Stanley Cup Finals. The older Red Wings against the younger Penguins with the assertion that the older players were wearing down and the youngsters were thriving through the grueling Stanley Cup playoffs. This concept is not unique to hockey or sports in general -- it is a commonly held view that youth equals less injury and easier recovery from physically taxing activities. This is something to which I, as a mid-thirty-something weekend warrior, can personally attest to. As a sports physician though, I can also attest to the fact that younger people are far from immune to damage, in particular to what we call overuse injuries.
Dr. Sean Bak
June 18, 2009
Copyright ©2009 the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers and Hometown Weeklies
Dan Peterson
12 June 2009
Live Science
At a recent baseball game, the 12-year-old second baseman on my son's team had a ground ball take a nasty hop, hitting him just next to his right eye. He was down on the field for several minutes and was later diagnosed at the hospital with a concussion.
Thankfully, acute baseball injuries like this are on the decline, according to a new report. However, several leading physicians say overuse injuries of young players caused by too much baseball show no signs of slowing down.
New guidelines for the care of youth athletes who sustain concussions are causing controversy among brain-injury experts, reigniting the debate over whether strict rules regarding concussions can actually leave athletes at greater risk for injury.
An international panel of neurologists, updating their recommendations on concussion care in the May issue of The British Journal of Sports Medicine, said that any athlete 18 or younger who was believed to have sustained a concussion during a game or practice should never be allowed to return to the playing field the same day. The group had previously said that such athletes could return if cleared by a doctor or certified athletic trainer, but now contend that such determinations are too difficult and dangerous for same-day return to be considered safe.
Alan Schwarz
6-8-09
New York Times
Researchers found that chocolate milkshake's "natural" muscle recovery benefits match or may even surpass a specially designed carbohydrate sports drink.
They discovered that muscle damage was actually lower in those players that drank the milk after training than those that drank the commercial energy drinks.
The team at James Madison University in Virginia, USA, tested the level of muscle damage in 13 football players after intensive training.
They found that the half of the players that were given chocolate milkshake showed lower levels than those given sports drinks. The actual performance of the two groups was, however, similar.
There were also no differences between the two beverages in effects on perceived muscle soreness, mental and physical fatigue and other measures of muscle strength.
This new study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting milk may be just as effective as some commercial sports drinks in helping athletes recover and rehydrate.
Richard Alleyne
June 1, 2009
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2009
by Sue Shellenbarger
Wall Street Journal
May 19, 2009
We've posted before on injuries in youth sports. As summer teams start up, you'll be hearing more about one kind of injury in particular: Knee damage in girls.
Two professional groups, one of surgeons and the other of athletic trainers, are fielding an educational campaign on the prevalence of knee injuries among girls. Tears to the ACL, or the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee, are eight times more likely in girls than in boys, research shows. Doctors hypothesize that physiological differences between girls and boys, such as weaker hamstring muscles that reduce the stability of the knee joint, or estrogen that leads to weaker ligaments, are factors.
The educational campaign comes amid rising questions about the pressures on young athletes. Mark Hyman, author of a book on the topic, says he regrets having supported his son in pitching so long and hard in high-school baseball that he injured his arm, forcing surgery and a permanent setback. And recent research on 5,000 promising football players shows high-school and college injuries haunt pro players for years.
QUINCY -- A recent report showing the lifelong damage concussions inflict on young athletes' brains should prompt schools and youth sports leagues to establish uniform guidelines on how coaches and game officials respond when one occurs.
It should also move the same groups to consider what rules can be changed to lessen the chance of such injuries.
A study being conducted by Boston University's medical school and the Sports Legacy Institute in Waltham recently announced that a trauma-induced brain disease previously thought only to effect career athletes was detected in the brain of an 18-year-old football player.
The disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, can initially cause memory impairment, emotional instability, erratic behavior, depression or loss of impulse control before developing into Alzheimer's-like dementia.
Feb 17, 2009
The Patriot Ledger
They’re full of caffeine and can pack a punch. Last week, energy drinks were the topic of a public standing committee hearing.And what’s being said about the high-caffeine drinks should serve as a wake-up call to parents who allow their children to consume these beverages.
According to the president of the P.E.I. Medical Society, the drinks could potentially cause death and should be banned.
“In some energy drinks there’s more caffeine in a single can than the daily recommended amount for even an adult, never mind a 12-year-old child,” Dr. Bill Scantlebury told the Standing Committee on Social Development.
The Journal Pioneer
03/09/09
Jennifer Warner
Dec. 22, 2008
Participating in youth sports may provide lasting benefits for women's bones.
A new study shows older women who participated in weight-bearing activities like running, volleyball, and tennis during adolescence have stronger bones later in life than women who didn't play sports or did only non-weight-bearing exercise like swimming.
Researchers say the findings suggest that weight-bearing exercise in adolescence may help maintain strong bones throughout life and compensate for the natural loss of bone strength that occurs in women after menopause.
Sports Build Strong Bones
In the study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers compared the effect of youth sports participation in 46 postmenopausal women aged 52 to 73 on two major contributors to overall bone strength: bone mineral content and bone mineral density.
Researchers found that women who participated in weight-bearing sports that involve running and jumping, such as track and field, tennis, and volleyball, in junior high and high school had significantly greater bone strength in at least two main areas than women who didn't play sports or those who participated in non-weight-bearing exercise.
Copyright © 2008 Infoshop News
Billy Wharton
December 05 2008
There is one test that even Dustin Pedroia would have failed. In his award-winning 2008 baseball season, Pedroia conquered the sharpest curveballs, craftiest pitchers and most disagreeable umpires. Hard work, a strong will and a willingness to make sacrifices for his teammates propelled the 5’7 second baseman forward. Genetic makeup had little to do with his success. However, if the Colorado-based company Atlas Sports Genetics (ASG) has its way, your child’s genes will be used to determine their participation in sports.
The ASG test is marketed toward parents interested in determining their children’s “natural predisposition” towards particular sports. For $149 and a swab of the back of the child’s throat, ASG will search for the presence of the gene namedACTN3. Scientific studies, the company claims, prove that the presence of R577x, a variant on the ACTN3 gene, allows the body to interpret signals from the gene in a manner which predisposes a child for either endurance or endurance and power sports.
According to a recent NY Times article, the primary study supporting the testing was conducted on 429 elite white athletes including 50 Olympians. 50% of the 107 sprint athletes had two copies of the R577x variant. Some 25% of elite endurance athletes also had two copies. Conducting such tests after the fact creates interesting scientific hypotheses. Marketing the conclusions to parents with young children has the potential to place serious limitations on the activities engaged in by young people.
Parents willing to participate have read the test as an opportunity to gain a strategic advantage for their children. Since the test has been marketed to parents with toddler age children, test results could translate into the very early tracking of youth-athletes and the further creation of hyper-competitive youth athletics. This fits the general trend identified by child psychologist Bill Crain who argued that adult pressures to perform in narrowly prescribed ways are increasingly being imposed on children. In his book Reclaiming Childhood, Crain cited a report which documented the concerns six-year old’s held about college admissions.
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