Practicing Football in the Heat in Youth Football
Some youth football teams have already started practicing; others will
start next week like us. The common denominator is that for most of us
is, we will be practicing in the heat.
There are three major problems youth football players have in hot
weather, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. These problems
are caused by heat and dehydration, but by taking a few simple steps,
it is possible to prevent them.
Heat cramps are muscle contractions, usually in the calf or hamstring
muscles. These contractions are spasm like and quite painful. The cause
is heat and dehydration. Rest, massaging or stretching the muscle and
water are all that can be done for this, they eventually pass.
Heat exhaustion is also a result of excessive heat and dehydration. The
signs of heat exhaustion include paleness, dizziness, nausea, vomiting,
fainting, and a moderately increased temperature (101-102 degrees F).
Rest and water may help in mild heat exhaustion, and ice packs and a
cool environment (with a fan blowing on the player) may also help. More
severely exhausted players may need IV fluids and medical attention.
Heat stroke is the most severe form of heat illness. The player would
have warm, flushed skin, and they often do not sweat. Players who have
heat stroke after exercise in hot weather, though, may still be
sweating considerably. A person with heat stroke usually has a very
high temeperature (106 degrees F or higher), and may be delirious,
unconscious, or having seizures. These players need to have their
temperature reduced quickly, often with ice packs, they must be taken
to the hospital as quickly as possible (EMS is appropriate here), and
may have to stay in the hospital for observation since many different
body organs can fail in heat stroke. If you see your player has these
warning signs, get him in the shade immediately, poor cool water over
him, get him hydrated and call EMS immediately as this is a life
threatening situation.
You can prevent heat-related illnesses. The important thing is to stay
well-hydrated, to make sure that your players can get rid of extra
heat, and to be sensible about practicing in hot, humid weather. Your
sweat is your body's main system for getting rid of extra heat. When
you sweat, and the water evaporates from your skin, the heat that
evaporates the sweat comes mainly from your skin. If you do not sweat
enough, you cannot get rid of extra heat well, and you also can't get
rid of heat. Dehydration will make it harder for you to cool off in two
ways: if you are dehydrated you won't sweat as much. But, since you
lose water when you sweat, you must make up that water to keep from
becoming dehydrated.
If the air is humid, it's harder for your sweat to evaporate, this
means that your body cannot get rid of extra heat as well when it's
muggy as it can when it's dry. If it is humid your youth football
players are going to suffer.
The clothing your youth football players wear also makes a difference,
too: the less clothing you have on, and the lighter that clothing is,
the easier you can cool off.
Football players are prone to heat illness, since football uniforms
cover nearly the whole body and the helmet traps in heat. Since high
humidity reduces your body's ability to get rid of excess heat by
sweating, for a given air temperature, the higher the humidity, the
higher the apparent temperature, or heat index. For example, if the air
temperature is 86 degrees Fahrenheit (or 30 degrees Celsius), but the
relative humidity is 50 percent, the apparent temperature will be about
88 degrees Fahrenheit. That may not sound like a huge difference, but
if the humidity is 90 percent, the heat index will be 105 degrees
Fahrenheit. Your body will have to sweat as much to get rid of extra
heat at 86 degrees Fahrenheit in 90 percent humidity as it would in a
dry desert at 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
The best way to lessen the effects of excessive heat and humidity is to
practice as much as you can in the shade. Even if the shaded area is
quite small, do as much as you can in that space and even consider
altering some of your drills to accommodate for a smaller space. We
specifically look for shade when choosing a practice field. If it is
very hot, consider practicing temporarily at another location that has
shade. I won't practice on a field that doesn't have shade.
The second best way to lessen these effects is to practice without
helmets on. I used to be one of those guys that felt that youth
football players needed to have their helmets on all the time to "get
used to them". Well after 4 weeks of practice, even if the helmet is
worn intermittently, the players are used to them. Since 2002, we have
not worn helmets during: Cals, Warm Ups, Angle Form Tackling, Breaks
and even many play reps, scheme implementations and fit and freeze
reps. Our players are fresher, more alert and attentive than when I
made them always have their helmets on. It is very difficult to teach
anyone anything that is not alert.
Of course we have plenty of water breaks during our practices as well.
Make sure to use these breaks as mini chalk talk sessions so as to not
waste a minute of valuable practice time.
Altering your practice schedule to lessen the more difficult activities
to cooler days may make sense. We have even cancelled practice when the
temperature was 95 and the humidity was over 85%. We rescheduled that
practice for an early Saturday morning to everyones relief.
Be careful with the heat when coaching youth football. There will always be more seasons, but your players have only one life.
For 150 free youth football practice tips: Football Practice
Copyright 2007 Cisar Management and http://winningyouthfootball.com republishing this article are parts of it without including this paragraph is copyright infringement
Dave has over 15 years of youth football coaching experience.
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