Originally posted by Gibby:
Marbla,
First off, age is not a factor. Lets just say I'm younger than most and have extensive experience in the "dehydration dept" from college/high school.
Most coaches preach to their kids the importance of staying hydrated throughout the day. To many kids, this means grabbing a Coke. As a coach, you do what you can on your end and hope the kids are doing the same when they are away from you. As we all know, this isn't always the case. From all the links you gave, you'll see that's an overriding factor.
You'll also notice that in each article you linked to that they are built on a concept that the athlete is properly hydrated and or fed at that point in time. Again, that is under the assumption that the athlete is doing everything on his part.
Now the reality is that wrestlers skip meals and do other things dangerous to their bodies that would through all the information you provided right out the window.
Therefor, the key issue is not one of hydration, but nutrition. You will not hear from any athlete I have coached in the past of my condoning that type of behavior and will in fact, quite often hear of me "jumping" all over them because they are not taking care of their bodies through nutrition. If they do all that they are suppose to while out of the wrestling room, they are better prepared for the grind of practice.
You will also notice that one of the articles you chose says that doing everything that you should with a combination of hydration will help prevent fatigue. There's a big difference between fatigue and death. Fatigue is a point athletes push themselves to reach for physical and mental preparation. It should be done at various levels (another topic altogether) to help athletes reach their peaks.
Again, I'll point out that I do give water breaks during my practices, but there is a difference between water for survival and water for a wind break.
I just read the last two articles, the other two deal with outdoors - another deal altogether. Next time, try to get articles that don't contradict themselves. The "football deaths" article says that athletes should get all the water they want (true, pads, August, heat are a deadly combination), while at the same time, another article discusses proper nutrition along with the Sport Medicine recommendations will help performance. The article says nothing about, athletes cutting weight and depriving themselves of the nutrition they need and how much water should be given.
There should be your biggest complaint. Is the coach promoting proper nutrition? Are the athletes following those guidelines? Or, are they starving themselves/cutting back on fluids to make weight and a coach is not adamantly telling his athletes he won't accept that kind of irresponsibility?
The heat in your wrestling room is another issue altogether. I prefer the room a little warmer, but don't like the sweats/extra layers because it restricts movement and that overheats a kid. All they are doing is pulling water out of their system and aren't getting any better.
A blanket statement like, "coach won't let us drink" is irresponsible. First, as you've provided in one of your links, if a person is properly hydrated, 16 fluid ounces is suggested between each hour. So, if the athlete has done his part before practice that would only be one pop can of fluid in the middle of practice. They could get the second after practice was over.
I could be wrong, but I've never read a story of the perfect athlete, who's eating what they should eat, drinking what they should drink, ever die from not getting 16 oz. of water in the middle of practice.
I will fault, however, the coach if he is not promoting the "right way to do things." Again, I'm not saying I don't give breaks, I do, but there's a lot more to the story than provided.
Those are all great points, coach, and I wasn't implying that you don't give water breaks, I was simply trying to point out that dehydration could be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I wasn't argueing against your statements in your earlier post. Again, I was just pointing out that dehydration could be a contributing factor.
