Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Guidelines Issued to Prevent Sudden Death in College Athletes
New guidelines introduced Wednesday by leading health care professionals are designed to provide athletes, coaches, athletic trainers and physicians with best practices for preventing sudden death in college student-athletes. They particularly target sickle cell trait, exertional heat stroke and cardiac conditions. Since 2000, 21 NCAA football players have died during conditioning workouts; 75 percent of these fatalities were Division I players. Eleven out of the 21 deaths occurred during the first or second day of workouts.
“Preventing Sudden Death in Collegiate Conditioning Sessions: Best Practices Recommendations,” presented at the National Athletic Trainers' Association's 63rd Annual Meeting & Clinical Symposia in St. Louis, will be published in the July/August issue of the Journal of Athletic Training. A copy of the complete statement is available here. (Earlier this year, NATA published guidelines to prevent sudden death in athletes playing youth sports.)
The task force to develop the collegiate guidelines was spearheaded by the NATA, in collaboration with the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Members represented numerous organizations including the NCAA, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, the Canadian Athletic Therapists Association, the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association and the United States Olympic Committee.
“Strength and conditioning sessions have become fundamental to success in collegiate sports," task force chair Douglas Casa, director of athletic training at the University of Connecticut's Neag School of Education and chief operating officer of the Korey Stringer Institute, said at a press conference announcing the guidelines. “However, the athletes’ development, health and safety are sometimes overshadowed by a culture that values making athletes tough, instilling discipline and focusing on success at all costs. This ill-conceived philosophy has been a contributor to the alarming increase in collegiate athlete deaths and serious injuries during conditioning sessions.”
To combat injuries and deaths, the task force developed the following guidelines:
1. Progressive acclimatization is the cornerstone of safety.
2. Introduce new conditioning activities gradually.
3. Do not use exercise and conditioning activities as punishment.
4. Strength and conditioning coaches require proper education, experience and credentialing.
5. Provide appropriate medical coverage, including a strength and conditioning coach and an athletic trainer.
6. Develop and practice emergency action plans.
7. Be cognizant of athletes’ medical conditions.
8. Administer strength and conditioning programs to manage health- and safety-related concerns.
9. Establish a close working partnership of recognized professional organizations, including athletic, coaching, sports medicine, and strength and conditioning organizations.
10. Require adequate continuing education for the entire coaching and medical teams.
“Inadequate emergency preparation leading to sudden deaths in athletes also carries with it the real risk of major liability to the school or organization’s administrators, teams and coaches,” said Richard Adler, a founding principal partner of the Seattle law firm Adler Giersch and chairman of the executive board of the Brain Injury Association of Washington. “These guidelines are a great resource to prevent easily preventable tragic and catastrophic deaths, reduce financial and legal risks, and make sports more enjoyable for participants, their families and fans.”
The NCAA has policies echoing some of the recommendations and is evaluating the others, David Klossner, the association's director of health safety, told NPR.org. "We're supportive of the effort to address these issues that they raise," he said.
The guidelines challenge "the old athletic mentality that if a little bit is good, a lot must be better," added Jim Thornton, president of the NATA and head athletic trainer at Clarion University. Last year, a University of Iowa investigation into the January 2011 hospitalization of 13 football players determined that an intense exercise regimen on the heels of a three-week layoff from supervised workouts was the cause of the players' rhabdomyolysis, a potentially fatal breakdown of muscle fibers into the bloodstream, where excess proteins can clog the kidneys and cause renal failure. What's more, the 18-page report revealed that Iowa strength and conditioning coaches apparently had no prior knowledge of rhabdomyolysis as a medical condition.
Thornton also said the new recommendations highlight the need for better oversight at the high school level, where certified athletic trainers are often absent. In August 2010, approximately two dozen McMinnville (Ore.) High School football players complaining of extreme pain and swelling in various muscles were hospitalized after participating in the football program's "immersion camp." Those players — three of whom required surgery — also were diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis attributed to an overly strenuous workout in a hot environment with inadequate hydration.
Working athletes longer and harder, concluded Jolie Holsche, a Chicago emergency medicine and sports medicine specialist and co-author of the new guidelines, "is not exercising smart."
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Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Big Ten and Ivy League Put Heads Together for Research
In conjunction with the Big Ten Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the Big Ten and Ivy League have announced a collaborative effort to study head trauma among athletes. The joint research effort will bring together 20 institutions and nearly 18,000 student-athletes competing in more than 30 sports, providing an unprecedented body of data.
"The opportunity for collaborating on such a landmark series of studies with the Ivy League is unprecedented in sports medicine," said Dr. Dennis Molfese, Big Ten/CIC research collaboration director and the director of the University of Nebraska's Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, in a press release. "Frankly, this is a unique moment in the history of science. There is no question that this research program will be greatly strengthened by bringing together in a genuine partnership the outstanding and cutting-edge scientists, athletic trainers and team physicians of both conferences to better understand and reduce as well as treat head injuries."
All schools involved in the project will agree to the same set of baseline testing criteria for student-athletes at the beginning of each season. Unlike prior studies that have focused on the impact of concussions on brain function, this study will be able to track the cumulative effects of head injuries and multiple concussions, as well as allow comparisons between athletes who have suffered an injury and those who have not.
“No one ever plans on getting a concussion,” Molfese told The Capital Times of Madison, Wis. “The problem right now is that most of the great concussion research is done on those who have already suffered a head injury. The key is to do these tests before the start of a season, and then that will give us a massive data set that we can access and do different kinds of analysis on.”
The partnership builds on the research each conference has done independently. In May 2010, the Big Ten introduced the first conference-wide concussion management plan, and has also created a centralized data-sharing platform for concussion research. In September 2011, the Ivy League implemented a series of concussion-curbing measures, the culmination of a year of reviewing and tracking. Not only will this new collaboration allow universities to share research but also accelerate the development of protocol and best practices in athletics and other areas.
“What we’re learning working with student-athletes has a lot of implications for all sorts of domains of our daily lives,” said Molfese. “We’re very hopeful that by combining the powers of these two conferences, with so many world-class scientists at the top of their field, that our ability to make a breakthrough in this field seems incredibly likely.”
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Blog: A Military Outreach Event for July 4 — Or Any Day
The July 4th promotional tie-ins have been nonstop lately, including the requisite parades, fireworks, mattress sales (are they ever not on sale?). But for some reason, there hasn't been an uptick, at least not in my area, of what I've come to think of as the Fitness Fourth. The Fitness Fourth includes events with names like Firecracker 5K. One example would be a run held just before a parade so that people can travel along the parade route and get the benefit of cheers from spectators — which doesn't generally happen at most foot races. But this year, I've noticed a distinct lack of such events. Maybe that's because the Fourth falls on a Wednesday, making it more difficult for people to plan long weekends, or maybe it's because everyone is so cautious not to schedule something that would conflict with another event, that nobody is scheduling anything.
Recently, a friend and fellow writer sent me a notice about a fitness event a lot of people could tie into: the Tennis in the Parks/Military Outreach Veterans Day Initiative. Promoted through the USTA's Military Outreach program, this event, which invites active-duty military and veterans' families to come try tennis at a “tennis party,” is meant to increase involvement between this segment of the community and, of course, to promote wellness. There can be “Tennis 101” skill clinics, fun drills, games for kids, you name it.
The event is being promoted at the always-accessible public park level, since according to the USTA, 70 percent of all tennis is played on public courts, and the sport has shown growth there over the last eight years. And really, that's a great idea — just about every city has a public park (or several), and with the advent of equipment like easily setup temporary courts, portable pop-up nets and softer balls, it's possible to set up the event anywhere.
Something really great? This isn't a date-sensitive event, according to my friend, who is responsible for organizing several of these this summer. This event could be offered any time — although certainly, July 4 has the requisite patriotic tie-ins. Something even better? There's no reason to stop at tennis: parks could continue to market “sports parties” to military, vets and families: volleyball, fishing, kickball, yoga, Frisbee, a swim day, even nature hikes — anything that gets people outside and connected.
No matter what activity you choose, the result is a fun, beneficial event, and a great way to thank those who have served, as well as the families of those who continue to make that sacrifice. And really, doesn't it feel better to do that in person than by simply flying the flag for a day?
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Thursday, June 21, 2012
Missile Technology Takes Off in NBA
Basketball data collection is launching to a new level, creating the potential for change in every aspect of the game. Technology originally developed to track missiles has been deployed in 10 NBA arenas, capturing every move of every person on the court using six tiny cameras recording at a rate of 25 times per second, using complex algorithms and software to ensure precision and accuracy.
Recognizing the need to keep up with evolving technology, Stats, already the largest provider of professional sports data, acquired the Israel-based company SportVU, which had repurposed the technology for use in soccer. Basically, the technology takes the traditional statistics collected during games and tracks the data behind the data — shooting average after one versus two dribbles or from five feet away, assists leading to successful as well as unsuccessful shots, which player passed the ball prior to an assist — every variable that could possibly affect an individual’s performance. All of that information is broken down by software to produce an easy-to-follow report.
Such data will offer new insights into every aspect of a game — identifying an exceptional player whose basic stats don’t reflect his true ability because he plays for a mediocre team; pinpointing specific weaknesses on opposing teams; quantifying the differences between two players of seemingly identical skill. The technology has so much potential that teams that had once been paid for their stats are now paying to have it.
The biggest downside to the technology is that it is currently in place in only a third of NBA arenas, meaning the vast amount of data SportVU does collect still leaves an incomplete picture. According to Stats' president, while the benefits of such in-depth data are apparent, teams currently employing it are keeping their lips sealed as to how they’re using it, leaving teams without the technology unaware of its full potential and less inclined to commit to the purchase.
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UConn Among Schools Punished for Low APR
The University of Connecticut is the lone school from a major conference, but one of 15 total, that will be forced to sit out post-season play as a result of subpar academic performance, according to the latest Academic Progress Rate report released Wednesday by the NCAA.
The ninth annual report found that 15 teams in four sports, including 10 in men’s basketball, failed to score 930 or above on the NCAA’s 1,000-point scale and had an ineligible player leave school. The national average APR was 948 in football, 950 in men’s basketball and 973 in all sports — up from 970 a year ago.
UConn’s men’s basketball program, owner of three national championships, will not participate in March Madness next season after posting an APR of 889 during the four-year period from 2007-08 through 2010-11 and losing an earlier reinstatement appeal. Teams with four-year APRs below 900 were spared postseason bans if their scores for the two most recent years included in the report was at least 930, but the Huskies’ two-year score flunked that test, as well, at 902.
Other men's basketball teams declared ineligible for the 2012-13 NCAA tournament were Arkansas-Pine Bluff, California-Riverside, Cal State Bakersfield, Jacksonville State, Mississippi Valley State, North Carolina-Wilmington, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Toledo and Towson. Cal State Bakersfield's data is under review.
Postseason bans may also extend to conference tournaments, creating potential bracketing challenges. The Big East and Mid-American are two conferences that already have in place policies stating that teams that receive postseason bans from the NCAA are also ineligible for conference tournaments.
Three FCS football programs — Hampton, North Carolina A&T State and Texas Southern — were declared ineligible for post-season play.
According to ESPN’s Andy Katz, all banned teams face additional sanctions, including the loss of four hours minimum of practice time per week that must be replaced by academic activities.
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Blog: If at First T. Boone Doesn't Succeed…
Every so often, something comes across the newswire that stumps four seasoned editors. Wait, didn't this happen already? We covered this, right?
In March, a federal judge ruled against Oklahoma State University and its “Gift of a Lifetime” fundraiser, saying that the university's athletic fundraising arm and its top booster, T. Boone Pickens, could not recoup $33 million invested in life insurance policies for 27 athletics boosters that named the university as beneficiary.
Late Tuesday, a Payne County judge did the same. In fact, the ruling is so identical in every respect that you could read the AB Newswire's March 13 report and simply put "Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler" in place of "Judge Jorge A. Solis" in the earlier story.
"Our clients view the Oklahoma state court's order of dismissal, on the heels of the Dallas federal court's recent entry of judgment in their favor, as conclusive proof of the lack of merit in Cowboy Athletics' and T. Boone Pickens' claims against them," William A. Brewer III, an attorney for Summit Alliance Financial and Larry Anders, the general agents in the transaction, said in a statement Wednesday.
Cowboys Athletics Inc. and Pickens' appeal of the federal ruling is pending, and — amazingly — OSU spokesman Gary Shutt said in a statement yesterday that the plaintiffs plan to appeal Kistler's order, too.
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Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Blog: Five Sure-to-Stump-You Cancellation Challenges
Ever seen “What Would You Do?” on ABC? Using a hidden camera, they show how ordinary people respond when put on the spot in ethically challenging situations. Here’s the health club version — and all the scenarios described are 100 percent real:
1. A member has joined with a 12-month contract. Three weeks later, she says that her husband has had a stroke and she is going to be his full-time caretaker. She wants to cancel her membership immediately. Your contract provides for breaking the agreement in the event of a medical issue, but not for someone else’s medical issue. What would you do?
2. An elderly member on a month-to-month membership submits her cancellation request because she is about to begin treatment for cancer. Her request arrives after the cutoff for that billing cycle. In fact, it arrives one day before her next billing date. So, while there’s no problem getting her canceled before she’s billed again in a month, she does get billed the next day. She calls, asking for a refund. When you don’t issue the refund, she calls again…and again, and again. She then arrives unannounced in your office, in tears, desperate for a refund to help her pay for her cancer treatments. What would you do?
3. A member submits his cancellation request after your cutoff date for that billing cycle and is therefore billed one final time before he is cancelled. He claims he could not cancel when he wanted to because your club was closed for several days due to an electrical outage that impacted the entire area. When your staffperson politely explains that he could have mailed a letter or even sent an e-mail, he becomes verbally abusive, curses at your staffmember and hangs up. He then files a complaint with the Attorney General’s office demanding a refund of his last month’s dues. You thoroughly explain your side of the story to the Attorney General’s office, and add that the guy is a jerk. The Attorney General asks if you would be willing to refund 50 percent of his dues just to make the problem go away. What would you do?
4. A member who is four months into a 12-month contract calls your club to ask how to freeze her membership. After receiving the answer, she says “thank you” and takes no action. One week later her father walks in, claiming that his daughter has died. He’d like her billing stopped. When you say you recently spoke with his daughter, he says that she was deceased even at that time. In the absence of an obituary or any coverage in the local press about the untimely death of a young woman in her 20s, you express your surprise and sort-of condolences, and say you’ll get back to him. In your mind, you begin quoting Seinfeld’s George Costanza (“At a terrible time like this, how would I go about getting a copy of the death certificate?”). Do you ask for the death certificate? Cancel the girl? What would you do?
5. A neighbor of yours is a member of your club. You consider yourself friends and your young kids frequently play together. When she decides to cancel her membership, she submits her request too late to prevent the next billing, but in plenty of time of prevent the one after that. But in her cancellation request to your billing company, she doesn’t simply say, “Please cancel my membership.” But she does write, “Please stop billing my credit card.” This causes a problem, because she still has that last payment to honor but your billing company can’t legally charge her card for that final payment because she told them not to. That means her final payment isn’t processed. Since you don’t let people cancel who owe you money, she stays active in the system. Failed payments occur again the next month and the month after that. Along the way, she receives 14 communications from your billing company — e-mails, phone calls and letters — asking her to please call to resolve this issue. She ignores all 14 contacts. You have no idea any of this is going on because this is what you’ve hired your billing company to do on your behalf, and you didn’t even know she was cancelling. So, she goes to collections. At that point, she finally takes notice of the situation. She tells the collections agency, “I know the owner,” and contacts you to fix it for her. Your kids are scheduled for a play date the next day. What do you do?
Seriously … what would you do?
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Monday, June 18, 2012
Blog: World’s Greatest Summer Kickoff
When I was younger, my friends and I went through what I now think of as the Guinness Book of World Records phase of our development. We couldn't get enough of that book. Well-thumbed copies of it were passed around the classroom, and in our spare time, we wondered what we could do in order to be listed in the next year's edition and achieve everlasting fame.
Certain things were out. We couldn't set the record for pulling a train by our teeth, and we weren't old enough to drive, so we couldn't amass enough moving violations to surpass the guy who had run up a bazillion tickets in less than an hour. And none of us wanted to change our legal name so that we would have the longest moniker on record.
Like all phases, the addiction to the Guinness Book passed. But the other day, I saw a promotion on our neighborhood listserv, and it brought back all those crazy memories. Here's a snippet:
"Help break a world record — and get a free swim lesson in the process. On June 14, people in more than 500 pools, including 46 states, 24 countries and five continents, will pool their efforts for an attempt at the World’s Largest Swim Lesson world record."
The article said veteran swimmers as well as non-swimmers were invited. And that was how, on Saturday, I found myself at one of our local pools at 11 a.m., ready to take part while others joined in around the globe. Instructors and lifeguards would be present for the lesson. Something else really cool? The record attempt was also an opportunity for swim instructors and lifeguards to undergo training with a large group present in the water.
The website for the organization included a searchable database so users could find a swim lesson near them, and it also included information so that local pools could sign up as host facilities. The listserv message that went around my community also included information on where to find group and private swim lessons in the area, so it was actually a promotional tool, as well.
Fortunately, our weather was perfect for the free lesson, and I arrived to find a big group of people ready to take part. I wound up talking to two women my age. During the course of our conversation, they told me they had never learned to swim during their childhood because of a combination of factors — lack of opportunity followed by a growing fear of the water and, by the time they hit adulthood, embarrassment over not having a skill that so many others took for granted.
"But now I really want to learn," one of the women told me earnestly. "I don't need to swim across the ocean or anything, but I want to know how to swim in case I fall in the water, or in case my car goes off a bridge or something." She looked stricken.
Her plight — not being able to swim as an adult — turned out not to be all that unusual. A lot of people at the lesson weren't at all familiar with staying up in the water. But as the day wore on, I spent time watching people, many of them adults, lose their fear of the pool, thanks to the patient instructors who worked with everyone, no matter their skill level. I got to see my new friends learn survival floating techniques as well as basic swim strokes. By the time they climbed out of the pool, their confidence had skyrocketed.
I think this might have been one of the greatest summer kickoffs I've ever seen, as well as a truly neat public service. It's also a great challenge to other sports to find similar ways to get people excited, involved and active. There are probably as many options for “World’s Largest” as there are sports, and I'm sure there are just as many people out there who'd like to find their way into the Guinness Book. Never underestimate the power of the bucket list.
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Friday, June 15, 2012
Mets' 'Quiet Section' Idea Creating Buzz
The New York Mets surveyed fans via e-mail Wednesday about their experiences at Citi Field, and one question in particular — about a possible “quiet section” in the ballpark’s second deck beyond left field — has created quite a bit of buzz.
According to The New York Post, the question read: “The Mets are considering adding a designated ‘quiet’ seating section with lower volume PA announcements and no music or cheerleading. How likely would you be to purchase tickets in that section?”
Fans quoted by the Post thought the idea was “stupid” and that such a section would be “boring.” Said 14-year-old Eric Arellano, “That’s just not baseball.”
Craig Carton, co-host of the Boomer & Carton show on WFAN in New York, seemed equally mystified by the proposal — that is, until the Mets’ motivation became known. Unmentioned by the Post, the club, which has hosted 10 Autism Awareness Days (including one in May) is looking for ways to better serve families of autistic children.
“If that’s the sole reason you’re considering it, well, bravo!” said Carton.
While comment threads have been loaded with plenty of snark, if not derision over what some fans perceive to be a nanny-state proposal, one fan no doubt spoke for many when tweeting, “I think giving the parents of kids with autism a chance to see a ball game without having major issues is exceptionally noble.”
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Pings and Pongs of Pickleball Too Much for Neighbors
Neighbors of Sinnissippi Park in Rockford, Ill., are tired of the noise. It’s not the shrieks and screams of kids on the playground or the rowdy behavior of teens late at night; the noise is being made by the 55-and-older crowd, amongst whom the sport of pickleball has seen the greatest increase in popularity in recent years. Two neighbors of the Sinnissippi Pickleball Center have filed an injunction requesting an end to play — and the incessant and intrusive pings and pongs made as the whiffle ball used in the sport comes into contact with players’ wooden paddles.
The Rockford Park District opened the Sinnissippi Pickleball Center in 2010 in response to growing interest in the sport. Since then, neighbors Jeanette Haskell and Barbara Friel have had to listen to the sounds of the sport, described in the compliant as “like a hammer blow on a blacksmith’s anvil.” They claim the noise can be heard in every part of the house, allowing no quiet refuge.
For two years, they say, they have tried to work with the park district to put an end to the noise, with no success. The current complaint alleges that the sounds of the courts violate the city’s noise-abatement ordinance.
The pickleball courts have been a source of conflict since the very beginning, as tennis enthusiasts decried the district’s plans to convert existing tennis courts at a different park into pickleball courts. In selecting Sinnissippi, though, the district was cognizant of possible noise issues.
“We try to be good neighbors. We did have neighborhood meetings before we built the courts,” park district executive director Tim Dimke told the Rockford Register Star. “We’ve done a lot of things to acknowledge that we don’t want neighbors inconvenienced. We planted trees. We put up wind screens. We don’t allow the group to play too early in the mornings.”
The courts border a handful of homes, but Haskell and Friel are the only two residents to complain. The district is preparing a written response to the injunction, which is scheduled for a September 5 court hearing.
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Thursday, June 14, 2012
UNO Meets NCAA Requirements with Addition of 4 Sports
The University of New Orleans announced Wednesday that it will expand its athletic program to include men's and women's indoor and outdoor track and field, beginning with the 2012-13 academic year. The additions give UNO a total of 14 sports, satisfying the NCAA Division I sport sponsorship requirement for the first time since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.
As the Associated Press reports, budget cuts in the years after Katrina led UNO to apply to the NCAA for permission to switch from Division I to Division III. After further study, UNO later applied for permission to change to Division II. But after switching from the Louisiana State University System to the University of Louisiana System — and following the arrival of new top administrators — UNO opted to try to remain in Division I.
UNO’s male student-athletes also compete in basketball, baseball, golf, tennis and cross country. Female student-athletes compete in volleyball, basketball, golf, tennis and cross country.
Meanwhile, former UNO athletic director James Miller recently published Where the Water Kept Rising: A College Athletic Director's Fight to Save a New Orleans Sports Insitution. The book chronicles Miller's efforts to keep UNO sports programs above water in the wake of Katrina.
Tours of three UNO athletic facilities — Lakefront Arena, the Aquatic Center and the Recreation & Fitness Center — will be offered to Athletic Business Conference attendees on Nov. 28.
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NCAA Officially Bans Temporary Court Stickers
The NCAA rules oversight committee on Tuesday approved a rule mandating that all logos be painted on the surface of basketball courts in an effort to eradicate injury risk linked to temporary stickers used during conference tournaments and neutral-site games.
The issue gained traction late last year after players slipped on court stickers in separate incidents. “The playing court must be completely finished in a manner that is consistent throughout,” the committee said in a statement, as reported by The Sporting News.
Not only will the playing surface be impacted, but out-of-bounds areas, as well. The ban extends three feet beyond each sideline and six feet behind the baselines.
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Wednesday, June 13, 2012
North Dakotans Vote to Allow ‘Sioux’ Retirement
By a full two-thirds majority, North Dakotans voted Tuesday to let the University of North Dakota abandon the longtime and widely controversial “Fighting Sioux” nickname and Indian-head logo of its intercollegiate athletics teams.
“There’s definite consensus now that in order for us to move forward, the nickname and logo need to be retired,” said UND athletic director Brian Faison, who has endured administrative challenges resulting from rival schools boycotting games against the Sioux and the NCAA forbidding the team to wear its nickname or logo during post-season events, or from hosting post-season events in Grand Forks.
The reputation of the university at large has suffered as the issue has taken years to resolve, with the pendulum swinging from dropping the name to reinstating it to dropping it again. Last year, the State Legislature passed a law requiring the school to keep the name, then repealed it under the threat of NCAA sanctions.
Nickname supporters had gathered enough signatures to force Tuesday’s vote and vow, despite the result, to continue the fight to preserve the name — in use at the university since 1930 and sanctioned during a Sioux pipe ceremony in 1969.
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Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Blog: Get Yer Erse Tae Th’ Haggis Hurl
I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but here in Baltimore, warm weather brings a sudden bloom of ethnic festivals: Polish, Latino, Ukrainian, Italian, Russian, you name it. And while such festivals are a nice diversion, they generally don't represent a sports or fitness opportunity — at least not for those who come to be spectators. Last I checked, funnel cake, which seems to be required by law in order to have a festival, doesn’t fall into the category of health food. And there's not much cardio involved in going from vendor to vendor to do souvenir shopping.
But the other day, I got a “save the date” e-mail advertising one state’s Highland Games. Ever heard of these? They’re not just about bagpipes and drums. They're more along the lines of living history, because they keep alive the games that are indigenous to Scotland, and that once were used to give clans bragging rights at their annual festivals.
Make no mistake: we’re not talking about 5Ks and fun walks here. We’re talking about feats of strength you probably won’t find anywhere else. Games you’ll find at these events might include the following:
• The Open Stone Put. For the uninitiated, that’s a competition involving throwing a stone that weighs between 16 and 22 pounds.
• Braemar Stone Put. Similar, but with a stone between 22 and 28 pounds.
• Hammer Throw. Not the Home Depot variety, nor the track and field variety.
• Caber Toss. This basically involves throwing part of a tree.
• 56-Pound Weight for Distance. You need an explanation?
• Sheaf Toss. That’s a bag stuffed with mulch, straw or something else.
• Weight for Height. Tossing a weight of either 28 pounds or 56 pounds over a crossbar. You get three tries before you're crossed off the list of contenders.
• Boulder Boogie. Walk as far as you can while carrying a big heavy rock without dropping it.
• Archery. Hey, something people have actually heard of.
• Maide Leisg. It's Gaelic, and the closest translation is "lazy stick." It's a feat of strength in which two seated men face each other with a stick between their toes, and try for leverage. Don't ask. Just watch.
• Games for The Wee Ones. Some of this is mundane stuff like mini-golf or soccer, but there are some with a wow factor, like the Haggis Hurl. I kid you not — click this link now.
Like I said, it’s stuff you won’t find anywhere else. You can watch guys outfitted in kilts do a lot of this, a real departure from what usually happens at your local gym (or at least at my local gym). It's definitely a departure from the funnel cakes and prize wheels I see every time I walk into a festival in our city.
Maybe this is something to make your members aware of — there are probably plenty of guys in the weight room who would get a kick out of trying to throw a 56-pound stone, and who might put in some extra reps in preparation — or maybe it’s just something you head off to on your own to get a whole new perspective on sports. There are also plenty of opportunities to experience other aspects of Scotland — whiskey tasting, Scottish dancing, crafts, bagpiping, herding dog trials and a bunch of other stuff.
I have already marked my calendar for the next time I can do a day trip to one of these. Want to find one near you? Go to The Association of Scottish Games and Festivals. You can search for games in or near your state, or you can search the calendar month by month.
While you won’t find me hurling trees or rocks or hammers at one of these things, I might try my hand at archery. Or more likely, at mini-golf. It doesn’t have the cachet of the haggis hurl, but I don’t think I have to sign a release form to do it. And maybe that’s more historically accurate anyway — legal releases were something they definitely didn’t have in the days of the original games between clans.
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AAU Announces New Measures to Protect Young Athletes
One of the nation’s largest nonprofit youth sports organizations, Amateur Athletic Union, has announced measures to ensure the safety of youth athletes. The changes comes in response to two task force studies began last December in the wake of child abuse allegations at Penn State and Syracuse, as well as allegations against former AAU president Bobby Dodd. The task force’s 31-page report recommends 42 changes to AAU policies.
“These new steps are not being implemented because we suspect anyone,” national AAU president Louis Stout said in a press release, “rather, we must make these changes because we expect everyone to be willing to help us build a deeper trust and culture of safety."
The changes cover all aspects of AAU, including culture, protocols, screening, participation, training and reporting. As part of the protection measures, all current and prospective volunteers, coaches and AAU staff will need to undergo background checks. Neither coaches nor volunteers will be permitted to be alone with any child, and all staff will be considered mandatory reporters and must report any suspected child abuse to law enforcement, as well as AAU leaders.
Though Stout says the measures will require many coaches and adults working with the AAU to change the way they interact with youth, the measures will go a long way towards ensuring the safety of all participants.
The AAU is currently developing a manual to help AAU staff and volunteers become familiar with the new guidelines.
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Posted At
11:00 AM
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IHSA Creates State Finals for Athletes with Disabilities
The Illinois High School Association on Monday announced plans to launch
a state finals pilot program in cross country, bowling, swimming and
diving, and track and field for student-athletes with disabilities – an
initiative that builds on years of accommodations for student-athletes
with disabilities in regular and post-season competitions.
The pilot program supplements the measures already taken by the IHSA to
accommodate participants with prosthetic limbs, those in wheelchairs,
those with visual or hearing impairments, and those with paralysis who
currently compete in sports like basketball, gymnastics, golf, bowling,
swimming, track and field, and cross country.
“We’ve been actively engaged, listening to stakeholders, advocacy
groups, parents, student-athletes and others to determine how to enhance
opportunities for our student-athletes, all of our student-athletes,”
IHSA executive director Marty Hickman said in a statement.
“We are confident that by working together, we will help raise
awareness about the abilities of people with disabilities, and
ultimately more parents, coaches and physical education teachers will
encourage athletics for students with disabilities.”
The IHSA's decision comes less than one week after the Ohio High School Athletic Association announced that student-athletes in wheelchairs will be allowed to compete in eight track events at the state championship level beginning in 2013. Separate championship finals for boys and girls will be held in the 100 meters, 400 meters and 800 meters, plus the shot put. Participants will wear school uniforms and individual awards will be presented, but they will not score points for their school teams.
And less than two weeks ago, member schools of the Michigan High School Association overwhelmingly approved
an amendment to that organization’s constitution that will allow for
waiver of the MHSA's age limit under certain circumstances — a move
spurred by a senior student with Down Syndrome who will be 20 years old
for the 2012-13 academic year at Ishpeming High School because he
started elementary school later due to his disability.
IHSA spokesperson
Matt Troha told AthleticBusiness.com
in April that the expanded focus on student-athletes with disabilities
in Illinois is not a response to what was happening in Michigan. Instead, the decision may have been spurred by a lawsuit
filed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan in federal court in
May, which aimed to make it possible for student-athletes with
disabilities to compete in future IHSA state meets. The suit asked for
an injunction ordering the IHSA "to cease unlawful discrimination
against athletes with disabilities" and to set state-qualifying
standards for those athletes in individual sports.
"We have always promoted opportunities for student-athletes with
disabilities, making accommodations upon request in a number of events,"
Hickman responded, via an IHSA statement announcing the association's filing for declaratory judgment against the Illinois Attorney General.
A spokesperson for Madigan told Chicago's WLS-TV that the pilot program does not affect the lawsuit's status.
The Illinois program approved Monday comes at the recommendation of a
six-member ad-hoc committee comprised of school administrators who
represent different IHSA board divisions. The committee has been
studying the issue since its formation — at the request of a member
school — earlier this year.
According to Hickman, the IHSA will launch an initial two-year pilot
that will begin immediately. The program will enable the IHSA to
continue evaluating statewide interest and participation among
student-athletes with disabilities, while also giving student-athletes
with disabilities additional opportunities to compete in parallel events
at IHSA state finals beginning with the 2012-2013 school year.
“By piloting separate, high-profile events for our student-athletes with
disabilities, we hope to spur more interest statewide,” Hickman added.
“As more and more student-athletes participate in our programs, and as
they start to do so at younger ages, the level of competition naturally
rises, giving way to more meaningful experiences for our athletes.”
The IHSA will partner with advocates and various regional and
community-based agencies that work with student-athletes with
disabilities, and they will study programs that have been implemented by
other states to determine best practices for facilitating such events.
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Posted At
10:00 AM
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Friday, June 08, 2012
Penn State Issues New Policy on Reporting Suspected Abuse
Under a new policy instituted on Thursday, all Penn State employees will be required to report suspected child abuse to state authorities, as well complete an annual training. Current Pennsylvania law only requires select people to report suspected abuse. Failure to report abuse will result in disciplinary action or possible dismissal.
The university is also in the process of developing an online training program, which will be offered to all employees beginning this fall. Approximately 1,900 employees have already completed in-person training.
The new policy is one of many changes made by the university as it strives to become an academic and research leader in the protection of children. Separate policies are also being developed to address special situations regarding employee interactions with minors, such as medical students or practitioners or legal students or faculty representing minors in legal situations.
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Posted At
9:55 AM
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Thursday, June 07, 2012
Shallow Water Blackout Nearly Claims Lives of Two Boys
Seven-year-old Thomas Vasquez has been upgraded from critical condition to good, while the condition of his 6-year-old playmate remains unknown, after the pair nearly drowned in a Dallas swimming pool earlier this week. The two boys were on a church field trip Tuesday with 55 other children at Samuell-Grand Park swimming pool and playing a game to see who could hold their breath underwater longer, officials say, which could have led to shallow water blackout.
Frank Librio, a spokesman for the City of Dallas, told WFAA.com
that four lifeguards and a pool manager were on duty at the pool at the time of the incident. An American Red
Cross lifeguard trainer also was present, and she administered CPR. It is unclear exactly how long the boys were beneath the surface.
"The children weren't underwater long," Dallas Police Sgt. Brenda Nichols told NBCDFW.com. "The lifeguards observed them, and once they observed them, they dove in [and] they got the children up and to the hospital. There were several lifeguards, and apparently the church group had one adult per every 10 children as well, so I'd say the children were well-supervised, but children will be children."
But shallow water blackout — a largely unknown and potentially fatal condition that occurs when an insufficient amount of carbon dioxide is available to activate the body’s natural impulse to breathe — affects people of all ages. In 2011, a 16-year-old New Zealander, two 21-year-old men in Staten Island, N.Y., and a 43-year-old father of three in Maine were among shallow water blackout's victims.
"The problem with these easily preventable tragedies is that everyone at the swimming pool should have known the dangers of competitive breath-holding in the water, and should have stopped it," says Tom Griffiths, president of the State College, Pa.-based Aquatic Safety Research Group, who began warning of SWB dangers 30 years ago. "Rules, regulations and aggressive signage banning breath-holding should have supplemented their supervision, as well."
Griffiths calls SWB "the leading cause of drowning for those who already know how to swim," and he and the Norcross, Ga.-based nonprofit education and awareness organization Shallow Water Blackout Prevention are pushing for mandatory signage at all aquatic facilities prohibiting underwater training and long breath-holding.
By hyperventilating prior to submersion, an individual blows off an excessive amount of carbon dioxide and can, in the process, surrender his or her breathing reflex. When the oxygen level in the blood runs low enough, that person loses consciousness. He or she never actually feels the need to breathe underwater and sometimes even experiences euphoria. A series of events — including water inhalation, possible convulsions and ultimately cardiac arrest and death — follows. Unlike regular drowning, which can take six to eight minutes before brain damage and death occur, SWB can kill within two and a half minutes, experts say.
On Tuesday, the day of the incident involving the two Dallas boys, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued drowning-prevention warnings, including a specific caution against hyperventilating: "Swimmers should never hyperventilate before swimming underwater or try to hold their breath for long periods of time. This can cause them to pass out (sometimes called 'shallow water blackout') and drown."
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Posted At
4:33 PM
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Tuesday, June 05, 2012
Blog: Parks and Rec Programs Are, Well, Wonderful
Last year, the National Recreation and Park Association brought us "Rock Your Park" as the theme for July, designated as Park and Recreation Month. This year, with the countdown to the end of the school year going strong among kids, NRPA has released its new campaign, "GET WILD about parks."
While the 2011 theme invited kids and adults to send videos of themselves rocking out in their parks, this year's is all about alliteration: "wild workouts and wellness to wet and wild at the pool, to wild with nature."
Whew.
As with last year, the NRPA is helping parks promote their July activities with a designated home page that includes posters, a social media toolkit and more. There's also a way for recreation personnel to list park events they'd like to highlight.
NRPA wants to hear about everything from summer-long rec leagues and day camps to one-day conservation programs or sports events. With the Summer Olympics coming up, it's a great opportunity to introduce kids to some of the sports they'll be seeing on TV.
I'm a big fan of park and rec programs — they're some of the best ways I know to get kids outside and teach them about the great things awaiting them once they unplug. They generally cost far less than private camps and other day programs, and with so many great park systems everywhere, they're accessible to kids in urban settings, rural areas and everything in between.
Problem is, promotion needs to start now if parents are going to get interested. It's hard to get people to carve out a chunk of their time to review all the options available, so the sooner events get on the board, the better the chances are that parents and kids can become aware of them.
Pretty soon, kids everywhere will be flooding into their neighborhood parks for rec leagues, pool time, pickup games and plain old summer fun. Let's all help them have a wild time once they get there.
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Posted At
3:11 PM
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Friday, June 01, 2012
Should a Multimillionaire's Son Shun Scholarship Money?
Should the son of a rap mogul reject the athletic scholarship money he’s been offered? UCLA officials don’t think so, and neither do most of more than 40,000 participants in an ESPN.com poll. By a 2-to-1 margin, respondents answered “No” when asked if Justin Combs, whose father is Sean “Diddy” Combs, should turn down UCLA’s $54,000 scholarship offer to play football this fall for the Bruins.
The elder Combs boasts a net worth roughly 10,000 times that amount of aid, or $550 million. The University of California system is in severe financial straits. Doesn’t matter, according to a UCLA statement released Wednesday.
“Unlike need-based scholarships, athletic scholarships are awarded to students strictly on the basis of their athletic and academic ability — not their financial need,” the statement read. “Athletic scholarships, such as those awarded to football or basketball players, do not rely on state funds. Instead, these scholarships are entirely funded through UCLA Athletics ticket sales, corporate partnerships, media contracts and private donations from supporters. Each year, UCLA awards the equivalent of approximately 285 full athletic scholarships to outstanding student-athletes. The scholarships are used by the UCLA Department of Intercollegiate Athletics to pay students’ tuition and fees, as well as room and board. In this respect, UCLA is no different from the overwhelming majority of Division I institutions.”
Justin Combs, a 5-foot-9, 175-pound cornerback, reportedly earned a 3.75 grade-point average while at Iona Prep in New Rochelle, N.Y. He chose UCLA in November over Iowa, Virginia and Illinois. “It was like love at first sight when I visited there,” Combs told ESPNNewYork.com. “I loved the whole tradition of UCLA and the school and the academics and just everything about it.”
Sean Combs, whose hits include “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down,” was born in a Harlem housing project. Two years ago, he bought a $360,000 car as his son’s 16th birthday present. At the time of Justin’s UCLA commitment, the rapper stated through his PR firm, “As a parent, today is one of the proudest moments of my life. This is everything a father could want for his son, for him to excel at what he loves to do and is truly passionate about. Justin is a shining example of what hard work, determination and a strong mentality can achieve. I am honored to call him my son and am happy that he is fulfilling his dream.”
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Posted At
10:12 AM
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