To Multi-sport or Not?

Being a parent of children who participate in many activities, I find it rather interesting that there is dialogue regarding participation in more than one sport activity.  This article asked college lacrosse coaches their feeling  regarding athletes who participated in more than one sport in elementary and high school.  Most coaches who were questioned supported the notion of students who did not specialize, but rather had a varied experience in athletics.  Many of the coaches felt these student-athletes were able to 'bring more to the table' than those who specialized in only one sport.  The coaches were then asked what their own children did - specialize or multi-sport?  Surprisingly, all of the coaches had their children participating in more than one sport and were happy they do.

I believe many parents are led to believe their children must become a specialist within a sport at an early age in order to remain competitive and be the best within that particular sport.  Pressure that is created from club teams can be confused with the thought of the club thinking they are creating the next professional athlete.  Parents are then led to believe, in order to do what is best for their child, must keep their children on a crazy pace.

Proponents who support the idea of multi-sport athletes have demonstrated that children who specialize in one sport are at a higher risk of injury as well as obesity.  Interesting, many college athletes were multi-sport athletes in high school.

My hope is that parents recognize that club athletics, while they have a part in assisting in the skills development of our children, should also be recognized as a business venture for the organization who is actively recruiting your child, having the family pay 'tuition' as well as traveling.  Hopefully, we can keep this in perspective and allow our children to become involved in many activities rather than just one!

Family Makes Courageous Decision

The following story identifies a controversial decision parents made regarding one of their children.  The Whittington's had two children, one of them who though born as a girl, identified as being a boy.  Through their own experience with their child as well as research, the Whittington's decided to support their child's identity and are moving forward in identifying their child as their son.

The video is a compelling one that makes me recognize the need for us as health care providers to ensure equality of care to our patients.  It may also test an individuals' personal belief system, which may conflict with their patients.  My hope would be that regardless of our patients' background including lifestyle, socio-economic status, educational level and religious practice, we would value each our patients and provide our best care possible.

A Parent's Pain

The video in this post is one that elicited quite an emotional response from me.  I cannot imagine the pain these parents went through with the death of their daughter.  It does appear, however, that through the amazing donation of their daughter's heart to another, there has been some help in progressing through their grief.  Have tissues handy, as this is a touching story . . . .

The story highlights the continuing dialogue of organ donation and how difficult the decision must be for those who are making the painful decision during the time in which their loved ones have been declared medically unable to survive.  In addition, this story also points out the conflicting feelings a donor recipient goes through in receiving the organs as they realize in order to do so, someone had to have died.

My hope would be that no one would have to go through what this family did, and that no one would have to make a heart breaking decision.  That said, we know that without people going through this pain and making the decisions they do, others would not have the opportunity to live.
 

Is College Athletics a Business?

Although this post is not in regard to a recent news article that has been posted, it is in reference to a documentary that was on Epix.  This documentary, Schooled the price of college sports, was a very interesting and eye opening video to watch.

This film chronicled the history of college athletics (more so football and basketball) as well as the creation of the NCAA.  For me, as I watched the video I was amazed to grasp the full understanding of how money seemingly is at the helm of decisions that have been made and rules and regulations that have been created and sanctioned by a governing agency - who through its' own history - took this role on themselves.

True to media form, this film does portray many times one side of the story - however, to the credit of the producers, it does appear they wanted to have current leaders within the NCAA to speak on behalf of the organization and they refused.  I have always known that sport and competition is a very large part of the American culture, I just didn't realize the extent to which, from the film's perspective, the athlete's are profited off of.  If you have a chance to view - I highly encourage and you can draw your own perspectives.

Parents Beware!

Ok - so this may be a bit late in posting as the cinnamon challenge craze seems to have come and gone, however, the reason for posting is to again help us to understand our role in educating our student-athlete patient base with regard to healthy behaviors, and how the choices we make as individuals, ultimately carry consequences.

This article identifies several reasons for youth making decisions that are not the healthiest.  With the urge to want to 'fit in' with others, pressure may be placed upon a student to ultimately do something that they either didn't want to, or felt they needed to in order to be a part of a group.  Research has also suggested the area of the brain that is responsible for decision making and risk taking is not fully developed until we reach into our 20's.  Therefore, to only speak to a student-athlete about 'right vs wrong' decisions may not be the most appropriate way to assist.

It is my belief that just as we teach our children how to navigate through cognitive skills (ie. how to solve a math problem, how to answer an essay), we also need to teach them skills which may aid them in being a healthy individual --> ie. refusal skills, conflict resolution skills, and building self-confidence to name a few.  One way to do so is to offer a comprehensive health education program within the school district taught by a qualified individual.  What we do find, however, is that schools, due to a variety of reasons (budget, philosophy, accreditation needs) may not offer a comprehensive health program.  Just as it is vital that schools who offer athletics have a qualified, licensed individual take care of the athletes' health needs, we also need to ensure there are qualified individuals to teach health. 

Additionally, as athletic trainers, we must always keep in mind we have the ability to develop an atmosphere of trust.  As such, we are placed in a precarious situation, as we can either help or hinder situations based upon what we say or by expressing our values on a situation.  We need to be sure we bear in mind that our patients may hear what we say and make a decision based upon what we have said.  Let's be sure we send out positive, thoughtful and caring messages.

Governement Shutdown - A Silent Minority at Grave Loss

As of today we are in day three of the government shutting down and although many are affected, there are some that are affected that we don't even know about.  This article highlights those who are involved in clinical trials that have funding through the government.  In this particular case, the individuals who are mentioned in this article are cancer patients.

Many of the patients have already had a difficult journey with their treatments, and as the article identifies, many were looking to the clinical trials as their last hope.  With the government in shut down mode, there will be no treatments, no interventions, nothing for them.

It is rather frustrating, as I am sure many of us are, to have this outcome for our country occur.  Another journalist, Bob Greene, reports that as Americans we should get our money back.  He writes in the article that we have no choice but to pay income tax for the very manner in having our government operate and work for us.  When it refuses to operate, we should get our money back with interest.  He uses some humor in his writing and makes an analogy of the purchase of an airline ticket.  If the airline leaves you stranded in a city (not your final destination), the individual then has a right to ask for money to be returned as services that were paid for were not rendered.

My point with this article is for us to identify there are so many individuals who are being affected by the government shut down - many, of whom, are probably not highly visible to us.  Let's try to be cognizant that many individuals, families, and communities are being negatively impacted by this shutdown.

Another Student Athlete Collapses and Dies

This article that appeared in the NY Daily News reported that 18 year old Milo Meeks collapsed while playing basketball in his Florida High School.  As this is such a new story, we do not yet know any health history this young man may have had which may have predisposed him to suffering from a heart condition.

The article does not mention the intervention of a health care provider in the form of an athletic trainer or the intervention of an AED.  As this seems to be an out of season athlete, perhaps if the school did employ an athletic trainer, maybe they had responsibilities to the student athletes who were in season.  In any case, this story once again highlights the need for AEDs to be accessible and an educated public as to its' appropriate use.  Ultimately, I would really like to state this story perhaps identifies the need for enough qualified health care providers to be employed in any community, school or institution in which student-athletes are participating.  While I realize schools will always have the 'fall back' of stating there is not enough money in their budget - I am wondering how many more of these articles we will read in the future before change is made.  Mind you, employing a qualified health care provider does not guarantee this will never occur again, or that the outcome will always be different.  But, it does assist in knowing the student-athletes are getting the best health care possible.  This is something I am sure most parents and athletes themselves would feel comfortable knowing.