Parents and coaches be careful of where your information comes from that is used in guiding your athlete.
I recently had an athlete tell me when I asked them where their water was that they didn't bring any because their "trainer" said don't drink any water until a workout is over! Before we go any further this is probably the worst advice I've ever heard. Dangerous advice that could literally get someone killed!
So who gave this advice? And to what age and level of athlete?
Surprisingly and sadly, the "trainer" in this case is a sports medicine professional or certified athletic trainer! It just blows my mind that someone on the front lines of athlete safety would be so ignorant in a subject area for which they should be an EXPERT!
Now who received the dangerous information? If you're thinking high school athlete, I am happy to say that you are wrong. And I am only happy because the person giving the advice doesn't have exposure to hundreds of high school athletes. And the answer is not a youth level athlete either. Scratching your head? We've been working with some college and professional athletes lately and just to keep some level of anonymity spread between them that's the level where the advice was given...at either the college or professional sports level!
Folks I'm not making this up. It's much too serious an issue to fabricate a story like this just to drive people to read my blog.
The reason I'm sharing is to make the global point about being careful about where you glean information that is used to guide your athlete. Just to be clear and not overly paranoid, most of the bad information is not going to be dangerous...just hampering of your athlete's development. For example, doing a lot of long-distance running to get in shape for a speed and power sport like basketball will never kill your athlete...it will just make them slower and decrease their vertical jump! And avoiding the weight room until the often quoted age of 15 or 16 per a misinformed physician's recommendation will not kill your athlete either...it will simply keep them from realizing their full potential by not maximizing their speed, strength, and power! I could share endless examples of information misapplied or just plain hogwash that I've heard over nearly 20 years of immersing myself in the training of athletes.
In this age of information, ANSWERS are easy to come by...you can just talk to Siri or have a 5-year old do a web search for you.
However if you want to find the TRUTH, you better have a trusted resource.
