Doctor what supplements can I give my child? The parents of budding sportsman ask? To them anybody who has a hand in giving direction in relation to the human anatomy is a doctor. We find doctors and doctors in this island and most of the pseudo doctors belong to the “and” doctor category. They are supposed to doctor, to put into working order, but not give medicine. What I wish to talk today is not about these doctors but why people run to these “and” doctors and burden themselves.
The main reason is one of high expectation in a short time. That is what parents have to be beware of when they seek advice to make their child a Jonah Lomu or a Johnny Wilkinson before their time. It is not only the parents but coaches, teachers as well as those well meaning advisory committee members they want results at a level much more than the athletes can perform. This extra little is achieved through resorting to various fixes that are touted as the Viagra for performance enhancement in sport.
Every athlete needs a recovery time from practice to next practice as well as after a match. This recovery time depends on how rigorous the training or the game has been leading to a comparable loss of energy. To recover you need rest and there is no short cut. In the case of a rugby player most training sessions will revolve around strength and power yet sometimes neglecting other components that will help you stay in the game. Rugby is an “intermittent sprint sport “as it involves alternating between sprinting, running, jogging, walking as well as standing.
The intensity expended in a game is dependent on a player position with the forwards is exposed to more high intensity work than the back division. The forwards do more physical work such as pushing unlike the backs which has more running and sprinting and there is more recovery time from one burst to another. Is this why you find more forwards being tested positive for banned substances?
The addiction starts, according to the opinion of those who matter in the school and then taken to the club. Everybody wants their sons to get a place and play and be in the team that wins the cup. Some love to say, “my son played in the team when he was still a’ baby’ at sixteen years.” Coaches want to win and advisory committees have to justify all what they have spent. So what if they are given a little supplement? But many don’t know that these supplements may be banned substances.
Some of these supplements maybe good to the normal man but not to the sportsman as it has performance enhancing ingredients that are banned. So the first thing you have to do is to check the ingredients and if you don’t understand ask a doctor who knows. The Ministry of Sports medical unit is always open to young athletes and their parents, if they want to check what is being administered. From here they move to the clubs where there is pressure to perform. If you don’t, what happens? When you can’t perform you don’t get paid. That is where the little devil tempts with the magic supplement. It is a cruel cycle that keeps spinning. Probably you don’t believe this but that is closer to the truth.
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| The Sri Lanka junior ruggerites preparing for their tour of
Hong Kong. Pic by Ranjith Perera |
If we take most school teams there will be players of a lower age group playing in the higher group. The IRB is particular in discouraging mix of players where the muscular and skeletal structures don’t match. The IRB does not permit a player below 18 to play in the under 20 tournament. Are we guilty to some extent in ignoring this vital area? Sometimes you find players from a junior team playing in the next higher group. Often the under eighteen players are substitutes for the under twenty game.
The end result is that a player takes part without adequate recovery time. Another is the full day tournaments of ‘mini’, ‘midi’ as well as ‘sevens’ rugby for schoolboys. Have the organizers taken into consideration the recovery needed from one match to the next? Very often they have not and the exposure to injury and dissipation multiplies. That is where the start to quick fixes and the use of the so called helpful hints. What is needed to get out of the mess is possibly to stop tournaments at school level.
This is not my thoughts alone but the thinking of many that have been involved in the game. It is not only the habit forming undesirable substances the kids are exposed to when there is over expectation. There is also the exposure to injury and aggravating the injury by continuing to play strengthened by various drugs as well as by using pain killers.
This is just a few of the bad things but it may fill a paper if we would take other issues of negative as well as aggressive behaviour arising from the desire to win and win at all costs.
Vimal Perera is a former Rugby Referee, coach and Accredited Referees Evaluator IRB |
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