Things Parents Should Never Say to Athletes

In my many years of teaching baseball and softball, coaching and parenting, I have noticed that parents often put pressure on kids without even realizing that is what they are doing. This pressure leads to tension between parents and their sports playing kids that may never go away. Parents feel like they are just trying to help their kids but the kids are getting a different message.
Of course, it is important to realize that small amounts of tension between parents and kids are unavoidable because of the various emotions that playing youth sports creates for all. Occasional tension, frustration and failure to meet expectations is normal and does not threaten long-term relationships. However, parents often overdo their scrutiny of their child’s play and stain their relationship with their kids.
Following are things parents should observe that will help them to know if they are putting excessive pressure on their kids.
1. Kids get mad every time you say something about their play.
2. Kids will not practice with parent or always leaves practice mad at their parent.
3. Kids are constantly looking to parent when they do something good or bad on the field.
4. Kids seem to perform better when parent is not at game.
Additionally, some parental statements seem pretty innocuous on the surface but eventually they create tension and resentment. At the very least, these statements and questions can take the fun out of play for kids. (Listed from bad to worse)
1. Why did you do that?
2. What were you thinking out there?
3. Why didn’t you do what I told you to do?
4. When I was your age, I could already do
5. You have to practice more
6. Look at me when I talk to you
7. I thought you wanted to play
8. That was embarrassing
9. You will never get anywhere doing that
10. Do what I tell you and not what your coach tells you to do
11. I am not paying for you to play if that is how you are going to play
12. Forget it; I am not coming to your games anymore
Once again, some of these may seem like legitimate questions but the emotional way they are said or asked, automatically create tension in kids. The good news is that positive parents, who avoid using these statements, will eliminate unnecessary tension with their kids.…

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Nutritional Supplements in Athletes – Yes or No?

Nutritional Supplementation for Athletes – Yes or No?
December 9th, 2010 | Author: Ken Adams, M.D.
Physicians trained in Western Medicine frequently run into the issue that the way that the textbooks they use in medical school state that our daily diet provides all the minerals and nutrients that we need to function properly and that only a small minority of individuals have any deficiencies that need to be treated with dietary supplementation. The medical literature is highly slanted in that direction and the funded research appears to back it up.
But if we as a nation are doing so well at eating what is right then why do so many of us have chronic pain? Why are so many people obese? Why is cancer on the rise and why are we all not healthier than we are?
The article referenced was published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition and it was surprising to me that it was not more pro-supplement. But it brings to light something that I see quite often in the “research versus clinical medicine” conundrum. Many of my patients do benefit from being on supplements. If more doctors tested for Vitamin D deficiency they would find it. If more physicians would try new things like Dr. Maroon who is a board certified neurosurgeon and the team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers, more athletes might find pain relief from chronic injuries. (He substituted high dose Omega 3′s for Advil and other NSAIDS and narcotics and a lot of patients never went back to NSAIDS and narcotics. THIS IS HUGE!!)
I will continue to give Omega 3′s for osteoarthritic athletes. I will give Vitamin D in excess of the RDA for my Vitamin D deficient athletes. I will continue supplementing alpha lipoic acid in athletes who have nerve injuries. Calcium, magnesium, B-6 and valerian root supplementation really does decrease muscle spasms after hard workouts. The list goes on and on because I see on an individual basis that patients improve. It is more than just placebo but at the same time I do acknowledge that the funded research is equivocal at the moment.…

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