Return to Football

Football season is here.  Teams are practicing. Coaches are planning. Athletic trainers are working hard to keep athletes on the field. 

We’ve not yet experienced the blistering heat that August is known for but it’s early yet. We still need to stay hydrated and be smart when it’s hot.

That means hats, sunscreen, and frequent breaks. The main ingredient when you overheat is still the same—find a way to cool off. The best method is cold water immersion. That’s why you see big tubs and wading pools at high school football practices around here.

A cooler of ice is never far away and if an athlete appears to be having trouble dealing with the heat, in the tub they go. You should do the same.

I was in Moab several years ago and one of my biking buddies became seriously overheated. We got him into the bathtub and started tossing in bags of ice. It didn’t take long for him to recover.

Athletic trainers will often use an ice bath as a method of recovery. You would be surprised how fresh you feel the day after a hard workout if you have ended that practice with an ice bath. In recent years, you may have seen your favorite high school team gathered around, taking turns in the cold tubs.

Most don’t really like it but they quickly find out how much better it makes them feel, especially the next day. I first discovered this technique years ago while working with the US Olympic swimming team.

A lot of people refuse to allow their children to play football and part of me gets that. My wife has serious reservations about any of our grandsons playing football. I now have a knee replacement most likely to years of playing football and my son’s college career was ended by a serious injury.

But I truly believe that football is the best sport out there to teach teamwork and life lessons. To me, it is the ultimate team sport. If you don’t do your job on the football field—the team fails.

If you don’t make the block, your running back gets clobbered. If the quarterback throws a perfect pass, it means nothing if you drop the ball. If you don’t complete your defensive assignment, the other team scores. It takes all eleven, working together to be successful.

I’m often asked what makes the high school teams at Maryville and Alcoa so successful. In a nutshell (in my opinion), it is good players, good coaches, and teamwork.

Teenagers have few opportunities to truly prove themselves. Determination and persistence are most readily rewarded on our playing fields. That’s probably why I’m still such a fan of the game. I learned those things in spades on the football field.

Never the biggest, fastest, or most athletic, I made do with an extra helping of determination and persistence. Those same traits have served me well in over 43 years as a physical therapist. Those were lessons learned and repeatedly reinforced on the football field.

Is it a dangerous game? I wouldn’t call it dangerous. Players do get hurt. But there can be a good side to dealing with injuries. Injuries led me to a career that I truly love. Dealing with adversity gives us a whole new set of lessons.

We take risks every day. We drive on Alcoa Highway. We swim in the lake. We cross the Dragon. We fly in airplanes. We choose our risks and I happen to believe that for some, playing football is worth the risk.

And I know that both my son and I would do it again.

My Why

It really hasn’t been very long since I wrote about finding your Why.  Definitely not long enough but sometimes there is a topic that I just can’t get out of my head.

This is one of those times.  Oh, maybe it is inspiration and maybe it’s laziness although I’m rarely accused of the latter, but I’m going to talk about it again.

I pulled that old column out in an attempt to not repeat myself but I know that’s going to be hard. In it, I talked about my role as a teacher, a preacher, and a cheerleader. I talked about enjoying life and being positive.

I used that last bit at Camp Blackberry last week. If I started feeling negative vibes from one of the grandkids, I encouraged them to counter those negative vibes with positive vibes. It worked. Sometimes.

Who am I? I am a physical therapist, an athletic trainer, a husband/father/grandfather. I’m a biker and a farmer. But that still doesn’t tell you why I’m here. And after rereading that other column on this topic, I realized that those things are more who I am. My Why is more basic than that.

Now this is about to turn sappy so if you don’t want that from me today, just turn the page.

I’ve always thought that part of who I am is defined by my role as a physical therapist/athletic trainer. But I’ll retire one day, either by my choice or not, and I worry about whether or not that part of me will die. I don’t want to lose that part of me. It’s important to me.

Who I am is so wrapped up in all that. I have great fear that I will lose my identity when that day comes. And it will come. Sooner or later.

I love what I do. I’ll not say that I’m a good physical therapist—I’ll leave that up for someone else to decide. But I am a compassionate physical therapist and when you are my patient, you get someone who truly cares about you, who is truly interested in your best health.

But is that who I am? No, I think that just defines me, maybe defines my role in the workforce. It’s how I serve others. It’s how I’ve served this community for over 40 years.

So let’s get back to my Why.

I believe we are here to love each other and we do that by serving one another. In whatever manner, with whatever skillset that we have.

I believe that we are here to change the world.  That world may be inside your four walls but it may be the universe. I grew up with few having high expectations for me. That’s why I now encourage kids to aim for the moon.

I believe that everything we do should be based on love for each other.

If you’ve made it this far, you may think that I’m about to announce my retirement. Not. Gonna. Happen. Not yet, anyway.

I’m still at work, seeing patients at Total Rehabilitation-Cherokee. You won’t find me on the sidelines of MHS football anymore but that just means that my work week is more sane.

My Why will never change, but eventually, my venue will. And that’s OK too.

Camp Blackberry 2021

It’s that time of year again. Time for Camp Blackberry! We missed it last year over Covid concerns. This year is an abbreviated version for a variety of reasons.

What is Camp Blackberry, you ask? It’s a week in the summer when we have our grandchildren. We hike, swim, bike, do crafts, eat, sleep, and play. We take excursions like the Knoxville Zoo (thank you Mr. Phil) and the Chattanooga Aquarium.

It’s called Camp Blackberry because, well, our name is Black and we raise blackberries so it just seemed logical. We have a camp t-shirt and a logo. We have seven grandchildren but only six can attend. We’re not quite ready for the 18 month old.

We got the idea from Dr. Bob and Sue Ramger, who ran Camp Ramger for many years. I’ve heard from their now grown grandchildren about the memories that were built.

This is the 8^th rendition of CB and it’s a little different. We’ve been at Fall Creek Falls State Park, something we planned to do last year. With vacations limited and our family beach trip cancelled, we wanted to get away for a few days.

It’s a wonderful time and we look forward to it each summer. We are already planning for next year. But where I want to go today is about the role of the grandparent.

I didn’t know but one of my grandparents. My maternal grandmother is the only one that I knew and she died when I was seven. Despite that, I have indelible memories of this proud, statuesque woman. My own children knew all four of their grandparents but not for long enough. Grandparents are important. Not essential, but important.

Grandparents are the ones that get to be concerned only about your happiness. Parents don’t really get to do that. Parents have to worry about grades and performance and behavior and all those sorts of things.

Parents have to worry about getting to practice on time and the character of friends. Parents have to make sure that you are doing your chores, getting what you need to eat, and getting enough sleep. Most of the time, grandparents just get to do the easy stuff, the fun stuff.

I will quickly admit that when I attend the games that my grandchildren play, I’m more interested in it being a positive experience for them. I don’t worry about anything else but that. Are they happy? Are they having fun?

I don’t remember either of those being a high priority when my own kids played sports. I was more interested in hustle and performance. When GK6 was playing t-ball and was told to run for home from third base, I loved that he turned toward the dugout and began looking for his parents (I assume to go home). His parents may not have been as amused by that as I was.

And the officiating….oh my, the officiating. It’s got a lot better since my own kids played. A LOT better. As a grandparent, I worry far less that we just saw a foul or a hand ball. I don’t think twice if someone is offsides or in the lane.

I get that liberty because I have the perspective of old age and thousands of hours of experience. I’m given great latitude to simply enjoy the games because I know that in the big picture, whether one of them wins a championship at age 9 or not will have absolutely no bearing on their ultimate athletic success.

I’m not interested in their team going undefeated or winning the league championship. I’m more interested in knowing that they’re moving, getting better, learning the game. And being happy. As a grandparent, THAT gets to be my first priority.

It's not too late

Now is the time. Yeah, I know…school just got out. But if you aren’t preparing for the upcoming season, then you are already behind.

Oh, there’s time, but don’t waste it.   Every athlete should be running, jumping, lifting weights, practicing their skills. You can’t wait until the season starts.

Actually, you should have your base of fitness already. Your season will be here before you can turn around. Now is the time to fine tune things.

Work on your jump shot. Your free throws. Spend some time on quickness and agility.

Time in the weight room will help you kick harder, farther, more accurately. Especially when fatigue is a factor.

Mileage is important but speed work is too. Everyone is a mix of slow twitch and fast twitch fibers.  You need to work on both to be the best that you can be.

Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” He was talking about fire prevention in early Philadelphia but it readily addresses health care today. 

Let’s start with overall fitness. We know that more injuries occur when you are fatigued. Think about the last run of the day on the ski slope. The 4th quarter. A track meet and you’re in your last event.

You don’t have to run a marathon (26+ miles) already to run a marathon but you do have to put in the mileage beforehand.  You can’t run a mile and then the next day run 10. Or at least you shouldn’t.

Fatigue may not make cowards of us all but it does make us more susceptible to injuries. You can over-do anything but you almost cannot be too fit.

What does that mean? Our endurance is high. Our muscles are well trained for the task at hand. We are flexible.

I’m not going to blame every hamstring injury on flexibility issues but I there is no doubt in my mind that you can reduce the incidence and severity of a hamstring strain by being more flexibler. Same thing for the Achilles.

Hear this clearly—stretching does not mean a few toe touches and arm swings before your workout. First off, stretching should be done at the END of a workout, not at the beginning. And the flexibility work should be approached like the rest of the workout—well thought out and thorough.

Pat Summit’s Athletic Trainer Jenny Moshak had it right. The Lady Vols would meet on the floor after every practice and game and dedicate time to stretching. You should learn from that.

Two more really important components of training as you prepare for the season are jump training and work on your core. We know that jump training helps to prevent ACL injuries. There is no doubt.

How your foot hits the ground is part of that. You should have that assessed by a professional.

I can never preach too much about how important your core is. Strengthening the hip is another huge component to preventing ACL injuries. The rotators of the hip help to control action at the knee when your foot is on the ground, whether from landing or cutting.

Don’t know what to do? There are good professional trainers out there. Look for one that asks you lots of questions, does a physical assessment of you, and sees the big picture.

Then get to work. Time’s a-wasting.

Hurt or Injured?

"It’s not broken, just fractured.” I’ve heard that one many times, usually as a signal that the person believes that the injury isn’t as bad as it could be.

OK…I’m going to start with that one. Broken, fractured, they mean the same thing. It’s not like horseshoes or hand grenades—a bone is either broken or it is not. A stress fracture is still a break in the bone. Maybe it only goes through part of the bone but it is still broken. That one is easy.

“Is it hurt or injured?” That one is much more difficult to define. I have heard coaches for years tell their players that they need to decide if something is “hurt” or “injured.” The clear implication is that if something is simply “hurt,” that they can play through it. There is some truth in that. There are a lot of hurts in sports participation.

“Hurt” may be exercise soreness from overdoing it. Overtraining, going too far or too fast, lifting too much or too often, all those can result in pain.

Usually those will go away with a little time and refraining from doing whatever it is that got you there. Most people seem to know what they did and when they did it if it has created pain.

Sore feet from running a lot further than usual. Sore shoulder from throwing too many times. Sore knees from running all those steps.

“Injured” implies damage to tissues.  While usually associated with a specific injury, it doesn’t have to be. In other words, you may not know what you did but damage is done.

It’s easy when you turn your ankle and it hurts on the outside of your ankle. You probably know what you did. And maybe you know pretty much what to do (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) but you might need help in deciding when that ankle is ready to go. That’s where you might need help. More on that in a minute.

Same with knees. If you injure your knee, you usually know when and how. Remember those bits of information—they will become important in deciding how bad it is and what is damaged.

Knees that always hurt and the pain lasts for several days? Something is wrong and you need to get checked. Weightbearing hurts your knee? Get it checked. Something is wrong.

Shoulders can be really complicated. If you pitch a full game (or have a high pitch count), you can expect your shoulder to be sore. Is it injured? Probably not. But you need to take care of it. That means ice on that shoulder within minutes of your last pitch. You can’t wait until you get home and finally find the ice bag. You need to have ice in the dugout and something to hold it on. And you definitely don’t need to cover up the pain with ibuprofen.

If it hurts the next day, something may be wrong. Any pain that just won’t go away needs to be checked.

A lot of people have chronic shoulder pain (LOTS of people). Our world today puts lots of stress on our shoulders. Much of what we do is in front of us. Sitting at a computer is a huge culprit in the development of chronic shoulder problems. I spend a lot of my professional time dealing with those.

But athletes with chronic shoulder pain need to have it checked out. It doesn’t mean that they can’t continue to play their sport. It may just mean that they need to prepare for the sport differently, to do things differently.

That’s where the Athletic Trainer comes in. Athletic Trainers are trained in all this. Athletic Trainers can help decide if it is “hurt” or “injured.” And here’s the good news:  All our schools have Athletic Trainers. All of them.

My final advice—use those Athletic Trainers. They are not there to keep you out of the game but to keep you IN the game.

 

Over 45? Get Screened for Colon Cancer

Vince Lombardi. Darryl Strawberry. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Ken Stabler. Tom Lehman. All have one thing in common:  They’re all sports stars that have had colon cancer.

Dr. Ed Brown is retiring this summer. In case you don’t know Dr. Brown, he’s a gastroenterologist that has served this community long and well.

I got to know Dr. Brown almost 28 years ago, when I showed up in his office. You see, I had a grandmother and an aunt that died of colon cancer. And my mom had colon cancer.

So, at age 40, I showed up at Dr. Brown’s office to schedule my first colonoscopy.

Let me tell you about a colonoscopy (without getting too graphic). First of all, you’re asleep, so it is painless and not cringe-worthy.. Using a flexible tube with a light and a camera at the end, the gastroenterologist examines your colon.

That’s it. You wake up, go get something to eat, and go home. Any suspicious places (usually a thing called polyps) are removed and sent to pathology. A few days later you get a report from the pathologist.

I didn’t mention the hard part. The day before the procedure, you can only have clear liquids (my clear liquid of choice was hot lemon Jello) and then at the end of that day, you take medicine to…shall we say…clean you out.

And it does a good job of it. The next morning, you head in for the colonoscopy and meet some really nice folks that do this sort of thing every day. I met a really nice Nurse Anaesthetist named Bill who was thorough and personable (but Propafol keeps me from remembering his last name).

Dr. Brown is a quiet, very professional physician with enough wry sense of humor to keep the whole process in perspective. When he called me this week with the pathology report, I thanked him for his many years of excellent care.

Here’s the good news—colon cancer, found early, is 100% treatable. That’s where the colonoscopy comes in. That’s how you find it early.

Who should consider screening for colonoscopy? All men and women over 40. Period.

But beyond that, what are signs that there could be a problem?  Unexplained changes in bowel habits. Blood in their stool. Unexplained weight loss, chronic constipation, or diarrhea.

Anyone with a family history of colon cancer should get screened. The screening may be as simple as a medical exam and a laboratory test.

Should everyone get a colonoscopy?  That’s for your doctor and you to decide The American Cancer Society recommends that anyone with a family history should begin getting colonostomies at age 45. For some, at higher risk, sooner than that.

As for me, I depend on my gastroenterologist to keep me healthy and so, I will do whatever they tell me to. Dr. Brown is retiring but I have great confidence in one of his young colleagues, Dr. Isaac Cline, who I’ve known since he was nine or ten.

And I’m counting on Dr. Cline keeping me safe from colon cancer for many years to come.

Parents Say the Darndest Things

There aren’t many of you that remember the old Art Linkletter television show.  It’s so old, I think it was only done in black & white.  He had a segment on the show called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.”

It was later recreated a couple of times but the original was what I grew up on. On the show, Art Linkletter would subtly lead kids into saying what was really on their minds. And you know kids—they sometimes have no filters.

What resulted from Art Linkletter’s somewhat innocent questions was often hilarious. Parents of athletes sometimes say the darndest things too. Some are funny, some are sad.

“They just got lucky.” One team scores and the coach/parent yells, “they just got lucky.” Maybe on some level that coach/parent is being positive but I think not.

It clearly implies that the other team is not really good enough to score without the benefit of luck. That their skills mean nothing.

I’ve heard people say “I’d rather be lucky than good.” Not me. I’d rather be good. Every time. I’ve also heard it said that “luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” I like that.

“Hit somebody.” That one always strikes me as funny.  Hit somebody! OK, who? Shouldn’t you be more specific? Is it OK if I hit somebody on my own team? They’re “somebody” aren’t they?

I guess “strike hard against someone on the opposing team” just wouldn’t work. By the time you get it out of your mouth, the play is over.

“Keep your eye on the ball.” I’ve been guilty of that one. I’ve probably said it a million times. The idea is to watch the ball all the way to your bat or to your racket and, in doing so, make better contact. It isn’t quite that easy.

Early on, it is important to keep your eye on the ball. Through repetition, the bat or the racket becomes an extension of your hands. That’s where you want to get to.

You can’t tell me that major league hitters see the ball all the way to the bat. MLB fastballs are just moving to fast. But thousands of repetitions establish a muscle memory to where it isn’t necessary.

“They just got their bell wrung. It’s football.” I still hear that one, even in today’s world of concussion awareness. Sure, that’s the way we used to approach things. We know better now.

And once you know better, you can never go back. You can never ignore the potential or the possibility of a concussion.

“Get in the hole!” It’s a golf thing. I’m not sure but I don’t think golf balls have ears. And from my limited experience, they don’t take orders. From anybody. Yet, I would have been yelling for Phil Mickelson’s putts to “get in the hole.”

“You hit like a girl.” Oh don’t get me started on that one. The other one in this category is that you “throw like a girl.” Those parents need to get a clue. Or a girl.

I’m as competitive as the next person but I don’t believe in cheering when somebody misses a free throw. That’s just wrong. Unless it means that your team wins the game. Then you’re cheering the win, not the miss.

I try and imagine what it is like to be the kid on the losing team or the kid that strikes out or the kid that keeps trying and trying and trying. And then I choose my words carefully.