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First XV Coach Cast Episode 8- Stop Militarizing Athletic S&C
5 Plays11 days ago
On this episode of the Coach Cast, we talk about athletes that were hospitalized after a boot camp training session. I explore the significant differences between military training and athletic conditioning, emphasizing the importance of tailored training programs for athletes rather than imposing extreme military workouts.
Join in as I discuss the potential dangers of militarizing sports training, the risks of dehydration, and the impact of inadequate preparation on college athletes. I also touch on the need for mental toughness training that doesn’t rely on harsh methods, highlighting alternative strategies to build resilience.
Make sure you subscribe wherever you get your podcast, follow First XV Performance on Facebook and jdykefxvp on Instagram.
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Transcript
Introduction and Rare Muscle Condition
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello again, friends. Welcome back to the recently some of you recently anointed coach cast. I got another little bit to talk about and it's been brought about by a bit of news that happened here in the local area, but I'm sure it's reached others that are out there as
Tufts Lacrosse Hospitalization Incident
00:00:25
Speaker
well. ah Recently a group of Tufts University lacrosse players was ah hospitalized with rare muscle condition, a rare muscle condition, issue, injury, whatever you wish to refer to it as. After a Navy SEAL style training workout put on by a former player, you know, a friend of the program, I don't remember which one, I think it was a former player that went and became
00:00:56
Speaker
a Navy SEAL or trained with the Navy SEALs, whatever it was.
Legal and Community Impact
00:01:00
Speaker
And the reason that this is news in our world is because, wow, that's it. That's news for like legal reasons. And anyway, that's, you know, out there talking about the legal issues that presented with this, which are a ton. They have plenty to babble about as well. But our field, the strength conditioning world, the fitness world also has plenty to talk about with this because It's a phenomenon that just happens a lot with, and i it's an issue that most of us have with um some things that people do with their training, and they try and militarize their training.
Military vs. Sports Training
00:01:37
Speaker
Now let's just kind of look at the differences between what you do in the military and what you do for a sport, whether you're division one, division three, division two, or a professional, or a high end athlete, however you wish to view it.
00:01:52
Speaker
the we're talking about people that are in the military that could see combat. Now, the difference between on the field and combat is definitely life and death um on there ah in combat and on the field or on the court or whatever, less so, much less so, with yeah with hope hopefully with the rare exception. You're talking about training that's meant to stress you in so many ways and meant to break you and meant to push you
00:02:23
Speaker
because you're gonna be in, as they call it, you're gonna be in the shit. And this is all to prepare you for combat. Combat is a super high stress thing that you can't mimic and nor do you want to. like People that do this, think there there are people that go into the service thinking that they're ready for combat.
00:02:49
Speaker
And turns out they are very much not. And it happens vice versa as well sometimes. But the point is we don't need to push people to train the way, you know, military organizations do for sports because they're not preparing for the same things.
Combat Stress vs. Sports Stress
00:03:08
Speaker
The stressors you get in a combat situation, in any sort of situation like that, where in the military are far beyond anything you're gonna feel on a field. And if they're not, then maybe you're just especially glued in when you're when you're out there. And in which case, good for you. But for the most part, athletes are not people going into the military. Some of them are. You know you can obviously point out places like the Air Force Academy, West Point, and um Annapolis, and so on and so forth. That's different.
00:03:48
Speaker
Still, you're talking about a sport and what happened with this group particular number one, you had division
Fitness Expectations for Division III Athletes
00:03:56
Speaker
three athletes. Now division three athletes, not to say that they're not committed, but they're not the expectations of them year round aren't to be on top of their fitness and to be on top of their training. They're kind of given a little bit of wiggle room. Do the, do a lot of them still do it? Of course they do. And do they do it to a good degree? Depends on the university, probably really. And the sport.
00:04:19
Speaker
We're not talking about division one athletes who are usually especially gifted, um, certainly in this country. So number one, you're already looking at a slightly detrained group.
Issues with Intense Workouts
00:04:30
Speaker
And number two, you're probably not looking at it the most athletic group that you probably could have. So that's already two things that are against this workout going for Tufts. Now, you know, you could do this with, um, a division one football team.
00:04:49
Speaker
All the big ones out there, Georgia, Michigan, USC, whatever it is. Um, you could do that and it probably wouldn't have this effect. I think there was a lot of underlying issues that occurred with, um, this particular workout that caused these, all these players to be hospitalized. Um, probably looking at some severe dehydration. No athlete actually needs to deal with that on the field. Most people, most sports are very good about getting athletes water, getting athletes.
00:05:19
Speaker
And know if you're doing that in the name of mental toughness, there is 1000 other things you could do besides that and drive someone into the point where their muscles start having severe reactions to this severe dehydration,
Alternatives to Military-Style Workouts
00:05:34
Speaker
doesn't doing any good. And, you know, if you want to find out how hard you can push, there's 100 other things you could do that aren't having to do with, you know, just, you know, doing burpee burpees till your puke. And I'm not sure that's exactly what was happening. But point being is there are so many other answers besides, you know, run Navy SEAL training for a group of athletes that probably haven't, ah some of them are probably on top of it, but some of them probably haven't touched a weight since their season. So got to consider that also, it's college kids, the odds of them being possibly a little hungover because of, you know, having consumed alcohol the night before.
00:06:15
Speaker
it Is you know there <unk> we'll say that so with that plus detrained Plus whatever other things that are underlying that maybe are undiagnosed or just Overlooked in this whole thing. Yeah, you're gonna get a disaster like this and it's not the first time it's happened You know, it happened about 20 odd years ago. I think again, it's And it just and it's this is probably the extreme of what happens when you do something like this. Really, it's just a what in the end, like if you do it not to this great length, this great ex extreme, this great you know um swing point here, it'll it just turns into a waste of time at the very at the very least because it's not a followed program. it's not a follow and i get Sometimes I get it. like You want to do some team bonding things.
00:07:09
Speaker
There are a lot of things you can do where guys have to work together or girls have to work together and not have it be military training.
Effectiveness of Military Training in Sports
00:07:18
Speaker
You know, it's. I can tell you, for example, for an example, how ineffective this type of training is, um just having not seen it firsthand, but having seen it somewhat near um near to me, a rugby team in the pro league here that actually doesn't exist anymore. So so go go to show you. um did the Navy SEAL training for their preseason. Their season didn't go that well. So to try and say that that's going to be a great thing just because it pushes you hard, awesome. Like you can bring in, there's so many other positions out there and so many professions out there that can help
00:08:03
Speaker
build athlete and resilient and and just general population resilience and mental mental toughness. It doesn't take something like this. There are things like mental skills coaches now even just a, you know, a therapist that's specialized in sports, psychology, anything like that, that can help you far beyond Anything that something like, you know, running a single, even a single Navy CL style workout is. And the other one that I can think of was, uh, last year, the year before, um,
00:08:36
Speaker
University of Colorado had their, had their head coach bring in, uh, I think it was Marines for a day to work out with them and just, you know, what they're doing with these guys doesn't really jive with, you know, it blow, it also blows in that situation where you talk about division one program, it blows up the.
00:08:54
Speaker
the program for ah the SNC coach and maybe they don't have it down to a science room, down to a tee, but you're talking about a program that was probably well thought out with a lot of effort into it. And it was just, you know, for lack of a better term, it was just kind of poo pooed on and without any consideration for them. And it just tells, it also sends a bad message to the coaches that are working on that stuff. Like, Hey, what you're doing is trash. I'm going to do this instead.
00:09:21
Speaker
It also speaks to lack of imagination as well. So there's a lot of things that are going on with these types of workouts, these types of issues. And I've covered what I can in about nine and a half, 10 minutes.
Advocating for Consistent Training
00:09:35
Speaker
And there, there is so much more to get into it, but suffice to say that ah you don't need a Navy SEAL, Marine, US Army, Navy Air Force workout to do anything worth a damn in your SNC programs.
00:09:52
Speaker
Get to you get to the point where you're consistent and then start to figure out where you can push. And if you can't find answers on, you know, other things that you're struggling with, like mental toughness, start asking around who can help. And it can't, it doesn't need to be a former Navy SEAL. It doesn't need to be any sort of general. It can just be a coach that has connections that can hook you up with someone that can work on what's going on with, you know, your mentality and your your resilience. So you don't need.
Conclusion and Social Media Invitation
00:10:21
Speaker
the boot camp trainings, it's not actually worth a damn for athletes. And we don't need to be pushing people to the brink of yeah severe muscle injuries, hospitalization ah with dehydration, dehydration in a sport. Doesn't happen that often because so many organizations and and officials and so on and so forth ah we are worried about athletes becoming dehydrated and collapsing on the field. So it's not a thing. You know, it just never made sense to me. So, you know, the days of that are gone. So let's stop doing it and stop putting athletes in the hospital just for the sake of being tough. The rah rah stuff is just dead now, guys. So though those are my thoughts for today. um I appreciate that anyone that pops in and has a listen. ah Make sure that you subscribe here. Follow me over on Instagram and we'll
00:11:14
Speaker
catch you all later. Have a good one.