Workout hopitalises footballers
THE hospitalisation of three US college American football players after a gruelling workout has exposed failings in safety standards at university athletic programs, experts say.
Three members of the University of Oregon’s football team were left in hospital last week following the punishing fitness session, which was described in media reports as military-style training that had included one hour of continuous push-ups.
At least one of the three, lineman Sam Poutasi, was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a potentially deadly condition which occurs when broken down muscle tissue leaks into the blood stream.
On Tuesday, the University of Oregon suspended the strength and conditioning coach responsible for the session, Irele Oderinde, while the head of the football program issued a public apology.
“The university holds the health, safety and wellbeing of all of our students in high regard,” Rob Mullens, Oregon’s director of athletics, said.
“We are confident that these athletes will soon return to full health, and we will continue to support them and their families in their recoveries.”
The university said future workouts would be “modified”, while noting that the football program’s strength and conditioning coach would now report directly to the college’s director of performance and sports science.
The Oregon case is not unique. Since 2000, there have been 21 recorded deaths of college football players linked to participation in conditioning workouts.
Although mass hospitalisations from rhabdomyolysis in college athletes remain rare, the Oregon case comes only five months after eight female volleyball players at a Texas college were treated for the condition.
Thirteen athletes at the University of Iowa’s football program were hospitalised in 2011 after a similarly punishing workout.
Jay Hoffman, professor of sport and exercise science at the University of Central Florida, said the Oregon case highlighted the need for minimum entry standards for strength coaches.
‘Clear negligence’
“A situation where an athlete is injured to the point where rhabdomyolysis has occurred is a clear issue of negligence and inappropriate exercise prescription,” Hoffman said. “It’s not common but it happens way too often. It’s something that should never occur.
“What needs to happen is that we have minimum standards that are accepted by universities in the hiring process. Strength coaches that are hired need to have a degree in exercise science and certification from an accredited body.”
Hoffman said that at present there was no formal requirement by the NCAA for coaches to have appropriate certification.
“You can have a math major coaching football players or basketball players – someone with no knowledge of the human body or the effects of training on the human body,” Hoffman said.
“Just t hink about a footba ll coach who sta r ts tra ining in the middle of the summer and lasts until Januar y. You’re going through two potentia l env ironmental extremes – hy pothermia and hy perthermia.
“If you don’t have the background, how do you organise training so you can safely increase the volume and intensity to allow athletes to make appropriate adjustments to improve performance?”
College programs also needed to revise the reporting structure within each department – as Oregon has now done after the recent case – so that strength and conditioning coaches were not hired and fired by the head football coach.
“The problem is that the strength coach is often answerable to the football coach,” Hoffman said.
“If he has been hired by the football coach, that’s who he is going to listen to. And that is sometimes in contrast to what’s in the best interests of the student athlete.”