Tactics to tackle rising mercury
PREVENTIVE MEASURES From isotonic drinks and proteinrich diet to a solid postmatch recovery routine, players use diverse methods during summer matches
Gil Water — these two words come up a number of times in Andre Agassi’s autobiography Open. The magic potion, according to the eighttime Grand Slam winner, kept him going in sapping conditions.
The composition of the hydrating drink prepared by his trainer Gil Reyes was, however, kept a ‘closely guarded secret’ even from the person who was having it. Reyes’s methods offer an insight into the length that athletes, trainers and sports scientists often go to push the body towards optimum performance. It is the same with the everevolving modern ways to counter the effects of heat and dehydrating conditions.
METHODS TO COUNTER
Acclimatisation is the basic and most trusted method for athletes to reduce chances of exhaustion. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, most teams arrived in Russia two weeks prior to the tournament while some trained in similar weather conditions during the same duration.
Top tennis players such as Roger Federer are known to rent a house during Grand Slams where they live with family and the rest of the entourage. According to several studies, athletes may require six to 10 days to achieve optimum adaptation and aerobic performance in hot conditions.
CHECK DEHYDRATION
“Athlete should train at least one week but ideally two weeks under conditions that expose them to a comparable degree of heat stress in terms of temperature and humidity,” said Sachin Yadav, sports ortho-surgeon at Abhinav Bindra’s Targeting Performance centre.
“Training should last around 90 minutes daily to increase core body and skin temperatures to stimulate sweating and elevate skin blood flow. Athletes should start exercising in a euhydrated state (normal state of water content in the body) and continuously replenish fluid losses so that dehydration doesn’t exceed 1% to 2% of pre-exercise body mass during prolonged exercise,” WAYNE LOMBARD, SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR OF INDIA WOMEN’S HOCKEY TEAM AND SRIKANT IYENGAR, FORMER PHYSIO OF THE MEN’S TEAM
Each player has a nutrition plan specific to their needs. Yadav added.
Isotonic drinks have become popular among athletes to hydrate the body especially in endurance sports. Sports nutritionists also suggest a protein-rich diet along with fruits such as watermelon to keep the body hydrated and nutritioned before their match.
NEW DELHI:
POST-MATCH RECOVERY
Post match, apart from hydrotherapy such as ice baths, cryo-chambers are used widely in modern sport. In place of water, the body (either whole or partial) is exposed to extremely cold dry air (−110 °C to -140 °C) for three minutes.
“When a body is exposed to low temperatures, it goes in a state of shock. Whatever excessive oxygenated blood is lying around the visceral organs is diverted to areas which need recovery. This method is widely used by tennis or badminton players who have less time to recover,” said Digpal Ranawat, performance director of Abhinav Bindra Targeting Performance Centre.
SPECIALISED SPORTSWEAR Specialised sportswear also plays a big role in fast cooling of the body. Most top brands now use fabric that pulls sweat from the body and also increases the ventilation through strategically placed mesh panels in areas producing maximum heat.
Cooling-vests worn by the Australian cricket team during their 2001 Indian tour are also popular across sport.
“One of the big things that we look at very closely is what clothing the cricketers are wearing. I sit with the manufacturers of our clothing a couple of months before the IPL and ensure we’re getting clothing that is designed with a wicking capability which removes sweat from the surface of the body efficiently. It helps the players to sweat and be efficient with the sweat process because that’s the body’s cooling mechanism,” said John Gloster, ex-physio of the India cricket team who is currently with Rajasthan Royals.
ORGANISATIONAL ISSUE Human body has the power to adapt only to a certain level and organisers’ acknowledgement of the heat threat can help combat the issue.
Tweaking rules become essential in SAGAR DIWAN, FITNESS TRAINER OF I-LEAGUE CHAMPIONS MINERVA PUNJAB
A lot of protein for recovery. Energy drinks before, during and after matches for recovery as well as to avoid dehydration.
such cases. While top level football has seen cooling breaks, the same cannot be said about the lower tiers.
Especially, in India, the I-League saw 36 of the 90 matches in the 2017-18 edition being played at 2 pm, when temperature hit the peak, especially in venues like Goa, Kozhikode and Coimbatore.
HEAT POLICY
Cricket is no better. Cricket Australia (CA) is the only body to have an extreme heat policy for all domestic competitions. In January, the cricket committee of Marylebone Cricket Club, which still has a copyright on changes to the laws of the game, proposed that umpires should be able to halt play for heat after extreme conditions during the Ashes.
The US Open this year saw its heat policy (break between the third and fourth set) being implemented for the first time in men’s matches.
However, more concrete steps need to be taken as global warming will only be on the rise. ANAND DUBEY, INDIA TEAM PHYSIO JOHN GLOSTER, FORMER INDIA PHYSIO, CURRENTLY WITH RAJASTHAN ROYALS
All diets are set in the backdrop of blood markers to understand what players tolerate. AMRISH KUMAR, INDIA LONG AND MIDDLE DISTANCE COACH JEEV MILKHA SINGH, GOLFER