Post by Coach Campbell on Oct 19, 2009 20:26:25 GMT
High School Football Players Bigger Not Healthier
An examination of several high school team rosters by The Texas University Interscholastic League, show a clear trend: Football players, linemen in particular, who were once merely large are becoming huge.
Consequently, doctors and trainers are reporting increases in certain injuries - stress-related muscle and ligament tears, knee strains and foot fractures - that can be directly attributed to the strains placed on developing bodies by extra bulk. Weight-related medical problems are also beginning to crop up among the giant teenagers.
For five decades, the gold standard of Texas high school football has been the annual Super Team picked by Texas Football magazine. In 1967, a 240-pound lineman became the largest ever named to that select squad. In 1990 the weight climbed to 307 before dropping back to 290 this year.
Sophisticated weight training programs, genetics, increased height and muscle-building supplements are all part of the equation, coaches and trainers say. Yet bigger is not always better; many of the extra-large high school players are far from ripped. "They're not necessarily big and muscular; they're big and fat," said Darryl Thomas, director of sports medicine at Scott & White Healthcare in Central Texas.
An examination of several high school team rosters by The Texas University Interscholastic League, show a clear trend: Football players, linemen in particular, who were once merely large are becoming huge.
Consequently, doctors and trainers are reporting increases in certain injuries - stress-related muscle and ligament tears, knee strains and foot fractures - that can be directly attributed to the strains placed on developing bodies by extra bulk. Weight-related medical problems are also beginning to crop up among the giant teenagers.
For five decades, the gold standard of Texas high school football has been the annual Super Team picked by Texas Football magazine. In 1967, a 240-pound lineman became the largest ever named to that select squad. In 1990 the weight climbed to 307 before dropping back to 290 this year.
Sophisticated weight training programs, genetics, increased height and muscle-building supplements are all part of the equation, coaches and trainers say. Yet bigger is not always better; many of the extra-large high school players are far from ripped. "They're not necessarily big and muscular; they're big and fat," said Darryl Thomas, director of sports medicine at Scott & White Healthcare in Central Texas.