Sticking Up for "2-a-days"

My eyes about popped out of their sockets when I saw it.

The page-1 headline in the local paper 2-days ago, "Trainers Condemn Hot Weather Football Drills"--and the story that followed--that the National Athletic Trainers' Association basically recommended that 2-a-day workouts for high school football teams in the heat of early August go the way of the doe-doe. Well, if you're wondering why it's taken me 2-days to sound off? It took me that long compose myself, as well do a little homework before I just totally rail on getting rid of something that keeps our young men from getting any **softer**.

Yes, softer. I think I can speak for a lot of guys who remember 2-a-days when they were REALLY rough: full heat of the day for at least one of the two practices; maybe 1-or-2 water breaks--maybe three if you were lucky. And, hardly a player collapsed. Nowadays, you have more advanced training methods and water available at virtually any time, yet there are more and more reports of players collapsing, and some of those dying--like a15-year old in Kentucky last August, whose coach now faces criminal charges for the boy's death. And that, I fear, is why the Trainers' Association wants to get rid of 2-a-days: to avoid litigation. Perhaps smart to "C.Y.A.", but just plain stupid when it comes to turning boys into men-- who would have just another reason for becoming **softer**. And, by **softer** I mean this: another excuse to not to have to do something that's hard and unpleasant to earn a greater reward--yet still expecting that greater reward.

I think this is just another case of the American culture treating the symptom and not the chronic. The chronic problem is not that 2-a-days are necessarily too rough on our kids. No, too many make it through them with absolutely no problems. The chronic problem is that our youth in general play entirely too many video games, watch too many movies, and eat entirely too many Big Macs, Whoppers, Pizzas and fare from a grease pit and then wash it down with sugar soda after sugar soda--and some of those youth go out for football! Well, that kind of lack of activity and diet are a recipe for complacency and obesity, and you don't have to look around too far to see it. It's everywhere. I suppose the kids do it because I think entirely too many adults do the same thing. We've become a soft nation--and getting rid of 2-a-days would be another medal on the "Soft Nation Wall of Shame".

2-a-days not only get players ready for the season--and in the south, the first half of the season you play games when it's sometimes still blazing hot--they also toughen a player up, force him to focus despite the distraction of discomfort, and I think most important: they enable him to earn some spurs with his teammates, coaches and HIMSELF. Yes, 2-a-days can BUILD self-worth--by earning respect by going through the unpleasantness that's inherent in the game of football--which will translate into respect and self-worth in the game of life once football's over. And the stories that they'll be able to tell--all part of becoming a man. Deny them that and you deny admission to true manhood--the manhood of actively pursuing excellence, paying the price, and then enjoying the spoils! And 2-a-days personify just that!

Moreover, most coaches nowadays are well trained to spot players who are getting over-heated, and many teams have moved at least one of their 2-a-day practices to either the very early morning or early evening when temperatures are more moderate, and there's everything right about doing that. The Trainers' Association continues to study cutting-edge ways of keeping players healthy when they're practicing and in games. But neither trainers nor coaches can do anything about what the player does away from the game, and there again is where much of the chronic problem lies, and it's not going to get any better until we, the parents and peers, insist that our kids be more active and stop living on junk, and that may mean that WE get active and stop living on junk.

But it's sure easier to entertain getting rid of 2-a-days, isn't it?

Not in my book, and for the sake boys everywhere, hopefully not in yours.