BooneThink

Imagine, you are a high school student looking to play football. Everyone you know has said that you must have size and strength. But, of course, you are 125 lbs and moderately strong. So, obviously, you have a problem. Should you go out for football or not? Or, perhaps, more realistically, the question is: “Should you start taking sports supplements to get big, strong, and fast?” Interestingly, these are three words that associate with performance-enhancing substances. “Big, strong, and fast” - after all - is only possible with supplements, right? Wrong, but that is the message every athlete has heard 100s of times.

To think about it, what should the parents do? Some believe they should make sports supplements available to their children. How about the coaches and trainers? Some of them believe as the parents do. So, what could possibly be wrong with the adults promoting supplements “and drugs?” The answer is EVERYTHING IS WRONG WITH IT. Has anyone looked around lately at the mess these parents, coaches, and others have created. And, all for what…CEOs want to make money. Parents want to be winners, and many are willing to scream and yell and even act stupid before all others to get their children to win.

It is all negative and has no place in athletics, just like creatine. It is no secret. Creatine is big time with athletes of all ages. It is also a big problem. Why? If a supplement helps the athlete cheat, it is unethical and therefore wrong. Athletics is not about winning, although important, it is about life within the context of sports and the athlete’s immediate friends and family (and him or herself). Hence, it is about learning how to deal with winning and losing. Athletes who cannot learn to lose gracefully without cheating haven’t learned anything at all.

Parents have a responsibility to teach their children about sports, character development, winning, and losing. They need to talk with the coaches, get to know them, and their coaching practices and theories. Under no circumstances should parents just let their coaches do “whatever” to win. It is wrong for many reasons. There are rules in athletics or, I should say, there were rules. Most have been thrown out and replaced with the “win at all cost” mentality.

Athletes are students first and customs for the CEOs of performance-enhancing substances second. CEOs and the paid consultants as exercise physiologists who develop and promote sports supplements are serious problems to athletics and the children who participate. And, there are a lot of children in high school football and basketball, perhaps, as high as 2 million young kids. With this in mind, it is important that coaches, parents, athletes, and exercise physiologists (in particular) must focus on doing the right things for the right reasons.

Please appreciate that I’m not against winning. It is one of the primary reasons for participation in any competition. Athletes without the desire to win are not good athletes. But, there is a point where winning over everything else becomes a problem. This is why ethics is critical in sports, life, and business. It is one thing to win at all costs and a completely different thing to win with honor. Cheating and bad sportsmanship cannot be allowed to replace commonsense and goodwill. Ethics and integrity are important. No one should lose sight of the importance and value of respect, responsibility, and fairness.

There was a time when high ideals of trust, ethics, and sportsmanship were important. Athletes understood how to lose graciously. Defeat was part of the game. Profanity, offensive remarks, trash-talking, and performance-enhancing substances were considered disrespectful and down-right wrong. There was a time when role-modeling and self-control were believed important, when school coaches believed in right and wrong, and when morals, ethics, and losing without being mean were valued. There was a time when teens setting records by cheating was considered cheating. Now, with drugs and supplements the story has changed.

Exercise physiologists must do what they can to help athletes deal with the pressure of winning and competition. They must also help the athletic community deal with fraudulent claims, the commercialization of sports nutrition and athletics, and marketing-directly to young kids. If you are an exercise physiologist, why not talk to athletes about these issues in the sports nutrition and exercise physiology courses? Why not address the psychological effects of the supplements and drugs, as well as the peer pressure, along with the ethics, dangers, and proper training techniques? Why not, it is important for many different reasons.