Dangers of the high school chamber

I am amazed a what goes on in some high school weight rooms. I will guarantee you that if you go to your local high school weight rooms chances are you will see poor form on exercises, improper warm-ups, poor supervision, and lack of pre-hab training. It is not uncommon for a high school kid to tell you that he benches 300 lbs. The problem is he will not tell you that the weight was moving through a partial range of motion, his spotter lifited half the weight, and his back was off the bench.

These inflated numbers are occuring because some of these coaches do not stress proper technique. It's no wonder that so many kids are injured in high school sports. I am not saying that you can prevent all injuries, but one of the benefits of a properly designed strength program is to help prevent injuries. Why is the PE coach the strength coach? A PE coach might know the basics of physical education, but does that mean he is qualified to teach strength techniques, flexibility training, pre-hab, recovery methods, and speed training. That is like allowing a nurse to perform heart surgery. That's just not going to cut it.

I think most high schools do a great disservice to their student-athletes. Money is easily invested into books, and eductaional facilities which is very important. But how can we allow our kids to participate in these different sports that cause a tremendous amount of trauma to the body and not invest in the things that will help them avoid injury? How much longer will this go on?

I think we as parents have to either demand better strength coaches or hire strength coaches to ensure that we are not putting our kids in danger. Ask the coach what his program entails and why he includes certain things in his program? If a coach cannot tell you why he does certain things run as fast as you can. You also want coaches that are constantly learning because the fitness industry is constanly changing with new studies and techniques.