Coach Wooden

I should have listened
When
You were teaching me
But I felt like
My prior basketball experience was more potent
Than your century
And can you guess
What I learned to define as success
It was baskets
Win or lose I had to be the best
Lost in a world where identity claims player performance
Ignored all warnings
Judged only by game nights
And the loses caused no confusion because I did everything right
My points my rebounds I am bigger than this team
When the game is over I look at my statistics
Say F*** it
If I would have just got the ball more we could have won this shit
Coach needs to be fired teammates need to be replaced
No I don´t want to do
an interview
Can you get the camera out of my face
I was the cancer infecting the entire organization
And only on one occasion
Did I begin to see
That it was not the team,
It was ME.

Author Anonymous

Love of my life

Love of my life where have you taken me?
Foreign faces and places and languages a like
Love of my life why have you forsaken me?
For no matter what I do it does not seem right
This life, a game, I pretend to play
But when odds are 2 and 4 instead of 1 and 3
I think the game is playing me
I have cheated to get here but not cheated enough
The odds are odder than this
The higher you go up
The more you fight to exist
The more existence fights you
For the game
Will always remain
Long after you are through
The nights are rare
Where you can swear
That you were the master
Everything you shot went in
Follow through or no follow through
You were 10 for 10
You vowed that you can play this way again
But never again did you play the same
And although you played to win
You got played by the game.

Author Anonymous

If you’re without a team Dallas Diesel will be holding tryouts for the college tour for 2005. Read more info here.

Immunity and the Athlete by Patricia Niland DIP.ION (MBANT)

SPORTS NUTRITION
© Patricia Niland 2005

To realise potential, it is vital that an athlete has the ability to train consistently. Successful training, over time, builds a stronger, faster, more efficient body which will hopefully go on to produce optimum athletic performances. Time lost due to ill health, is time that a competitive athlete cannot afford to lose. In the long term the athlete and his/her coach needs to be conscientious about their own ‘care’ and acknowledge that they have a responsibility for the training and nutrition factors within their control, both of which can influence success or failure.

Illness can have profound effects on an athletes mental perspective, causing loss of rythym and habit. Once recovered the athlete may need to mentally regain focus. Maintaining a healthy immune system is therefore a considerable factor in the athletes pursuit of success.

Moderate exercise has been demonstrated to have beneficial effects on the immune system, reducing the risk of colds and chest infections. However for the competitive athlete who trains at a greater intensity and for longer durations, intensive exercise has the potential to cause immune suppression, with a recognised window of lowered post exercise immunity existing where the athletes system is vulnerable to infection (Nieman 2003).

Post-exercise immune suppression is thought to be partly due to the increase in production of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Athletes training or competing in a carbohydrate-depleted state, will experience a greater increase in these hormones. It is therefore suggested that the ingestion of 30-60g carbohydrate per hour by athletes, during intensive exercise can create a reduction in stress and immune markers. (Gleeson et al 2004)

Reduction in immune status also occurs when an athlete has compromised glycogen and fat stores. This can be caused by the ineffective replacement of calories after exercise, or a conscious avoidance of fat. Calorific expenditure should therefore be balanced by an equivalent intake of calories, and the consumption of essential fats become more commonplace. When the diet shows signs of nutrient deficiencies, supplementation should be utilised to provide protection. However care should be taken not to overcompensate and the diet should always be viewed as the main provider of nutrients. (Venkatraman et al 2002)

Training alone is not responsible for the suppression of the immune system. Neiman identifies many factors that can contribute and should be considered

Diet
Training and competition
Family/relationships
Work
Travel
Rest

Boost immunity and train consistently
Optimum nutrition, should be the fundamental consistent factor for any athlete. When training schedules are planned, time should always be taken to plan an appropriate dietary programme. This should be specific to the individuals training and competition requirements. Revisions in training intensity, increases or decreases, should always merit revisions to the diet.

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