Weigh-in Charts for Football Using a Simple Spreadsheet

For a number of years, I have had a problem with the weigh-in and weigh-out procedure with football. The problem I have had is that the scale and charts are often set up in a locker room where the coaches often don't go to look at the charts, much less do the tedious calculations that are needed. Without doing the calculations, the weight chart are simply ineffective and a waste of time for the team to perform.

Therefore, in October of 2002, I had an article published in the NATA News that offered a simple additional step that created an easier method for making the calculations. In this article I offered a chart that displayed the greater than 97%, 97%, 96%, and 95% values for every possible weight from 100 lbs up to 330 lbs. This was color coded green, yellow, orange, and red for each level of weight loss. The athlete was to then use either a matching highlighter on his weigh out value or use an appropriate colored pencil to record it. This system worked as long as you could keep the pencil tips sharp or the highlighters from drying out. (The kids frequently lost the caps for the highlighters.)

Eventually, I got tired of replacing highlighters and pencils and decided to relocate the scale into the athletic training room. This was one of the best ideas I ever had. I continued using the paper and pencil method for another year, but I still found that I was looking for the caps far too often. So I decided that i needed to design a simple spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel and add the file to an outdated laptop computer that I can left in my office for the kids to record their weights on.

In this file, I was able to let the program do the calculations for me and appropriately color the cells using the conditional formatting function. The cells are either white, yellow, orange, or red depending on the amount of weight lost from time of weigh in to weigh out. Furthermore, I was also able to set a conditional format that allowed me to compare weigh in values between each day. Currently, the cell will remain pink in color (to differentiate it from the red) if the athlete weighs in at less than 99% of his weight from the previous day. This is an added feature and was a function that would have been far too confusing to add to the paper and pencil route. The best part is that it is done automatically for me in the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is currently designed so for a Monday start to two-a-days and assumes practices Monday through Saturday with a day off on Sunday. Changing this is not difficult to anyone who knows how to operate the formulas in the cells. If needed, this document can also be printed out. The only maintenance that I have had to perform with this file was to weights to the correct columns since they were entered incorrectly and making sure I save the file to the hard drive each day. I can even go so far as to copy it to a flash drive or network the computer wirelessly to backup the file automatically.

To access the files directly, the links are:

Old Weight Chart - http://bit.ly/bstKYj

Spreadsheet - http://bit.ly/dadJSB

Respecting an Athletic Trainer's Decision Regarding RTP

This article reminded me of a coach that I have worked with in the past. At the time, I was working as a part-time athletic trianer for a local high school. This meant that often, I would tell an athlete that I was going to hold him or her from practice until I had a chance to see them again in a day or two (depending on what day of the week it was.) Most of the coaches I worked with in this school had no problems with this since I also gave them a phone number to contact me if anything changed in the meantime (for better or for worse.) Unfortunately, I had one coach who would accept my opinion if I was telling the student athlete that he or she could continue to practice or play. However, if I chose to hold a kid out of participation, (or even allow them to participate with restrictions,) this coach would flatly tell me that the athlete needed to get a second opinion. This coach even so far as to tell one athlete that they needed a second doctor's opinion even when the first doctor agreed with my findings to the letter. Eventually, the parents became wise to this coach's games and were able to remove him from his position using this complaint along with several complaints.

The part that really stuns me about this as I look back now is that it should have been more obvious to me what the coach was doing and trying to take advantage of the fact that I was recently graduated from college and working in my first two years out of school. When I look back on that situation now, I find that I would have a much stronger reaction to a coach who consistently questioned my decisions when it went against his wishes.

Threats to High School Athletics

Do you ever wonder why high school coaches are being required to have more and more training? This radio interview of a representative of the National Federation of High School Associations explains why there are so many new programs being developed to teach coaches "how to coach."

PYFL fundraiser

For all those that attended the PYFL fundraiser last night, thank you. I trust you had as much fun as I did. I hope that more people would turn out for next year's fundraiser and help suuport our children.

And now for something almost completely irrelevant.

This was posted by sportsmd on twitter covering a New York Times article about about the validity of using lucky charms as an aid to athletic performance. Superstitions aside, the article reports that a study found a significant difference in the success rate of people who were wish good luck or believed that they were using a lucky piece of equipment to aid them. The article does not attempt to exlpain the psychological effects of why or how this works, but it was amusing to see this kind of quirky study showing some intriguing results.

"Preseason Heat Acclimatization Guidelines for Secondary School Athletics"

A series of videos produced by the National Athletic Trainer's Association that discuss interventions to prevent heat illness in secondary schools.

NFHS Coach's Education on TBIs

I was suprised to see that I haven't previously covered this in my blog because I have seen this course available for the last couple of weeks. This course covers a coach's responsibility in the event of a TBI. It was produced by the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS). This is a free course and I highly recommend that every coach and official takes a look at this presentation.

This presentation can also be used to educate administrators and teachers who may not be aware of how TBIs affect the student athlete. I recommend this course for them to view as well.

Outside the Lines: Second Impact Syndrome

This is an ESPN video that takes a look at second impact syndrome.

Does Post Exercise Massage Improve Blood Flow and Reduce Lactic Acid?

Here is an interesting blog post that reviews a study in the Medicine and Science in Sports Exercise. The study only found that the blood flow was decreased every time pressure was applied to the area during a massage regardless of the technique. Blood flow only returned to normal after each stroke. It does not look promising that massage reduces lactic acid post-exercise.

Cheerleading "Athletic, but is it a sport?"

Here is an article covering the recent decision from a federal judge that declares that cheerleading is not a sport, albiet very athletic.

Whether you agree with the decision or not, I think that something has been left out of the discussion. The fact that the rules governing cheerleading vary tremendously from middle and high school to division II and III in college and to division I in college should be considered much closer. In the smaller school divisions and in MS and HS, the rules restrict a lot of the stunts that the division I cheerleaders often perform. I think that this needs to be accounted for in the this ruling, and it was not. It makes this decision unfortunate since the cheerleaders who do this extra stunts that require the skills of a gymnast are not accounted for.

TBI informational PowerPoint presentation

Here is the PowerPoint presentation that is given to all parents of high school and middle school athletes. This presentation discusses the risks of TBIs and treatment once a TBI is suspected.

I almost missed this.

I just received my rule books for football yesterday (I have also been an official for high school footbal for 20 years,) and in the Ohio supplemental booklet I saw that the officials will require written authorization to RTP from the LAT as well as the MD or DO. I guess I will be creating a form soon.

Addendum 8/8/2010
Ok, so now I find out that the reference the rule makes to written authorization has nothing to with giving the official a note of any kind, but rather it means that the LAT, MD, or DO write their normal, legally required documentation for the injury. This has nothing to do with showing or giving the officials any kind of documentation for their future reference. I think that this was a completely unnecassary clause in the rule that simply increases confusion for everybody.

Another Video Explaining the Dangers of TBIs

What is a Concussion? by the NATA, and the NHL.

Video on Proper Tackling Technique in Football

Heads Up Video by the NATA and the Riddell Corporation.

A Bunch of Resources on Various Sports Medicine Topics

A new feature to this blog is that I have added a feed on the left side that follows my Delicious.com bookmarks. I frequently add bookmarks to this site with topics related sports medicine for adolescents and youth. There are many articles on a variety of topics and the list is added to frequently.