Many students are playing a sport after school that may seem to be affecting their education and their mental health causing injuries to occur due to the amount of pressure and stress on their bodies.
Athletes look at practices of the same rotation to help them stay in shape and they need to better themselves with consistency. While other athletes feel that they should have a break in between the week to give them time off to recover even if it’s within the team such as a stretch day or a day that they’re not pushing themselves to worsen their injury.
Student athletes are becoming more prone to get injured due to the strenuous work they have to put in every day. Along with the pressure to keep going even if it hurts to not let their team down or lose a position.
Most injuries that can reoccur are due to overuse, not an effective warm up and lack of rest.
Giuliana Cogliani is a competitive swimmer for Triton, she has been suffering from a shoulder injury and has to go to physical therapy two times a week and still practices 5 or even 6 times within the week, which is not helping her gain the recovery she needs.
“It helps my Swimming ability but it doesn’t help my physical or mental state” Cogliani shares, she also feels that having an off day in the middle of the week would benefit the athletes.
Other students seem to agree and have a set day within the week to use it as a stretch or easier practice for the team. A Triton high school student athlete Vaughn Gagnon shares his thoughts on the practices everyday affecting an athlete.
“I think students should have practice everyday because it keeps consistency and makes sure an athlete is staying in shape, having some sort of stretch day would benefit,” said Gagnon.
As a coach they see it differently as their player should know how they’re feeling and make the decision for themselves because coaches are going off what they see and how the athlete normally would be participating daily.
Triton High School track coach Joseph Colbert talks about his thoughts on practices and injuries of an athlete.
“Any coach should recognize when an athlete needs a break and the day off but it shouldn’t call the whole team practice off.” Coach Colbert expresses.
High school athletes are having five to six practices a week that could affect them in ways that coaches may not know or see. Hearing from all different points of view it is clear to see that there’s a sign of disagreement on 5 days a week of hardcore practicing that is affecting a student athlete negatively.
