Give it your best!
Focus on what affects YOU
Cramping and the “Electrolyte”
Hey Gang Welcome back!
Here we are at Week 1 of High School Football in TN.
Yes, I know we played last week with what they call “Week 0”. Now it is fully underway, as all the teams across this long state are playing tonight.
Why wait around dive in? Let’s go!
Give it your best!
You are not going to win every game. You are not going to score every time you get the ball. Things are not always going to go your way, but if you give it your best shot things seem to feel better when you miss.
I announced the freshmen game last night between Smyrna and Brentwood. I’ve got to be honest and tell you that I made some mistakes on some of the kid’s names. It bugs me when the roster numbers and names don’t match up with what we have on the field. It makes me look like a fool. I also had a terrible time with some of the kid’s names. No announcer ever intentionally wants to butcher a child’s name. I like it when the parents come to the press box and in a calm voice tell me that “53 is Doug Sims not John Doe”. My reply works for me, “I can’t see from the press box to field what child is wearing each jersey, so I go by a list.”. Calling a Football game is so different than basketball; you have a lot more players, and a lot more to watch.
Go easy on every body tonight: from the parking attendants, the gate people, the concession stand worker, the managers, the refs, the clock keeper, the coaches, the cheerleaders, and the players.
Give it your best, and if you make a mistake let it go and move on.
Focus on what affects YOU
You can’t control others and you can’t control this ever changing world. I think kids at times have way to much pressure put on them.
You would think kids are running America, and they do sometimes when they forget something at home, and they need you to bring something to them at school. The sky is always falling when that happens.
We put a lot responsibility on our kids, and at times they try to take on more than what really pertains to them. Parents need to make sure that they focus on what they need to, and make sure their kids focus on what their needs are.
If you are in 10th grade, focus on being in 10th grade and having fun. You don’t need to worry about how to fix the broken dryer at home. At times I wish kids would look at their parents and say “I am doing all I can to be a kid and enjoy life.”.
Cramping and the “Electrolyte”
I was trying to figure out why last week during the game that some players cramp worse than others?
I had a long discussion with my mom about this topic. (Even though my mom owns and operates a florist, she worked in medicine prior to the flower business. She still keeps up her education, just in case she wants to work in that field again.)
Mom’s are always right, she explained that everybody’s body is different in chemistry. We each eat different, we weigh different, and most all we are made different. The body needs “Electrolytes” in order to function. We all burn energy in a different way, and when we do, those “Electrolytes” must return to the body in order for us to live.
You can put those back in so many different ways. Drinking Gatorade etc. , but it gets crazy when you are releasing more “Electrolytes” than you are replacing, The body can shut down. Therefore you cramp up. So what can you do? I found something on the internet that I will share with you in a minute, but the best thing is to take in many different forms of Potassium and Sodium prior to an event that you know will cause you to put your body in this state. When you get low on “Electrolytes” and you drink Gatorade, it is going to take a lot more than you can probably put down in order to recover so you can play more in the game.
The big boys (NFL) they bust out the IV and it is an immediate replacing technique. If you eat bananas and other fruit and vegetables that are high in potassium and sodium this will help late in your event, because they have slow release of replenishing those ever needed electrolytes. Example: If today I started eating bananas and oranges etc. around 3:00 for a 7:30 kick off, late in the game those bananas and oranges would kick in.
Below is some medical jargon I robbed off the internet. Electrolyte is a “medical/scientific” term for salts, specifically ions. The term electrolyte means that this ion is electrically-charged and moves to either a negative (cathode) or positive (anode) electrode:
ions that move to the cathode (cations) are positively charged
ions that move to the anode (anions) are negatively charged
For example, your body fluids — blood, plasma, interstitial fluid (fluid between cells) — are like seawater and have a high concentration of sodium chloride (table salt, or NaCl). The electrolytes in sodium chloride are:
sodium ion (Na+) – cation
chloride ion (Cl-) – anion
As for your body, the major electrolytes are as follows:
sodium (Na+)
potassium (K+)
chloride (Cl-)
calcium (Ca2+)
magnesium (Mg2+)
bicarbonate (HCO3-)
phosphate (PO42-)
sulfate (SO42-)
Electrolytes are important because they are what your cells (especially nerve, heart, muscle) use to maintain voltages across their cell membranes and to carry electrical impulses (nerve impulses, muscle contractions) across themselves and to other cells. Your kidneys work to keep the electrolyte concentrations in your blood constant despite changes in your body. For example, when you exercise heavily, you lose electrolytes in your sweat, particularly sodium and potassium. These electrolytes must be replaced to keep the electrolyte concentrations of your body fluids constant. So, many sports drinks have sodium chloride or potassium chloride added to them. They also have sugar and flavorings to provide your body with extra energy and to make the drink taste better.
That’s A Wrap
Well I have bored you enough.
Congrats to the Bulldogs on their first win last week against La Vergne.
We travel to Brentwood tonight to the high dollar school of Middle Tennessee. Game kick off slated for 7:30.
Thanks, and give a shout or a wave if you see me at the game.
Until next week…God Bless and Take Care
From Behind The Lens.
The Stork
“A man who truly delivers”