Checking for signs of heat related illnesses
I was watching the Australian Open Tennis Championships last week between the number #1 seed and the number #4 seeds. The #1 was not performing well and had missed serves, unforced errors, and was losing games because of his poor performance. Having watched sports and been an athletic trainer for a number of years I made the comment, “There is something wrong with him. He is not performing at his usual level.” Between watching athletes perform below expectations and having experienced a few episodes of poor performance myself I could see something was not right. The first thing that came to mind was the start of heat exhaustion. The strokes were there but they were missing the ‘sweet spot’ on the racket, he was outside the lines and hitting the net. Australia is in a hot time of the year and dangers from heat are common. I write a column every year reporting the signs of heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. The problem with heat illness is that they are accumulative in nature. Activities you did earlier in the day may affect performance in an activity later in the day. I thought that he may have spent too much time warming up before his match and now those subtle changes were affecting his performance.
02/04/2024 05:00 AM
