When I was younger in my early teens around the mid-2000s I played only a few different sports. I dabbled in school sports like soccer, cross country & track. But, the main sport that I competed in was competitive high school and club swimming year-round while taking some time off for cross training with school sports. It was nice taking some time off to meet new people away from the pool and exert myself to a new discipline instead of just taking time off to sit at home. I loved to compete although I wasn’t as good as others’ outside of the pool.
During my middle school years I started to notice more and more kids with cell phones, and coaches then started to implement rules around when it is and is not okay to be on your phone at practice, at a game or a meet. It was a big distraction, when me and my friends would be playing spoons or other card games, there would be some that would text or call their friends instead of bonding with the team.
I personally didn’t get a cell phone until I started to drive at 16 for safety purposes, and it wasn’t anything glamorous by any means. I felt I didn’t have anyone to text or call while my sport was going on, because either I was with my friends or my parents were at the game or meet anyway. And, if they weren’t, I would text or call them before or after practice. Unlimited texting wasn’t really a thing back then.
(Elliot Wilcox lane 4, yellow swim cap, competes in the High School boys section meet for the 50yd freestyle 2009-2010 season)
When the Iphone came out in 2007 there was a dramatic shift in team bonding. By then, I was solely swimming for club and high school teams. I’d say I was a little jealous for not having the new Iphone, because at that time it was literally like a caveman created fire. It was so ahead of its time compared to other cell phones out there. Looking back, I’m glad I got to spend time with my teammates and be present in the moment. Those years leading up to my college swimming days were some of the best years of my life. And by having a “dumb” phone I got to enjoy them.
Coaches then encountered other issues aside from trying to keep their swimmers engaged and bond with the team, they started to encounter injuries. Swimming I would say it is one of the hardest, full body and range of motion sports out there right next to gymnastics. With this, risk of injury can be high. With the added time spent on cell phones before practice, or before and during a meet; this can cause havoc on specific areas of the body.
You never like to see a teenager in pain trying to do the sport they love to do, or not see them for a while because they are trying to rest from the injury. I saw many fellow teammates leave the club program I was in because it was not adapting to the new culture change that cell phones created. Honestly, it was crazy to watch swimmers of all ages be in so much pain at such a young age. I understood that the sport of swimming was a high-repetition sport and the lifespan was low compared to other sports.
My club swim team was very traditional. They coached what we call now the ‘old training method’ or ‘garbage yards’. And it worked for years. We put out nationally ranked swimmers, all-americans, and many many D1 to D3 athletes. Swimming in my area is generally a low participation sport compared to other sports, but they put out more recruited athletes to D1 programs than most of them, if not all of the other sports. But, there always had to be an end to a great story.
(Elliot Wilcox swimming division 1 for the University of North Dakota)
Looking back to those times now as a certified personal trainer, a wellness coach, and someone who still competes. I can confidently tell others’ what went wrong, why people got injured, and why others left to seek something different. And it’s because the culture changed. The physical and mental impact cell phones created on athletes and specifically in my case, swimmers, changed the way coaches and athletes should approach and execute their discipline indefinitely.
To make things simple there are areas of concern for an athlete and coach to be aware of. These are shoulders, low back, glutes and core. All should be addressed, but practiced and developed accordingly to a specific sport. These areas are either tight or weak and will create trouble down the road if not taken care of. All these areas are negatively impacted from spending time on a cell phone.
What can you do as an athlete? Make sure you are working on these areas to counteract the negative consequences of spending time on a cell phone.
What can you do as a parent? Ask your coaches what they do to prevent injuries. You want your child to grow up healthy and strong in a supportive environment. What you don’t want is a program that will potentially do harm to your child, cost you time off work, or create unwanted medical bills. Many coaches only need a low-end certificate to be able to coach a team, but they do not include specific exercises, education or anatomy related-topics to properly influence health outcomes.
What can you do as a coach? Apply methods of injury prevention into their practice or workouts. Seek professional help to prevent injury for the particular sport. Be consistent with efforts and resist changing up an injury prevention routine too often.
In the short-term, athletes will start to perform better from their bodies becoming more strong, or less tight in areas instead having to fight itself to move. As a swimmer, we love to go fast and by being able to do that with avoiding injury; that’s what it’s all about. For a coach, they will see better times in the pool and a different area to focus on for their athletes. It’ll help prepare the athletes for longer or more strenuous workouts in and out of the pool.
In the long-term, that athlete is going to be more well equipped to perform in the pool leading up to and after high school. Their mind and body is going to be able to help facilitate the jump to the collegiate level with it becoming more challenging. Coaches are going to be able to produce higher caliber athletes that will attract more people to join the program.
(Elliot Wilcox, owner of Wilcox Fitness; In-home Personal Trainer & Executive Wellness Manager since 2015)
If coaches and athletes don’t take steps to avoid injury they can get injured. It might not be today or tomorrow, or even a year from now, but it can happen. Athletes who are forced out of doing what they enjoy because of injury can negatively impact their quality of life or even have identity issues from not being able to do what they used to enjoy.
