Is a shorter (or no) water break cramping your style?

Have you ever experienced muscle cramps during a game or on the way home? A charley horse in the middle of the night? You learned after that experience that hydration during intense activity will help to prevent those painful cramps. 

Now that sports competitions in the Covid-19 era mandate different protocols and restrictions on movement and what you can and cannot touch, some water breaks might be cut short, or cut out completely. But your need for water has not changed. Avoid the painful reminders by maintaining your required water intake levels.

The New Water Break

Previously, a school staff member would come out on the field and hand you a water bottle to drink. Not so in today's environment. 

Today, you are most likely going to encounter a self-serve water system, where your personal water bottle can be kept in the endzone, on the sideline or in another area where it may be hard to reach when you need it. Unless you have had several years of FSE speed training (😀), you might have difficulty grabbing a drink and getting back into position in the time allowed between plays. 

So what can you do? Consider these ideas that I have gathered from talking with officials about this issue.

• Meet with the school's administrators before the game to discuss all the protocols, including: ensuring that water bottles are clearly labeled for each official.
• Ask the school's sports administrators how water will be provided to you during the game. Negotiate the most efficient method that will serve your hydration needs. 
• Make adjustments to increase your water intake during pre-game, at halftime and post-game, if you find that it has become difficult to drink at regular points during the game. 

Sports administrators and officials have a common goal: to prevent or reduce the spread of Covid 19 at sporting events. Stay Covid Safe. Stay Hydrated. Stay Game Ready. FSE GameReady.