Alcohol & Athletic Performance

Preparation

Alcohol and marijuana inhibit your strength and the amount of energy available for athletic performance. If someone were to smoke pot or drink nearly every day, they may feel lazy and lackadaisical. An athlete is expected to be in his best shape at all times, even in the off season. The off season is the time when athletes are supposed to be even more intensive with their workouts. That is the time to prepare for the season and to continue to better yourself for your respective sport.

Many feel that the off season is the time to relax and rest for next year, allowing them the freedom to do what they want with themselves and their bodies.  How is an athlete supposed to get stronger and faster when they are drinking and drugging regularly?

The body atrophies (gets weaker) when it is not being used. When not working hard and abusing your body with drugs then it makes your progress even slower and repetitive. Every time you get into good shape and then do drugs and slip into bad habits, you have to work even harder just to get to where you were before, not to get stronger and fitter.

Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol abuse is something that many people associate with professional and collegiate athletes. Alcohol not only inhibits your performance but it also can lead to issues of abuse and off the field problems. Most of the incidents that occur off the field, that sometimes lead to fines and imprisonment, happen due to the abuse or mere consumption of alcohol.

Alcohol obviously inhibits our ability to make decisions, and consequently will affect whether we make the right choice or the wrong one. Here at Wesleyan, the majority of fights are alcohol-related, and can lead to a semester suspension from campus and classes. In the real world, alcohol can cause fights that lead to criminal charges, such as the recent Ray Carruth trial.  Famous athletes have had their careers destroyed by alcohol-induced decisions. 

Actual abuse destroys careers, too. Some of the "great ones" of years past have had their careers end due to alcoholism. Many of the greats were alcoholics, including Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth. These two had very successful careers, but their personal lives were in constant jeopardy due to their struggle with alcohol.

"Performance-enhancing" Drugs

Andro, steroids, creatine and many other so-called performance enhancing drugs are out there today and are easy to obtain. Athletes can buy them everywhere from over the Internet to the local shopping mall. Some of the these performance enhancers can do just as they say and help to make you stronger and faster in a safe way. but many of them do harm to the body. The harm may not occur initially but many in the long run can do serious damage to the body.

The latest of these is androstenine.  This drug is usually in powder form and mixed into water.    Andro will have reactions with certain fluids in the body and the molecules that are formed are those of anabolic steroids. So it in a sense is an anabolic steroid, just less severe.

Drugs like these may be beneficial initially, but shortly down the road your body will bend to them and negative consequences can follow. Many of these "performance enhancing" drugs are banned and tested for in the NCAA. For a complete list, visit NCAA Drug Testing Program.

Role Models

As an athlete, kids look up to you. Many children have idols and role models that are athletes. They look to us for direction and guidance. We set a standard as to how they want to perform on the field, and indirectly for how they want to act off the field. If we, as collegiate athletes, set a poor example for these kids then they could follow the wrong path when they get older.  If we're drinking and doing drugs then they will think it's OK to experiment with them and maybe eventual abuse could follow, crushing their dreams of "what they wanted to be", which in the end was wanting to be like us.

Consequences

The consequences have been drilled into you for years. It's like Sesame Street -- repeat something enough and pound it into someone's head enough then it will eventually stick. Why hasn't it stuck yet for so many athletes that there are consequences for stupid actions? Whether it be ejected from a game for fighting or getting suspended or even thrown off a team for drug use, they are all serious problems.  Even the NCAA has  mandatory drug testing. For NCAA tournaments, they test for everything from anabolic performance enhancers such as andro and steroids, to street drugs such as marijuana.  If an athlete were to test positive for any drug, then they would be considered ineligible for their respective tournament. 

At Wesleyan, the violators are punished at the discretion of the coach.  One of the most internally agonizing problems to getting caught and punished is the question, "why aren't you playing today?". Whether this be asked by a parent, sibling, or other relative, it's both embarrassing and saddening for your family. They are usually your biggest fans and strongest supporters and should receive respect enough not to embarrass them and your name by making the wrong decisions.