Casa and Armstrong gain unique access to athletes for heat and hydration research

Photo: Peter Morenus

New NCAA practice guidelines on heat, hydration and exercise were evaluated by UConn researchers during football practice sessions.

With a swig of water to down a capsule nearly the size of a horse pill, 15 UConn football players became human subjects in a research project aimed at preventing injury and saving lives.

The departments of kinesiology and UConn athletics teamed up for a heat acclimatization study, conducted this summer during the first eight days of pre-season football practice, to find out how new NCAA practice guidelines were affecting players.

UConn was the only Division I-A football institution chosen for the study by the NCAA due to the reputation of the Kinesiology department's Human Performance Laboratory, which conducts research on heat, hydration, and exercise.

Professors Larry Armstrong and Douglas Casa, two of the lab's primary investigators, sought the expertise and participation of UConn's Jeffrey Anderson, director of sports medicine, and Bob Howard, the football team's head athletic trainer. Head football coach Randy Edsall welcomed the research team.

The collaboration between UConn scientists and athletic personnel resulted in unprecedented research, says Casa.

"This is one of the first times researchers were on the field during the first days of practice, gathering data on the heat and hydration status of football players to determine how practicing in the hot weather affects them," he says.

For Edsall, it was all about helping athletes in terms of safety and performance.

"If what we did here, in any small way, can help cut down on the number of tragedies that have occurred on the field around the country the past few years, then we've done something to help the game of football at all levels, and every second of the study was worthwhile," he says. "This will also help us prevent fatigue-related injuries in addition to heat stroke."

Armstrong, a heat exertion expert, says the data will show which positions on a football team are most at risk for developing heat illnesses and which drills affects players adversely.

Traditionally, collegiate football players wore all their equipment under the hot August sun on the first day of practice. However, the NCAA implemented new rules this summer after an increase in the number of heat-related deaths of football players, most prominently Korey Stringer of the Minnesota Vikings.

According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injuries, 13 deaths occurred in the 1980s, 15 in the 1990s, and seven between 2000 and 2002.

Coincidentally, as the UConn study began, heat illness again made headlines on sports pages across the country after three Jacksonville Jaguar players in the National Football League suffered heat-related injuries.

Under new NCAA guidelines, the only protective equipment football players can wear on the first day of practice is a helmet. Gradually, more equipment is added over the next four days. Two-a-day practices are also limited, beginning on the sixth and eighth days of camp. Consecutive dual practice days are forbidden.

Armstrong, Casa, and their graduate students closely monitored the participating players during practice. Five players from each of three body types had been chosen, including the bulky offensive and defensive linemen, the leaner wide receivers and defensive backs, and the muscular but quick linebackers and running backs.

UConn football players ingested a pill with a computer chip inside that could be read by a hand-held sensor as part of research on heat, hydration and exercise conducted by UConn scientists.

Each day, the test subjects swallowed an encapsulated sensor, which emitted a low frequency radio wave using technology developed by NASA to monitor astronauts during space flight.

During the 24 or so hours it took to make its way through the digestive system, a thermometer inside the capsule registered each player's core body temperature. While standing near the players, Casa and Armstrong used a recording device the size of a personal organizer to pick up the radio waves and keep track of the pills in all 15 players.

The researchers also measured heart rates by taking each player's pulse at several points during practice. Urine samples gathered before and after practice were used to determine whether the test subjects were well hydrated. Body weight measured before and after practice indicated the amount of fluid that had been lost. All fluid and food consumed during the study was recorded and analyzed by a registered dietitian.

Test subjects were asked a series of questions each day to measure their perception of thirst and how hot or cold they were feeling.

While previous studies on the topic have been conducted in laboratories, Casa says conditions of a real practice session cannot be mimicked in a laboratory setting.

"We consider ourselves lucky to have proactive thinkers in UConn's division of athletics enabling us to advance academic scholarship. There are not many universities where you would find the kind of support we received from the coach, his team, and the department leadership," he says.

Within the next couple of months, Armstrong and Casa will be submitting a report to the NCAA, and they will present their findings at the American College of Sports Medicine's annual meeting next June.
- Janice Palmer