Bottoms(of the inning) up

This blog begins with two stories from when I was in the eigth and ninth grade. I was a softball athlete on The Americans All-Star Team and then a Freshman on the Great Falls High school varsity softball team. The first of two stories is when three teenagers of 15 or 16 years, 2 girls, 1 boy from the cross-town high school whose names, I cannot remember decided to go to a house party. That night, all three decided to drink alcohol and that same night, they decided to get into a car and drive home. That night they did not make it home. Three sets of parents buried their children, who would not finish high school, who would not go on to college, go on to have their own families and not have an opportunity to teach their children the lessons from their teenage years.  The second of the two stories is when one of my high school softball teammates, a senior, decided to do the same, however, she was fortunate. She made it home and was able to learn from her lesson. She learned that alcohol use as an athlete would not be tolerated. She was removed from the starting line-up and from our team, never being able to finish her high school softball career. I tell these stories as when we are teens we have opportunities to hit milestones such as getting a driver’s license, a first crush, a first kiss from our first boyfriend or girlfriend. We also learn some of our first heart breaks. Being broken up with or losing the state championship.  We never really think the first thing we lose might be our life or future opportunity.

Alcohol might make us feel great in the moment however it has a number of detrimental effects. For starters, it is expensive, it is nutritionally void, it is used as a means of peer pressure, and under its effects teens and young adults can be seriously harmed. However, in this blog, I would like to touch on some of alcohol impacts on athletic performance.

Physical Consequences:

By our very nature of being female, we do tend to have higher levels of body fat, and there is good reason for that when it comes to reproduction however because we tend to have greater levels of body fat stores, alcohol is able to stay in our system longer which means we are exposed to its effects longer. We also tend to have less overall muscle mass. Women tend to have fewer type II fibers which are the muscle fiber types that are attributed to strength and speed, however we do tend to have more type I fibers relative to our type II fibers. When training for sport, say softball, when speed, strength, plyometrics, and agility are needed, being able to train in a manner that helps to develop, improve, and optimize for improving type II fiber type development is an important component to training. When female athletes regularly consume alcohol, it can impair the pathways that helps with muscle growth and development.

Reaction & Timing:

Most sports require the ability to quickly get eyes on an incoming pitch or throw, adjust to its location in air and then decide to swing or not swing the bat, run faster or slow down, jump higher, or pivot and turn on a time. This is a finely tune mechanism that under normal conditions requires an attuned nervous system. Alcohol is known to depress the central nervous system and a female athlete who is accustomed to consuming alcohol on a regular basis, is slowing her reaction time, impairing hand eye coordination, and thus increasing her likelihood of injury. Injuries that involve the lower extremity, such as hip, knee, foot and ankle can have long recovery times and slow one’s progression to back to sport.

Cognitive Load:

The last part of the brain to develop is the frontal lobe, it is also the first to atrophy with age or decline. Alcohol is known to have an impact on executive function, decision making, learning, attention, and memory. When stressed in high pressure situations of sport or when playing a sport that requires the ability to recall plays, an athlete who is accustomed to drinking will have increased difficulty with her decision making. If an athlete is not able to perform at her best mentally, the likelihood of her having an impact on overall team performance puts the team at risk. When the team suffers, the player has a greater chance of being sidelined which can have downstream effects not only for the team but for the player herself. In addition, alcohol negativly impacts on sleep and sleep architechture which is known to help promote cognitive health and performance. When it comes to cognitive load and performance, the use of alcohol not only impacts the brain structure and its function but also the mechanism by which we help to keep out brain functioning optimally.