When I began my first experience as a team member on an athletic team with the PAL Packers in 1970, I quickly learned that asking to get a drink of water was something never to do again as the response by my coach was, “Koehlinger, take a few laps and think about what it means to be tough.” In that era, tackling was also taught to the defender to stick the facemask into the sternum of the ball carrier and drive through the body. These practices are no longer a part of the athletic world anymore, at least they shouldn’t be.
The other day, a colleague, Andy Stout, forwarded an article written in Men’s Health that certainly made me re-read it a second time. Icing is no longer a correct response to an injury where swelling and inflammation is the body’s immediate response. R.I.C.E (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation) was a solid foundational skill taught in my Care and Prevention of Athletic Injuries class at Concordia Nebraska. It has been a staple response by doctors, hospital personnel, school nurses, athletic trainers, coaches, dads, and moms since 1978. The new research states that the inflammation causing the soreness is actually bringing healing to the body. Icing dampens the immune system’s response, and it slows down recovery and actually causes more damage on top of the existing injury.
So what do we do now? Depending on who you are learning from ALL new ideas want you to prioritize movement over decreasing inflammation. One method is PEACE – Protect, Elevate, Avoid anti-inflammatory modalities, Compress and Educate. Another is LOVE – Load, Optimism, Vascularization, and Exercise. And there are more.
Many have been putting ice on an injury for such a long time, but the author encourages us to follow the evidence-based research. I encourage you to change too, no matter how difficult it is. (In case you want to read the article, click here).
Mark Koehlinger,
PE Teacher
Also, a change that is occurring in my weight lifting classes here at Concordia is the increase of females taking the class. This first semester has eleven female 10th-12th graders with about double the number enrolled in the second semester. Way to go girls!