The proposals for the KHSAA Annual Meeting are out.

 

Proposal 5 proposes to do away with the Dead Period. What do you think of this?

 

Personally, I think that the Dead Period is a great thing. Kids are being pulled in so many directions that this is needed. If there is no dead period, then coaches are going to "require" kids to be playing all year round, instead of 50 weeks a year. These kids need the rest and so do the coaches.

Do you know what school(s) came up with this proposal?

The proposals for the KHSAA Annual Meeting are out.

 

Proposal 5 proposes to do away with the Dead Period. What do you think of this?

 

Personally, I think that the Dead Period is a great thing. Kids are being pulled in so many directions that this is needed. If there is no dead period, then coaches are going to "require" kids to be playing all year round, instead of 50 weeks a year. These kids need the rest and so do the coaches.

 

 

I agree 100%.

I think kids really need the dead period. After all thier only 14-17 year olds, got to have time for their body's to recoop

I do not feel one way or the other about the dead period.

I do know that there are many dedicated kids who will work out and practice on their own during the dead period anyway.

While I believe that kids should participate in all sports, the fact is kids are beginning to specialize in certain sports long before they reach highschool and play and practice in the sport of their choice year around foregoing participation in other sports.

Once a kid reaches high school he may not make the teams in all sports, as a matter of fact, it is becoming more rare to see a multisport athlete in high school.

If kids want to practice and play a certain sport or all sports 365 days a year, I see no harm. Most kids will leave high school and will not participate in any organized sports after that.

The more participation the better. I do not see it hurting the kid.

I think that football needs to have a little more time for mandatory practices than they do. I think that baseball and basketball need to be limited a little over the summer, if those things were done, dead period would not matter.

Move dead period to each schools 1st 2 weeks of summer break so it doesn't fall right in the middle of the summer.

What I don't like about the dead period is that it falls on the busiest baseball week of the year. Any coach that is coaching a team with his high school players on it has to sit out for two weeks or tell the players to stay at home...

A dead period of some type needs to stay in place or the players will never get a break to heal the little minor issues that never get a chance to heal physical and mental.

Dead period needs to be 3 weeks. Believe me, I know.

James (Call me Mr.) Sexton from Eastern has proposed this. It is part of a proposal that would also prohibit a student from participation in an outside team while that same sport is in season in high school.

 

That part I like.

 

Eliminating the dead period is absurd.

 

The kids NEED a break and we all know that there will be overzealous coaches in all sports that won't give them oneunless they are required to do so. That's the reason it was instituted in the first place.

I have been to several college camps with my son in the past 3 years as a casual observer. Almost every one of them has a parent night were they talk about many different things. They discuss everything from NCAA College recruiting to fatigue factors for High School and College athletes. It is almost unanimous among them that the magic number for down time for the average athlete’s body to mend is 6 weeks a year. Some say more; some say less, but the average is 6 weeks. This includes weight training and cardio training.

 

Bear in mind that this is for an athlete who is concentrating on 1 sport. It would be an interesting question to ask, and one I never thought of until right now, but what about a multi-sport athlete? I suspect the time might go up depending on what 2 sports they are playing.

 

JMO But I think the KHSAA needs to adopt a floating 2 week dead period by sport.

Something like:

Football = 2 weeks in Summer

Basketball = 2 weeks in Fall

Baseball = 2 weeks in Winter

Etc., Etc., Etc.

 

My first reason is because I think athlete's need more than 2 weeks down time to mend properly. My second reason is purely selfish. Having coached baseball for 7+ years, I think it’s unfair for baseball programs to have to take a 2 week down period right in the middle of their summer season. This is the time when developing players, get better. Without their regular coach on hand they can fall back in to old habits and not develop properly for the future.

I think the Football Coaches NEED the dead period MORE than the kids do!

So do their families!

 

Kids are resilient and should be able to sustain the demands of athletics...we ALL did! :ylsuper:

 

I do believe the dead period aligned by sport should be enforced and having Football' Dead period at the beginning of the Summer Break would be more beneficial to the coaches/programs/players for continuity of learning.

 

Does Baseball or Basketball EVER stop?

I agree the dead period is needed, but i also agree with the proposal Coach J made a while back about splitting the dead period up into sections sort of.

I have been to several college camps with my son in the past 3 years as a casual observer. Almost every one of them has a parent night were they talk about many different things. They discuss everything from NCAA College recruiting to fatigue factors for High School and College athletes. It is almost unanimous among them that the magic number for down time for the average athlete’s body to mend is 6 weeks a year. Some say more; some say less, but the average is 6 weeks. This includes weight training and cardio training.

 

Bear in mind that this is for an athlete who is concentrating on 1 sport. It would be an interesting question to ask, and one I never thought of until right now, but what about a multi-sport athlete? I suspect the time might go up depending on what 2 sports they are playing.

 

JMO But I think the KHSAA needs to adopt a floating 2 week dead period by sport.

Something like:

Football = 2 weeks in Summer

Basketball = 2 weeks in Fall

Baseball = 2 weeks in Winter

Etc., Etc., Etc.

 

My first reason is because I think athlete's need more than 2 weeks down time to mend properly. My second reason is purely selfish. Having coached baseball for 7+ years, I think it’s unfair for baseball programs to have to take a 2 week down period right in the middle of their summer season. This is the time when developing players, get better. Without their regular coach on hand they can fall back in to old habits and not develop properly for the future.

Obviously a very well thought out post BUT what about the multi sport athlete? If a kid plays Football and Basketball when will he have mandated (because mandating it is the only way to insure it happens) time off. He won't. With all due respect to baseball coaches the summer program is not part of the "official" school program and should have no bearing on rules pertaining to high school activities. The same holds for basketball AAU programs and any other "off season" program for any high school sport. There is no perfect time for every sport for the dead period and there never will be, but as long as there are over zealous coaches out there (and they are still there) then an absolute dead period for all sports no exceptions is needed.