Creatine in HS athletes?

Peanut butter or tuna fish...great weight gainers. Unfortunately I can't get jr to eat either one...hence his slim build

 

Personally, I think that any shortcuts are detremental to the building of any character, but everybody wants a "quick fix". Unfortunately, this is modeled after society, and all of us are to blame for this. I dealt with this problem several years ago in my program, I knew of players that were using this and we discussed the issues I had. Although you never really know, they assured me that their use had stopped and their progress slowed. I believe in good diet and hard work and anything short of that to me is cheating.

Also the NCHSAA has banned the use of Creatine (for several years now), although they have no way of testing for it, so therefore how is there really any control, it is simply policy. Without mandatory testing we will never know, but there is a cost financially to this that many money starved athletic programs and school systems can't afford. So where does this put us? Back again to the moral and ethical question that relates to the simple thought that we have all probably thought to ourselves, you just need to apply it to creatine use. "Am I really speeding if I don't get caught"? "Am I really cheating by using creatine if I am not caught?" Think about that guys. It is simple, short of hard work and a good diet, it is a shortcut, plain and simple.

 

Yet some colleges not only endorse it, but put their athlete's on creatine.

 

The NCAA did something a bit different instead of banning it...

Creatine (along with a long list of other "training aids") were banned from being PROVIDED and/or DISTRIBUTED by colleges & universities in D1 and D2 (no, the ban didn't extend down to D3 ... I don't know why).

The following excerpt was from a 2004 press release by the NCAA:
Current NCAA position

The NCAA provides its membership guidance on the use of nutritional supplements by college student-athletes in the NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook, Guideline j, Nutritional Ergogenic Aids. The guideline notes the following:

• A high carbohydrate diet is associated with improved performance and enhanced ability to train.
• Supplements should be used only if student-athletes have problems consuming the needed amount of carbohydrate in their diet because of the large volume of food they may need.
• Some laboratory studies have found that creatine use enhances short-term, high-intensity exercise capability; other studies have contradicted these claims.

The safety of creatine supplements has not been verified.

"Many nutritional/dietary supplements contain NCAA banned substances. In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not strictly regulate the supplement industry; therefore purity and safety of nutritional/dietary supplements cannot be guaranteed. Impure supplements may lead to a positive NCAA drug test. The use of supplements is at the student-athlete's own risk. Student-athletes should contact their institution's team physician or athletic trainer for further information."

Gee ... If the coaching staff wants a player to take it now, he/she has to buy it with their own money and hope they can get a product that's safe without any proscribed fillers or follow the advice of the same coaches and fork over for a very small list of high priced stuff that has been tested and found to be free of currently banned substances.

 

Here is something scary ... good read too.

"Coach I need some more supplements." ... "Well, just give my wife a call"

 

believe it or not... at 1 time not to far back i worked out alot and was somewhat fit and "Buff" :huh: anyway.. i was using creatine pretty often and i started getting nose bleeds..... long story short.. i dropped it and by the looks of me i dropped the weights also....