Annual Blood Test - especially for adolescent and older female althletes
Chandler and Dave have both had several expereinces this season with our girls and wanted to just raise the awareness among parents and athletes about regular blood work especially for female athletes.
As coaches, we see athletes most days and have a feel for their effort, pace in training and progression in results and general energy levels. Our swimmers work very hard week in and week out and when perfomances do not come as expected and frustration sets in, one of the things we go to is a check list of what are the reasons for lack of performance. Commonly we think about attendance, effort and then sleep, nutrition, illness. After we've checked many of the boxes on our check list and we don't see an obvious reason we then may recommend a visit to a physician to have blood work done just to see if this may rule out anything or discover an underlying reason.
I've been at coach education conferences and a recommendation is for routine blood work especially for female athletes as anemia can be common.
Because both Chandler and I have seen this this year and because it is only when performance stagnates or worsens before we begin to think about other possibilities, consider working proactively and annually as it is common and by the time we reach the point where it becomes a performance issue, your daughters begin to doubt themselves and the value of continued participation.
