"The body does an amazing job of talking to us -- we just need to listen," Clark said. "Some athletes fail to listen and drink too much (until they slosh) or too little (despite thirst)."
A new article in the New York Times quotes Kevin Miller, an associate professor of athletic training at Central Michigan University and MomsTEAM contributor as saying that "'best advice' about how to keep young athletes healthy during warm-weather practices 'is common sense.'"
"Don't urge athletes to drink if they aren't thirsty. And don't make them keep playing if they aren't feeling well," he says. Miller's concern is that coaches and parents who press young athletes to drink fluids before, during, and after a practice, whether the athletes feel thirsty or not, may be putting young athletes at risk of drinking too much water, which can result in a dangerous, life-threatening condition called hyponatremia.
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