There is zero debate, that if anyone at any age cares to compete and minimize injury, that conditioning is essential. However and remember I said “zero debate” around conditioning, the most well conditioned athletes in the world get injured!.. Watch any professional or amateur sporting even, and somebody, that is in serious training to compete, gets hurt!
There is zero debate that double headers do not cause injuries..
So What causes injuries? a. Our bodies are not symmetrical. We favor that side of our bodies that tend to be stronger. Athletes train to have balanced power and speed and yet with all the technology that exists, they still suffer injury. b. A loss of technique or an action that is beyond our capabilities. Take for example sprinting out of the Box in baseball or sprinting 1st to 3rd… I can’t tell you the last time I saw a person age 50 - 90 practicing sprinting? Yes, lots of joggers, cyclists, pickle ball and other endeavors, but true attempts at sprinting at these ages, nope, not in the general public or in Senior sports, it ain’t happening!
Again there is zero debate that at any age conditioning if not essential, it sure helps… So what causes the injury problem for older athletes at a rate higher than those finely tuned athletes that also get injured and don’t play double headers?
Strong contributing factors for folks within the RELICS age group, is the ability to stretch after periods of rest.. our bodies simply aren’t as flexible and forgiving as they were when we were in our prime and for men, 28 - 32 as a NORM not the exceptions … like a Tom Brady and many of our own Relics that have either managed to never stop training and/or are simply blessed. However we are directing ourselves towards the norm and not the exception.
Consider also the general “physical” health of our Relics population.. I do not propose to list all the things we’ve got breaking down.. We are here because we are fighting back. We refuse to let the years take us down. We play for the love of the game and self.
So what is it that causes these injuries if we are prepared to compete? One Word “Fatigue” is a major contributor and another word is the ability to recover, “Recovery”, after periods of non-activity, even between innings!
Net it out. Conditioning is the superior activity to improve performance and reduce injury. The older we get the longer it takes to recover and the faster our muscles fatigue. While we condition, the probability of sprinting or even hardening our bodies by practicing falls or rolls is highly unlikely for folks in the Relics age group!
There is “zero debate” conditioning is an important contributor to health, but time is an enemy…
So, why the discussion around double headers? I think the original author probably meant that Double Headers offer a higher likely hood of injury than produced in single games… the reasons: muscle fatigue due to age and general health of the participants..
The issue IMHO is not whether double
headers are bad, and there is zero debate about conditioning but consideration must be given to age and fatigue. Perhaps we can make up games on Fridays as we did in the past or continue with Double Headers and let the individual decide if they will play a second game. Thanks for the opportunity to chime in.
Dm