Question for fellow hs coaches:
What do you do when a kid has ridiculous cramps? I had a kid come out today for the second day of track practice. He apparently hadn't done any running "since football ended." Hes a sprinter, was moderately good last year, going mid 11s to be an alternate on the 4x1.
He got through all but the last 200 of the workout. Then on the final repeat, 50 meters in he fell to the ground and started writhing and crying out. I went over and asked what was hurting and he (in obvious pain) said that both of his calves wouldn't stop cramping. I helped him off the track (he was completely unable to walk), and tried to get him to sit up and stretch out his calves.
That caused his abs to start to cramp, so he went fetal. Thst caused his hamstrings to cramp. Etc.
Eventually after about 5 minutes of this cycle, I was able to get him laying back while I held his ankles to help him stretch out his calves so they wouldn't start the cycle all over. I made him sit there for another 5 minutes until he could lightly stretch on his own for 5 minutes, then I let him walk to where the rest of the team was stretching. He got there fine so I told him to drink some water before going home.
He said he ate lunch. He also said he thought he didn't drink enough water at school.
My question is: would you have done anything differently? I've never seen a kid in this much pain from some cramping. I'm confident he wasn't playing it up, he was working hard up until that last repeat, and his expression of panic couldn't be faked that convincingly.