Coaches, What Would You Do If You Caught an Athlete Taking Caffeine Pills?

WAH-DA wrote:

tycobb wrote:

This is my question. I am a high school coach so I would give them (runner and parent) a warning and explanation and if they repeat it kick them off.

Why would the age of the athlete matter for caffeine pills? You can get way more caffeine in a Starbucks cappuccino than in a caffeine pill. Are you also going to give a stern warning and kick a kid off your team if you catch them with coffee? And as another person wrote above, it is much healthier and much more amount controllable if you take caffeine pills than the wildly variable nature of brewed Starbucks, not to mention you won't get fat from drinking Starbucks.

Age does matter. Pills are easier to overdo, hide, and convenient. Constantly walking around with Starbucks I would also have an issue with but I would assume the parents don't care. Drugs respond different to 13-17 year olds than adults. It isn't worth it in high school cross country. Very few of them are doing everything else right.

tycobb wrote:

Age does matter. Pills are easier to overdo, hide, and convenient. Constantly walking around with Starbucks I would also have an issue with but I would assume the parents don't care. Drugs respond different to 13-17 year olds than adults. It isn't worth it in high school cross country. Very few of them are doing everything else right.

I think you are wrong about saying it is easier to overdo caffeine in pill form. I know exactly how much caffeine is in a pill from a bottle, do you know exactly how much caffeine is in that expresso your high schooler is drinking? 13-17 year olds also drink coke and energy drinks which can have more caffeine than a pill.

Why would a high schooler need to hide caffeine pills from you since it is legal? So what if it is more convenient to have caffeine in pill form? You want a high schooler to waste tons of money on Starbucks and get fat on those calories instead? Are you also against 13-17 years taking creatine and protein powder?

So did you end up buying some caffeine pills after the trainer gave the presentation?

WAH-DA wrote:

tycobb wrote:

This is my question. I am a high school coach so I would give them (runner and parent) a warning and explanation and if they repeat it kick them off.

Why would the age of the athlete matter for caffeine pills? You can get way more caffeine in a Starbucks cappuccino than in a caffeine pill. Are you also going to give a stern warning and kick a kid off your team if you catch them with coffee? And as another person wrote above, it is much healthier and much more amount controllable if you take caffeine pills than the wildly variable nature of brewed Starbucks, not to mention you won't get fat from drinking Starbucks.

Because if a 6th grader is taking pills then I am going to talk to their parents. Your lack of answering the question tells me this is fake.

Coke has about 35mg per 12oz not nearly the 200mg. Regardless you obviously aren't a parent or coach and think you know everything. Pills are cheap and easy. Knowing the exact dose of a pill compared to Starbucks isn't really the issue. I wouldn't want my cross runners taking Creatine either.

Question Assumptions wrote:

Because if a 6th grader is taking pills then I am going to talk to their parents. Your lack of answering the question tells me this is fake.

Why would letting age be open ended mean this is "fake". If you are hung up on age, make it from high school and up, basically anyone with a credit card that can order caffeine pills off the numerous sellers on Amazon.

tycobb wrote:

Coke has about 35mg per 12oz not nearly the 200mg. Regardless you obviously aren't a parent or coach and think you know everything. Pills are cheap and easy. Knowing the exact dose of a pill compared to Starbucks isn't really the issue. I wouldn't want my cross runners taking Creatine either.

You do realize creatine is found in a wide variety of foods like beef, right? Why would you have issue with creatine powder or pills that make it a lot easier to ensure you get enough each day without stuffing yourself full of steaks and getting fat from that?

It's exactly the point that pills are cheap and easy, why else do you think caffeine pills are popular? Do you want everything to be expensive and hard? There's nothing wrong with caffeine pills.

Tell them to chew some Run-Gum instead.

WAH-DA wrote:

Question Assumptions wrote:

Because if a 6th grader is taking pills then I am going to talk to their parents. Your lack of answering the question tells me this is fake.

Why would letting age be open ended mean this is "fake". If you are hung up on age, make it from high school and up, basically anyone with a credit card that can order caffeine pills off the numerous sellers on Amazon.

You don’t understand there would be a difference between a 10 year old and a 40 year old?

Question Assumptions wrote:

WAH-DA wrote:

Why would letting age be open ended mean this is "fake". If you are hung up on age, make it from high school and up, basically anyone with a credit card that can order caffeine pills off the numerous sellers on Amazon.

You don’t understand there would be a difference between a 10 year old and a 40 year old?

About an hour in the marathon? I was already drinking lots of coke with caffeine when I was 10 years old, probably ingesting a lot more caffeine than I do now.

Question Assumptions wrote:

WAH-DA wrote:

Why would the age of the athlete matter for caffeine pills? You can get way more caffeine in a Starbucks cappuccino than in a caffeine pill. Are you also going to give a stern warning and kick a kid off your team if you catch them with coffee? And as another person wrote above, it is much healthier and much more amount controllable if you take caffeine pills than the wildly variable nature of brewed Starbucks, not to mention you won't get fat from drinking Starbucks.

Because if a 6th grader is taking pills then I am going to talk to their parents. Your lack of answering the question tells me this is fake.

Well, fair enough, but the fact of the matter is that if a 6th grader is knocking back cups of coffee, I'd probably want the parent to know that as well.

If this question came up on Reddit for adolescent chat groups, do you kind of think it would get laughed off the site (and quickly)?

I think these kids are a lot more savy than we are giving them credit for, their are far worse things going on and they are no stranger to knowing of them, and they grew up become definitive experts on things like Red Bull, 5-hour Energy, Monster whatever it is, and everything in between,.

A caffeine pill has some bad optics about it. It looks kind of serious, and probably from their point of view, rather dull. The stuff listed above is their preference, and it is super readily available.

WAH-DA wrote:

I'm curious as to what a coach would do if they caught an athlete taking caffeine pills. Caffeine is no longer a banned substance according to WADA up to about 1000 mg/day since there is caffeine in many common food items like coffee, tea, or chocolate. But is taking caffeine pills not against the spirit of anti-doping? Is it not like using needles to inject saline and vitamins?

Would you kick an athlete off your team for taking caffeine pills? Or are you the mind your own business type?

Suspend the athlete for the season. When the parents complain, kindly explain that they were cheating and promoting a bad atmosphere within the team. Coffee or a can of cola is one thing, going full Alex P Keaton on a regular basis is not acceptable; we all learned this in the 80s, so please teach the children what is and is not acceptable. Suspend for the season.

Hypothetical:

Let's say that the high school kid that you catch taking caffeine pills is a blue chip sub-4 miler. You suspend him from the team for the season. This suspension directly impacts his college scholarship offers. His parents then sue you and the school board for damages. What is your defense?

I specialize in dumb comments. wrote:

Lead Foil Hat XXV wrote:

Suspend the athlete for the season. When the parents complain, kindly explain that they were cheating and promoting a bad atmosphere within the team. Coffee or a can of cola is one thing, going full Alex P Keaton on a regular basis is not acceptable; we all learned this in the 80s, so please teach the children what is and is not acceptable. Suspend for the season.

Hypothetical:

Let's say that the high school kid that you catch taking caffeine pills is a blue chip sub-4 miler. You suspend him from the team for the season. This suspension directly impacts his college scholarship offers. His parents then sue you and the school board for damages. What is your defense?

Yup, cheaters don't deserve scholarships and we don't need to be promoting such behavior as the route to scholarships. If the kid loses a scholarship it is his own fault for trying to cheap his teammates and competition. Losers don't serve special treatment. Cheaters are losers, not winners. Suspend him for the season, if there is time he will learn the mistake and make up for it.

I specialize in dumb comments. wrote:

Lead Foil Hat XXV wrote:

Suspend the athlete for the season. When the parents complain, kindly explain that they were cheating and promoting a bad atmosphere within the team. Coffee or a can of cola is one thing, going full Alex P Keaton on a regular basis is not acceptable; we all learned this in the 80s, so please teach the children what is and is not acceptable. Suspend for the season.

Hypothetical:

Let's say that the high school kid that you catch taking caffeine pills is a blue chip sub-4 miler. You suspend him from the team for the season. This suspension directly impacts his college scholarship offers. His parents then sue you and the school board for damages. What is your defense?

Do you think the parents will win a lawsuit when the kid was blatantly doping? Is that what we want to promote among our youth. No. The kid should be kicked off of the team permanently...one season won't ruin his life any more than he already has. It is the athletes fault for cheating, not the coaches fault for drawing an ethical line in the. These HS dog and pony show posers need to learn a lesson. Nobody cares if you cheat your way to the top.

Cheating? What, is it a gateway drug to - I don't know - NSAIDS (Aspirin)?

It's legal, last time i checked. And there are things called rights, which should be protected, regardless of your biases.

It is not cheating. It is using a legal substance in allowed quantities, unless you have information disputing the levels at which they are being taken.

Caffeine pills? Not cheating? You trying to justify your own practices? Taking one or two or even three caffine pills is far more than you get from 4 cups of coffee....the Wada limit. No, you are wrong and trying to justify the practices of dishonest losers.

Lead Foil Hat XXV wrote:

seattle prattle wrote:

Cheating? What, is it a gateway drug to - I don't know - NSAIDS (Aspirin)?

It's legal, last time i checked. And there are things called rights, which should be protected, regardless of your biases.

It is not cheating. It is using a legal substance in allowed quantities, unless you have information disputing the levels at which they are being taken.

Caffeine pills? Not cheating? You trying to justify your own practices? Taking one or two or even three caffine pills is far more than you get from 4 cups of coffee....the Wada limit. No, you are wrong and trying to justify the practices of dishonest losers.

So what happens when their peers trying to emulate their teammate pop 5-6 200 mg pills and drop dead from a heart attack mid race?? Feel good about this now? No. Kick the kid off of the team for a season and send a message that it will not be tolerated. The parents can cry all they want, but they have no lawsuit as cheaters do not deserve special treatment. Yes, high doses of caffeine is banned by WADA and hence banned at the HS level as well.

I smell a troll