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

I'm sure you're trolling, but your athletes should be taking caffeine pills (or some sort of caffeine) just as they should be wearing racing flats, staying hydrated, eating some carbs on race day, pacing properly, doing a warm up, etc.

*Obviously, not 100% of people will respond well to caffeine and shouldn't take it, but that's why there's practice.

HaveToBeTrolling wrote:

I'm sure you're trolling, but your athletes should be taking caffeine pills (or some sort of caffeine) just as they should be wearing racing flats, staying hydrated, eating some carbs on race day, pacing properly, doing a warm up, etc.

*Obviously, not 100% of people will respond well to caffeine and shouldn't take it, but that's why there's practice.

Why would I be trolling? There is an upper limit to how much caffeine you can take set by WADA before you fail a PED test, just like there is an upper limit for nandrolone or testesterone before you test positive due to steroids commonly being in animal offal and meat that people eat. There's no difference between doping past the caffeine 1000 mg/day limit and taking nandrolone if consider that both are highly performance enhancing.

As far as I'm aware there is no caffeine limit and hasn't been for a long while.

dullard wrote:

As far as I'm aware there is no caffeine limit and hasn't been for a long while.

Ignorance of the caffeine limit is not a valid excuse to dope, there is still a 1000 mg limit:

The caffeine limit as imposed by WADA/IOC has varied over the years from 12-15 mcg caffeine per liter (L) of urine or approximately 1,000 mg (or 6-8 cups of coffee, 8-12oz) consumed within a relatively short period of about 1 hour.

If I would catch one of my athletes doing that, they would need to run 25 laps more after each normal session.

Coaches what would you do if you caught your athletes chewing rungum?

I graduated college recently, and late freshman into sophomore year a lot of my teammates discovered caffeine in pill form and started using it. the coach of the women's team got really irrationally upset about it and somehow compared it to nicotine (???). It all came to a head when she sat both men's and women's teams down in the film room to have our trainer give a PowerPoint presentation on the effects of caffeine.

To her dismay, the trainer simply presented the facts about caffeine and its performance advantages (for most people) and the meeting turned into an awkward situation where the coach and trainer were not presenting a united front. If anything, the meeting that she imagined would be a sort of drug intervention to get people to stop taking caffeine actually resulted in more people on the team taking caffeine before races.

I think the illogical disapproval of caffeine pill use from my coach, and I guess coaches on here, is that passing pills to each other at a meet and popping them before your warmup comes off as shady behavior to those running purists, so some coaches feel unsettled by it. People on my school's team have probably been getting coffee on race day for decades without the coach batting an eye, but once it became a funny thing about popping a concentrated pill, the alarm bells went off in her head.

I will add that a big thing that the trainer focused on was the mg amounts in various drinks, in relation to the NCAA's legal limit, which is 500mg. There is no way anyone at our level of the NCAA would ever get tested, even at championships, but I did understand the coach's desire for fair play. You would have to take 2.5 200mg caffeine pills to get to 500mg, which most of my teammates never did because you'd be bouncing off the walls out of control and probably not sleeping that night. There was only maybe one kid who took a questionable amount of caffeine pills before breaking the school record and qualifying for NCAAs.

However a large blonde roast coffee from Starbucks is 498 mg, so you could possibly go over the legal threshold there with one drink. When this was revealed by the trainer it became a big joke on the team to the point where some people would go out and "get blonde roasted" before meets or parties. Coach's plan really backfired.

Some coaches on here need to remember that even at the collegiate level, most of the athletes are kids and will behave like kids in response to authority. So trying to fight a war on caffeine in order to have control is not gonna go well for you.

I would think the upper limit is more about safety. Tried caffeine pills once. Horrible experience. A cup of coffee on race morning is plenty for me.

I'm not a coach, and I never do anything but an easy recovery run without coffee. But I also do almost all my runs early in the day. I wouldn't care so much about the caffeine itself, but I would certainly ask questions to make sure they weren't taking them at 6 pm or so and not getting enough sleep as a result, which can be incredibly detrimental long term.

I would ask why they prefer pills. Other ROAs are safer. Caffeine is dangerous in high doses.

WAH-DA wrote:

HaveToBeTrolling wrote:

I'm sure you're trolling, but your athletes should be taking caffeine pills (or some sort of caffeine) just as they should be wearing racing flats, staying hydrated, eating some carbs on race day, pacing properly, doing a warm up, etc.

*Obviously, not 100% of people will respond well to caffeine and shouldn't take it, but that's why there's practice.

Why would I be trolling? There is an upper limit to how much caffeine you can take set by WADA before you fail a PED test, just like there is an upper limit for nandrolone or testesterone before you test positive due to steroids commonly being in animal offal and meat that people eat. There's no difference between doping past the caffeine 1000 mg/day limit and taking nandrolone if consider that both are highly performance enhancing.

You linked to a 9 yr. old article. Meanwhile:

“ Caffeine is permitted in sports governed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). It is currently on WADA’s monitoring list which means it is not prohibited but WADA is monitoring it in case it becomes an anti-doping issue in the future. However, there are limits to the amount of caffeine athletes can use in NCAA sanctioned events. Please check directly with the NCAA for the relevant anti-doping rules.”

So it’s not prohibited by Wada. NCAA limit is 15 mcg/mL in urine. NCAA says this equates to 500mg but it’s actually more like 1000mg. In a study, people had up to 17.53 mg/kg of caffeine and highest urine levels were 14 mcg/mL. That’s 1050mg of caffeine for a 130 pound athlete and they were still under limit.

In the millions studies done of caffeine, ~3mg/kg is sufficient for performance.. or 180-200mg. If your athletes are taking 1000+ mg, they’re going to have some issues (and detrimental performances) and I’d give a stern lecture about not being an idiot.

But as an educated coach, you should want your athletes to take caffeine pills rather than coffee or energy drinks. With caffeine pills, you know exactly how much you are getting- and it’s consistent and controlled, and typically there’s no other weird ingredients. Coffee caffeine content will vary by roast, size, strength, etc. and energy drinks can have all sorts of weird stuff.

well, it would matter who they were taking them from. If they were mine, i would most definitely put an end to it. But if they were taking a teammate's that i didn't like, I would just pretend i didn't know. Or better yet, ask them for a couple.

Age of the athlete?

Why kick them off the team??? I would rather seem take pills rather than drink a Starbucks Venti prior to a race.

Getting blonde roasted- that is absolutely classic.

Question Assumptions wrote:

Age of the athlete?

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.

tycobb wrote:

Question Assumptions wrote:

Age of the athlete?

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.

CHINESE wrote:

I would ask why they prefer pills. Other ROAs are safer. Caffeine is dangerous in high doses.

Because you don't get fat taking caffeine pills unlike all the calories from drinking fancy coffees and cappuccino. You can also over dose on caffeine drinking two Starbucks cappuccinos and you won't know the amount of caffeine in their. Caffeine pills let you measure the amount you take exactly every time and are much safer. What other "ROAs" are you claiming are safer than measurable caffeine pills?

Wow. Am stunned by the lack of consensus on here. As noted above, there have been innumerable scientific peer reviewed studies about the performance enhancing effects of caffeine. It's the #1 legal performance enhancer out there (besides solid training, super shoes, etc...). Leave the baking soda, tart cherry juice, beet juice, creatine, BCAAs at home and grab a 100 or 200mg pill. (I can't stand coffee). I order 200 mg. capsules (a years supply is like $16). I open them up, pour 1/2 (100mg) into my electrolyte drink, snap the capsule back together for next harder workout and off I go. Way too many funky ingredients in those energy drinks & fancy lattes. KISS.