For Coaches: A Heat Routine for Every Hot Practice

Most coaches know heat is dangerous. What gets missed is the routine: the small checks that happen every day, even on days that don't feel that hot. Heat emergencies rarely announce themselves. They show up on the third day of practice, in the last drill, with the athlete who always pushes through.

Run this list with your staff at the start of the season, then keep it short enough that it happens every day.

Before practice

• Check the heat at the field, not on your phone's weather app. Conditions at the field can be very different from the forecast. Use the method and the rules your program has set, and follow them even when the schedule is tight.
• Look at who's in front of you. Athletes in their first two weeks, athletes coming back from time off, athletes who've been sick, and athletes carrying extra gear or weight need more care. Those first days are when athletes are getting used to the heat, and they're when the risk is highest.
• Know your jobs for today. Before anyone runs, every coach on staff should know who calls 911, who starts cooling, who runs for the AED and who meets the ambulance at the gate. Say it out loud. It takes thirty seconds.
• Confirm the tub is set up and the ice is there. If the cooling setup isn't at the field, you don't have a heat plan. Tell your athletic director before practice starts, not after.
• Plan the breaks before you need them. Put rest and water breaks into the practice plan, in the shade if you have it, and let athletes drink any time they want.

During practice

• Change the practice when the heat changes. Shorter sessions, more breaks, less gear, or moving the time are all on the table. Your program's heat rules should tell you when. If they don't, ask your athletic director and medical staff to set them before the season.
• Watch the athletes, not just the drill. Have one coach whose job is to scan for anyone who looks off.
• Never treat water or rest as punishment, and never use running as one in the heat. Conditioning drills at the end of a hot practice are where athletes get hurt.
• Make it easy to speak up. Tell your team on day one that saying "I don't feel right" will never cost them playing time. Then mean it.

What to watch for

An athlete with exertional heat stroke may not look like they are in danger at first. Watch for an athlete who:

• seems confused, dizzy or out of it,
• is acting strange, irritable or not like themselves,
• stumbles, can't keep up, or can't follow simple directions,
• collapses or goes down during or after hard work in the heat.

Any change in how an athlete thinks or acts during hard work in the heat should be treated as heat stroke until proven otherwise. Don't wait to see if it passes.

If an athlete goes down

Exertional heat stroke is 100% survivable when the athlete is cooled fast, on site. This is the order:

1. Call 911 and start cooling at the same time. One person calls. Everyone else works on cooling.
2. Get the athlete into cold water. Cold-water immersion with ice agitation is the standard. Start within 10 minutes.
3. Keep cooling. The goal is about 102°F within 30 minutes. At 104°F the body loses its ability to regulate its own temperature, so it can't cool itself down. You have to do it.
4. Cool first, transport second. Don't load the athlete into a car or ambulance before cooling has been done. Tell the EMS crew that cooling is underway when they arrive.
5. Send someone to the gate to walk the ambulance crew straight to the athlete.

After practice

• Check in with any athlete who struggled. Make sure a parent or guardian knows.
• Note anything that didn't work: ice ran short, the tub wasn't filled, nobody knew where the AED was. Fix it before the next session.
• If an athlete had a heat illness, they don't come back until a medical provider clears them.

Rehearse it

A plan you've never practiced is a plan that falls apart in the first minute. Before the hot months, walk your staff through a full drill: someone goes down, someone calls, someone cools, someone runs to the gate. Time it. Do it again.

The free emergency action plan builder from National Stay Cool Day will produce a printable plan for your venue. For questions about the Council, contact us.