All athletes face one common truth — they are what they eat.     Every athlete is limited by one common factor: You are only as good as what fuels you. A complete and diverse diet is critical to provide optimal nutrition to every athlete.     Although suboptimal nutrition can... Read more

Winning on the road requires sharper focus and better play, because often the breaks — and whistles — fall to the home team. Behind the Clipboard By Clay Kallam    We went to a tournament and stayed overnight, and we did OK, but the refs were so biased. We played... Read more

   When the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31, and we roll into 2014, we will essentially be turning 3.5-years old (SportStars, Issue #1 released on June 10, 2010). This makes us only slightly older — and slightly less susceptible to meltdowns — than my son Connor, who turned... Read more

An overview of spondylolysis, a condition which leads to lower back pain  BACK PAIN : Hunter Greene, M.D.    Low back pain is a fairly common complaint among adolescent athletes. In many cases, this low back pain is a symptom of spondylolysis, a stress fracture of an area of... Read more

A look at two strategies that can help improve an athlete’s aerobic base, leading to results on the field. Training Time : Tim Rudd of IYCA    Today I’m going to share two powerful strategies for improving your athlete’s aerobic base as discussed in the last three issues. These... Read more

Understanding the difference between the commonly-used injury terms    Whether you twist your ankle on the field or hurt your back in the weight room, you probably don’t care whether you call it a sprain or a strain. It just hurts. But there is a difference between the two.... Read more

From a doctor’s perspective, sinking focus into just one sport may not be the healthiest decision for a young athlete    With an increasing emphasis in high school athletics on obtaining a scholarship, there has been a rapid decline in multi-sport athletes.    I have seen an increasing number... Read more

Supporting the athletes in your family enriches their experience and yours    Even if you don’t consider yourself an athlete, or even a person who works out, YOU are a very important person in sports, especially for your children, wife or husband.     Believe it or not, your support... Read more

There’s more to the medicine ball than you might think     If you are familiar with weight training in any way over the last 30-plus years, then you ought to be aware of a commonly used tool called the Medicine Ball. The funny thing is, that as prevalent as... Read more

Cross Country participation can often correlate with personality of the coach.    Cross country is such a great sport. You’re not really competing against someone else most of the time, but against the course, and against yourself. But I see a lot of schools that barely have enough runners... Read more

   I ended my most recent column describing the importance of improving both the anaerobic (without oxygen) and aerobic (conditioning) systems for most team field and court sports.     The reason I’m discussing team sports is simple, they tend to fall in the middle of the black hole of... Read more

   California is generally known as being “cutting edge” for new technology and environmental awareness.  However we are far behind the east coast in regards to the evaluation and management of suspected concussion in the adolescent athlete.  Luckily Governor Brown recently signed legislation aimed at filling in some gaps.... Read more