46 Summer Heat Survival: 15-Minute Hydration Blueprint for Youth Coaches

"What is ten minutes compared to a life? That's how we gotta look at it."

With summer temperatures regularly soaring into the 90s across Michigan, youth athletes are facing treacherous heat during camps, football practices, and track sessions. In this vital solo episode of Coach Rodo’s Winning Regardless podcast, Rodo breaks down the critical importance of summer hydration and safety.

Drawing from a trip down south to Louisiana where thousands of kids are managed collectively by proactive communities, Rodo shares the exact blueprint coaches and parents need to adopt. He covers everything from why you shouldn't feel the effects of dehydration until days later, to the power of structured 15-minute water breaks, water-dense foods like watermelon and oranges, and how instilling these simple habits creates lifelong discipline. 

#CoachRodo #WinningRegardless #SummerHeat #YouthSportsSafety #AthleteHydration #CoachTips #YouthSports #HeatSafety #SportsParenting #StayHydrated #PlaySmart #communitysafety 

(00:00) - The Summer Heat Warning: Navigating 90-degree days and treacherous conditions in Michigan.
(01:30) - The Salt & Cramp Reality: Why natural foods, bananas, oranges, and even salt/pickles beat pure water alone.
(03:15) - The 15-Minute Rule: Implementing mandatory 2-minute hydration breaks into every practice.
(06:05) - Taking Responsibility: Why coaches must own the safety of every child dropped off at the field.
(07:01) - The Delayed Crash: Understanding how dehydration can sneak up on an athlete two to three days later.
(08:19) - Lessons from the South: Observing massive, community-driven youth football setups in Louisiana.
(11:17) - Building the Hydration Station: How easy and inexpensive it is to set up proper safety stations.
(13:26) - Engineering Routine & Discipline: Why kids love structure and how consistent rules build lasting habits.
(14:47) - Final Word: What's 10 minutes of practice time compared to a life? Health is wealth.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Coach said, in order for me to stay healthy and be hydrated and be able to be the practice every day, I got to hit my water every 15 minutes when it's hot like this. What do you think he's gonna do when he goes outside to play with his friends? He's gonna grab him a water bottle and he's gonna run and take it with him because it's been engraved in him. You might not feel the effects of dehydration for two days. I'm talking 2,000 kids out there and maybe 50 parents. Was making sure all of these babies had water and hydration. Shoot, it's been real hot out there lately. I mean, man, over here in Michigan, we've been in the 90s and it's been treacherous. With that being said, we as coaches, you know, we have a lot of youth things that are starting up as far as we got camps, we got football camps, you know, we got kids playing basketball, and we got all kinds, you know, running track in the summer times and things like that. And this kind of heat, it is very, very important that we keep these young athletes hydrated. And, you know, the thing that about being hydrated is we have to tell these young athletes that they even need to be hydrated at home at nighttime when they go to bed. You know, I remember as a kid when we had to be hydrated, I, you know, our coaches would always bring us stuff. And so I tried to, when I coached my kids, pass that on to my parents, you know, like, you know, one parent brings bananas, you know, cut up bananas. One parent brings oranges, and you know, a couple parents would bring Gatorades and water, and you know, we'd have a little cup, little thing of peanut butter for the protein and to get the salt, and you know, kids that catch cramps don't understand that, you know, eating a bag of chips or help a child beat cramps in the summertime simply because your body also is running out of salt. And so, you know, they tell you not to put that that that that's a bad thing, but in actuality it's not because, you know, they tell you to drink pickle juice. Well, pickle juice has a whole lot of salt in it. It's because it's a great high salt, can be a great hydration in moderation, you know. Um, the thing that we don't want to happen is we don't want to read about any of these kids passing out from working out because they weren't hydrated, because they didn't have enough water, or because they didn't have enough Gatorade, or they didn't have enough of anything to keep them hydrated in weather like this. The thing that I used to like to do with my athletes in water like in times like this, every 15 minutes, because it's 90 degrees outside, and these kids is out there playing, and they don't care how hot it is. They might now because they're different than we were when we were kids. It's this was hey, if it was like this when we was kids, we was out there. You know, we was out there throwing the football, then playing baseball, then in the night playing basketball. It ain't the same anymore. But with that being said, what we have to do is, you know, what I would implore my kids to do is every 15 minutes I would take a break. Hey, take a sip of water. You don't have to guzzle a sip. I didn't want to have nobody walking around squirting them in their mouth because now they're dependent on that person to hydrate them. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Pick up your own water bottle and hydrate yourself. Therefore, it becomes muscle memory. Along with becoming muscle memory, it becomes them not even thinking about it. And, you know, okay, I gotta run over here to my water bottle and grab it. Run over here to my water bottle and grab it. You know, I would tell, like I said, I tell the parents, hey, you parents, you know, bring some oranges to the practice. Orange is a great hydrate. Watermelon is even freaking better. You know, the thing about it is we all think that, you know, we have to bring water for hydration or Gatorade. I would implore you to even look at the Gatorade and some of these, these electrolyte drinks that you're giving your children and understand that it's not even good for them to have that. It's really not even hydrating. You're really putting money in people's pockets. Some of the best hydration you can give a child is water with lemon, along with giving them watermelon, along with giving them banana. Fruit, how do fruit grow? Water. So obviously, fruit would be the best thing next to water to give a child for hydration. Because think about it, a child is not as not as big, you're dealing with a child, not a grown-up. So the hydration is gonna be quick for them. It's gonna be instant for them. Whereas to us, we got to eat pretty much a whole banana or two to even feel the hydration. A child could eat two or three slices of an orange or two or three slices of banana or a watermelon, and all of a sudden they feel the hydration. And it's very necessary in today's times with the weather being the way it is, being as hot as it is, and being the way that a lot of kids really are, like the ones that love to play outside and love, you know, the physicality of whatever sport they're participating in in this high heat. It becomes even more paramount that we as parents and coaches make sure that they're doing what they're supposed to do to hydrate themselves. Especially us coaches, because you know, you some of us teach in neighborhoods, coaching neighborhoods that we grew up in, where, you know, mom and dad just drop you off. Hey, what time practice is over? Boom, boom, boom, boom. Okay, I got a few errands to go run, you know what I'm saying, to take care of the other kids that's in the family, you know, and then I'll be back. So what does that leave? That leaves you're my responsibility now. Now it's my responsibility to make sure that you're hydrated. And even if your parent is there as a coach, I feel that's your responsibility to make sure that these kids are hydrated because when they're there with us for two hours, I always said them was my kids, and I treated them as such. If I told my son to go get a drink of water, I told them all to go get a drink of water. If I told my son to go over there and get a little orange pill, I told them all to go over there and get a little orange pill, you know, because the thing about it is again, they're all my kids, and I didn't want anything to happen to any of these babies on my watch. So, you know, the thing about coaching these kids in this type of weather is we want to keep them safe, you know. And a thing that I just learned, not today or yesterday, but I just learned probably within the last year or two, you might not feel the effects of dehydration for two days. That kid might look well and you're thinking he's hydrated for two days and then crashes on the second day or on the third day and passes out. And you had no idea that that kid was hydrated because for two days, and dehydrated, because for two days he or she seemed okay. And then when you find out from the doctor that it was dehydration from a couple of days, it becomes a fact, a worrisome factor of, well, what did I miss? You know, well, the thing that we missed is the importance of giving those scheduled breaks. It's just like when you're at work, you got a scheduled break, right? So why shouldn't we give our kids a scheduled break, you know, when it's hot like this? We can change it. It doesn't have to be every hour or every 45 minutes like it used to be, or when we change in drills. Yeah, you hydrate during that time too. But every 15 minutes, we can stop the drill to get some hydration and heat like this. You know, kids down in Texas, Florida, the panhandles, all of them in the southern states, they deal with this type of stuff all the time. And the thing that I hear when I go down there, and I'm because I'm gonna tell you, me and my wife went down there one year, I can't remember, it was a few years ago, man. And we just went to a park just to see because they were this was during the time when they were talking about football was dead. And it's because of concussions and this, that, and the third. Well, I tell you what, me and my wife went down to Louisiana. We went to New Orleans because we had to go down there for work. We just decided to ride by a park where they was having little types or rocket or pop warner, whatever you were. Football. There was at least 2,000 kids in that damn park. At least from third grade to eighth grade, all out there doing drills at their respective age groups to make the rocket, pop warner, little tights, football teams that was out there. And that's when I knew it might be dead up north, but it sure ain't dead down here. And it was in the middle of the summer, and the one thing that I saw, they had what we call water bulls out there. They had them water bulls, them things were spraying water on these. I'm talking about these little third, fourth grade kids spraying water on them to keep them hot, keep their bodies cool every 15, 20 minutes. And then I was talking to one of the coaches, he was like, Man, we down here in the south. And if you know anything about the way that they talk, you know, you you have to pay attention what he's saying, because some of the you can't understand them because of, you know, their lingo and their language. So, you know, I'm paying attention. And the one thing that I got from him was like, he was like, Man, we about 15, every 15, 20 minutes, boop, you hear the whistle, the whole park stopping. Everybody run over to a water bowl and they get them something to drink, or they go get to their go to their parents and get whatever. But then they have a table sitting there. They got pickle juice set up, they got your oranges, your apples, your bananas, your peanut butter, all right there for all of these kids to come over here and get you a little, get you a little something to get you some energy and to get you some hydration going to beat the heat. So I learned something while I was down there as far as the hydration and maybe not even just that, like the community collectively keeping these kids safe instead of worrying about our own. I'm talking 2,000 kids out there and maybe 50 parents. Was making sure all of these babies had water and hydration, watermelon, things to keep them hydrated, because they say this is every summer for us. This is new for us. For them, that's every summer. And it usually starts, they said, around the middle of May. Boom, right before school get out. That's when they heat and they swaltering come out. And then and and that and that also goes for their little summer camps. Even in some of their summer camps, you would see them kids out at the park playing, and they had hydration stations set up. And one thing that I learned is it doesn't take much to set up a hydration station. You know, all you need is a couple of them big Gatorade buckets, some plastic cups, and a parent to sit there and hand them kids their little sip of water. Because the thing about it is they don't need that much water if you're hydrating them every 15 minutes. About that much water right there will hydrate them for an every 15-minute timeout. And when it's 90 degrees and it's muggy like it is, it is very paramount that you do it every 15 minutes for these kids. Because some kids are more delicate than others. Some kids' systems are a little more delicate than others. We have college athletes dying from heat exhaustion. We had pro athletes die from heat exhaustion. And these kids got the best of the best hydration. So you really don't think that if we don't keep our youth, our young babies hydrated, it can't happen to them. If it can happen to a 19, 20, 24-year-old kid who's a Division I player who's getting the best hydration and everything that is possibly offered to him. Now you've had some cases where coaches have abused it, which is why a couple of the football players passed away. Because you know, you have coaches, but these coaches, they're paying for it. We don't want to be one of those coaches. Again, every 15 minutes, and I learned this from down south, every 15 minutes is good for a kid to get hydrated. You're not losing no time. You take 15 minutes to hydrate them, every 15. I'm sorry, every 15 minutes you hydrate them and you give them two minutes to get hydrated. And you make sure that every kid takes that little bit. Two minutes, and they'll be back out there. It's just like the one thing that I always learn from being a coach and hearing it from somebody who told me, a psychologist once said, kids always want to be told what to do. Because they don't know how to navigate the world without you. They don't even know how to navigate the world when they get grown without you. Everything that they learn up to the point when they start learning is from you. So they want to be told what to do. I guarantee you, you tell them kids, hey, you got two minutes and the whistle blows. You might have a hard time the first two or three times, but I bet you by that fourth or fifth practice, when them kids hear that, hey, you got two minutes to hydrate, and then they hear that two-minute whistle, you're not gonna be looking over there yelling at another kid to come over here because they routine. You told them what to do. Now they know the expectation. Kids love that. So therefore, if you're on them about hydrating and you keep, you keep preaching it, what do you think they're gonna do when they go home? Hey, coach said, in order for me to stay healthy and be hydrated and be able to be the practice every day, I gotta hit my water every 15 minutes when it's hot like this. What do you think he's gonna do when he goes outside to play with his friends? He's gonna grab him a water bottle and he's gonna run and take it with him because it's been engraved in him, because you taught it to him, and now he's starting to understand, or she, I apologize, or she is starting to understand how important being hydrated is, but also following directions and also being coachable. It all falls in together. And so, with that being said, that's gonna end today. I just wanted to really go over hydration and making sure that we don't lose any kids over the summer from us not doing what we're supposed to do as coaches and parents and grown-ups and making sure that every kid is hydrated. Remember, 15 minutes for two. 15 minutes for two. You're not losing, you're only losing if you if you got a two-hour practice, what? You only losing what, two, four, maybe 10 minutes out the whole time. What is what's 10 minutes compared to a life? That's how we gotta look at it. All right. So, for my ladies and gentlemen who tuned in, thank you again for tuning in to another episode of Coach Rotto's Winning Regardless podcast. Stay hydrated and let's get it for the summer.