A one-day summit to address recent occurrences of student-athletes collapsing during summer conditioning sessions will take place at the American Football Coaches Association convention in Nashville January 11.  There have been a number of sudden deaths in recent years during off-season work-outs.

While such tragedies are rare, everyone involved in football, from administrators, coaches and strength and conditioning staff to athletic trainers and physicians should be aware of the potential for such occurrences and prepare accordingly.

Stakeholders from the AFCA, the National Athletics Trainers’ Association and the NCAA will collaborate with expert sports-medicine physicians to discuss the reasons for sudden collapse, what to look for regarding possible symptoms, and outline recovery strategies and emergency-response protocols.  

Members of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports will also take part in the summit.

Factors that typically contribute to the issue have included extreme high-intensity exercise, often among freshmen and within the first days of conditioning.

After three Miami football players were forced to leave practice this summer due to concerns over heat exhaustion, the Double-A Zone, the official blog of the NCAA, wrote a post calling for greater caution during conditioning practices. Where do you think schools should draw the line between student-athletes getting in playing shape and taking part in unsafe practice conditions? Share your thoughts here.