Creatine In Ncaa Baseball Essays - Bodybuilding Supplements

Creatine In Ncaa Baseball Creatine in NCAA Baseball Mark McGwire uses it. Sammy Sosa uses it. The Atlanta Braves have tubs of it in their locker room. Then why does Scott Carnahan, Linfield College's varsity baseball coach and coach of the 1994 U.S.A. Olympic baseball team emphasize, ?I will not participate in distributing it to any of my players It is Creatine and it has become a health concern among most NCAA baseball coaches in Oregon. Creatine is a substance that is naturally produced in every human being. Every adult has around 130 grams of Creatine in their body. It allows us to run fast, lift hard, and react quickly. These are all the essentials of NCAA baseball. In recent years, Creatine had been developed as a food supplement to enhance muscle performance. So why wouldn't NCAA baseball coaches in Oregon distribute the food supplement known as Creatine to their athletes? Yes, it is expensive at $49.99 for 100 grams of powder. But, many coaches in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (an association that regulates many intercollegiate sports) are more concerned about the safety of the player. There are six NCAA baseball teams in Oregon. These teams work hard every year to accomplish a winning season, a conference title, or a national championship. Players at Linfield, George Fox, Willamette, Oregon State, Pacific, and University of Portland face the pressure to win every season. Linfield College pitcher, Geoff Phillips describes the pressure as, relentless. ?There is always pressure to work hard in the weight room and train at 100%. Most of the pressure comes from the competition we face and our personal desire to win,? said Phillips. 1 To compete at their highest level, ball players have to find time to bulk up. Weight lifting has always been a part of college baseball. After all, modern athletes develop their strength and endurance in the weight room. But, where once players spent 3-5 hours a week in the weight room, most players now lift 8-10 hours a week. Oregon State's head baseball coach, Pat Casey reached his 100th victory last year, the first OSU coach to do so in fewer than 5 years. ?Winning isn't something that comes natural. It takes a lot of hard work outside of practice,? Casey stated in an OSU publication. Linfield head baseball coach, Carnahan, agrees. He assigns a workout schedule that works all major muscle groups and many minor muscle groups. It's a similar story in the Willamette weight room where players work each body part twice a week. ?This could take up to 6 days a week depending on how many body parts they work on a day,? said Coach Wong. The fact is everybody wants to win. Tough competition and personal desire to win causes a lot of college players in Oregon to take Creatine as a means of boosting their athletic performance. It became a part of NCAA baseball in the middle 1990's when studies showed that Creatine might enhance player capabilities. According to the NCAA Guide Line, Creatine has been found in some laboratory studies to enhance short term, high-intensity exercise capability, delay fatigue and increase strength. Creatine can also increase muscle strength as much as one and one half times quicker than non-users, according to the Natural Medicines comprehensive database. Although several studies have contradicted the efficiency of Creatine, it has been 2 very popular among ball players. One survey conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine indicated that 30% of all male collegiate athletes had used Creatine at one time. On average, there are 45 players that compete on NCAA baseball teams in Oregon. Of the six NCAA programs in Oregon, four teams reported that nearly half of their players had used Creatine during the season. Creatine has produced the kind of results that some players are looking for. A Linfield pitcher states that many players on his team are experiencing positive results. ?Probably about half of our team had taken Creatine. It has allowed our players to workout harder and longer,? said Phillips. Second baseman, Kevin Hill, has also had good results using Creatine. ?For the past month and a half Creatine has helped me to gain weight and lift at the level I