Friendly Fire and a Hyperbaric Chamber 5/19/12

The World League Prelims turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Not only was the competition poor – we outscored our opponents 56 – 11 over the four games – but we lost two players to injuries. Two-time Olympian, Layne Beaubien made a shot block in the Friday night game against Canada and felt something “pop” in his left shoulder. This is never a good sign for any athlete. He woke up Saturday in more pain and was out of action for the rest of the weekend. An MRI on Monday showed a tear in his left supraspinatus (part of the rotator cuff). We were all a bit scared as this is potentially a season ending injury. Further diagnostic testing this week showed that the tear was an “old injury” and the source of his pain may be from a less serious minor tear of a different muscle. His prognosis is good but he is day to day as far as how hard he can push it. To make matters worse, 2008 Olympian JW Krumpholz was injured during warm ups for the Saturday night game. He was passing balls out during warm up shooting and one of our own players accidently drilled him in the head (friendly fire) with a 55 MPH fast ball. JW was dazed and immediately came out of the water. He was confused, dizzy and spitting up blood. He was diagnosed with a concussion by our team doctor. This is certainly a scary injury at anytime but with a few weeks to go before we have to name the team it is potentially a big problem. He has been out of the water all week and we are monitoring his progress daily. The team had Monday off and when we resumed training on Tuesday we had eleven players (out of 16) in the water. That is right only eleven players! Merrill Moses and Tony Azevedo were at a USA Olympic media conference in Dallas, Ryan Bailey was still nursing his knee injury and JW and Layne were out. To say that I am concerned is a huge understatement. We have less than 70 days to go until the Games begin in London and our team is looking like a MASH unit. We actually have brought a hyperbaric chamber into my chiropractic office to help aid in our athlete’s healing. The hyperbaric chamber increases the oxygen transport capacity of the blood - theoretically allowing the body to function at a higher level and heal faster. The tissues are basically super oxygenated. Athletes are also using hyperbaric treatment for recovery. Olympian Michael Phelps is sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber every night to help him recovery from his training. I have read that one hour in the hyperbaric equals eight hours of restful sleep. I have already been in the chamber a few times myself. After all, who could not use a few more hours of restful sleep... By weeks end things were looking better, Bailey was back practicing at close to full strength and his knee has held up well. Beaubien was swimming laps with only slight pain in his shoulder and Krumpholz was also in the water swimming, although he is still waking up with a headache. Moses and Azevedo returned from their media event and are back with the team at full power. This weekend, the guys all travel to San Diego where they will play with their respective club teams in the Fischer Cup. This tournament is a twelve team tournament with boasts the best club teams in the USA. Each team will play four games over the weekend and there should be some decent competition as many of our players play for different clubs. All I am hoping for is that everyone returns healthy… This next week is our final week of preparation before Croatia and Hungary come into town. Both teams arrive on May 25th and stay for a week. We will have the opportunity to play each team twice in official games and then have some common training all week long with both teams. This will be the last opportunity at home to see Team USA play a foreign opponent before we leave for London. Both Hungary and Croatia are among the top ranked teams in the world so this should be an excellent test for us. I am excited to see where we are. If you are interested in watching some Olympic level water polo close to home it won’t get any better than this. We will play two games down at Newport Harbor High School over Memorial Day weekend and then on May 31st we are at UCLA against Hungary and on June 1st we will play Croatia at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center. Please come out and support the team. Also, if you are interested this Tuesday (May 22nd) at 7:00 pm at Buena High School, I am speaking about our team’s journey to Olympic Gold in London. A few of the team members will also be present (Jesse Smith and Merrill Moses) to share their stories. In is a nice opportunity to learn more about our team and the Olympic Games. There will also be some auction items with proceeds used to buy team lunches and dinners. Hope to see you there. See you at the pool. Coach