Guest Post By Kevin Gendron of Better Athletic Development – A-Rod – Steroids & Youth Sports

April 8, 2009 by jzaretzky
Filed under OPTC Updates

Here is my first guest blog from collegue, friend, and owner of Better Athletic Development (located in Shelton CT.) Kevin Gendron

It’s a Q & A he recently posted in his email newsletter. It’s about the whole steroid /A-Rod & Stroid problem we are seeing in youth, college, and pro sports sports

Guest Blog;

Hey Coach, did you hear about A-Rod?

The answer is yeah,unfortunately i did.

On February 9, 2009, Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003. As any baseball fan would know, that period marked the start of his signing with the Texas Rangers, starting the longest contract in baseball history. For days, all anyone saw when flipping through news stations or watching ESPN was ‘A-FRAUD ADMITS TO USING PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS’. But what does a statement like that tell us? What should we think about this kind of scandal? In the search for opinions for comparison, I found that most people were extremely disappointed to find more PED use in a sport they love, but when I asked folks what substance he used, no one knew anything about the drugs, not even the names. Everyone hid behind the scariest word in baseball history – STEROIDS.
After doing a little digging, I found this quote: “Rodriguez reportedly tested positive for the banned substances Primobolan and testosterone in 2003″ -ABC News. Testosterone is the human male sex hormone, which is made naturally by both genders but only in extremely low amounts in females, and when supplemented into the body is called a steroid. It is responsible for causing secondary sex characteristics in males, production of sperm, hair growth, and increased muscular development. Primobolan is a drug touted to stimulate production of testosterone. Now testosterone is an anabolic steroid, anabolic meaning it stimulates growth of living tissue, which is why A-Rod was using it. But again, what do steroids mean to us, our society, and our young athletes who are aspiring to be like their heroes?

Last year, a movie came out which asked these types of questions, a movie called Bigger, Stronger, and Faster. This Documentary, directed by and starring Christopher Bell, explains three brother’s struggle to find heroes, shows their battles with steroid use controversies, and the searches for information to help us better understand steroid scandals. Bell visited politicians, medical experts, athletic trainers, professional athletes, and even gym rats, to find out the truth about steroids, their positive side effects, their negative side effects, and most of all, why we as Americans might be culturally pushed into using them. The movie also talks about the misleading images of the supplement industry, and helps us see through some of the before and after photos.

In light of the A-Rod controversy, and in the quest for an entertaining way to educate our young athletes about steroids, I would fully recommend all of our athletes and their parents watch this amazing documentary!

Its reviews:
Bell’s documentary is an absolute must see for anyone taking part in any kind of debate about steroids. – Film Threat
This movie is remarkable in that it seems to be interested only in facts. – Chicago Sun-Times
Raucously funny and surprisingly insightful.- Los Angeles Times
Super Size Me on steroids! - Variety