Training Table

[SMUPonyFan]

SMU NEEDS A TRAINING TABLE.

At the Houston parents gathering earlier this week, I know someone asked Copeland about a training table for athletics. For those of you who are not sure, a training table is a food service for athletics.

Copeland pretty much said it is a dead issue. From what I have heard, there is no financing for it, and there is no actual space for it. Also, I have heard that a certain number of people outside of athletics have to use it, but I am not sure about that.

This is why we need it:
-Athletes cannot get the nutrition they need to gain weight or keep healthy from the SMU food service. As a past freshman, I know that the food at SMU is terrible.
-The stipins(sp) and/or meal tickets the players get to eat with is not enough to eat healthy and gain weight.
-If a training table is established, practices and other events can be scheduled at different times rather than having to make the coaches rush to get the players out of there in case of a late start.
-Almost every school I have heard of has one.

This is another reason why I think SMU is battling to be a contender. First we have the stupid recruiting sanctions that the administration has put on. Second we have players who are struggling to gain weight because they are malnourished(excuse the term).

We have just built a 50 million dollar facility, and we have no place to put a training table??????????? I am sure we could get the financial backing to have one, so...what is stopping us?

If you have any information on why we don't have one, please let me know. I am very interested in this topic.


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Go Red, Go Blue, Go Mustangs, S M U

[This message has been edited by SMUPonyFan (edited 05-12-2000).]

[Joyous]

A training table is a BIG NEED. I can only speak for my Son and I know he has lost weight. The training table at A&M was a big seller with good, nutrious food. I personally think it is sad the way they have to eat.

[Red+BlueDude]

I disagree. Having gone to a boarding school for high school, where the food looked like it had been scraped up off the road, I can appreciate awful food. As cafeteria food goes, SMU's is not bad at all. It's not gourmet stuff by any means, but it is more than edible. And from what I've heard, since I graduated the cafeteria has expanded to include many more eating options — including many choices of protien-laden meat, veggies, fruit, etc.

I'm not saying a training table would be a bad idea — I think it would be a great addition, and another selling point for recruits. But perhaps part of the problem is that the athletes are still students, 18-22 years old, and they do not make the best choices when they eat at the cafeteria. Shoving down a couple of cheeseburgers and fries six or seven days a week, will make our student-athletes fat and therefore slow. Maybe if we can't come up with a training table, we can instruct our athletes better on proper nutrition, maybe even having the training staff write out specific eating plans for each athlete, which would include EXACTLY what they should eat (and how much) at what time of the day. Nobody will put a gun to these kids' heads and make them follow the plan, but I would think it would help those who are committed to getting better in every way.

[Joyous]

Disagree you may - but the problem is not the food but finding time to eat or eating so early and going back to practice and basically working it off then finding yourself starving around 9:00 p.m. Try it, it's not as easy as it sounds.

[SMUPonyFan]

I disagree with you Red+Blue Dude, Joyous is right, the players are not gaining weight. I would understand your argument if the players were fat and overweight, but that is not our problem, they are skinny and not eating right. Our OL and DL need to be gaining weight, they are not.
If we had a training table, they players could eat more than three times a day, based on their schedule, not the schools schedule.

Also, in regards to the strength coaches telling the players what to eat...they can tell them all they want, that does not mean they will eat it. With a training table, the players are basically handed their meal, the food they are supposed to be eating.

I also forgot about the recruiting appeal. Maybe that is why we don't have one, the we have to fight the administration.

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Go Red, Go Blue, Go Mustangs, S M U

[smudad]

I agree. And I disagree w/ Red+Blue Dude. Eating to get by and eating for athletic training are two entirely different animals. My son played baseball a year at a small school in Georgia. He ate when and where the rest of the student body ate. Problem was, by the time they had practice, worked on fields (you do that at small schools) etc. you were lucky to get to the cafeteria before it closed and pickings were often pretty slim unless the food wasn't fit to eat anyhow. His weight work never seemed to pay any dividends. Food just may have been the problem. It's just another disadvantage, both on the playing field and on the recruiting road.

[Guest]

Struggling to gain and/or maintain weight is a year round effort. Because of weight-lifting, running and practices, often it is difficult to get to the cafeteria. Also, the food is not always conducive to gaining muscle weight rather than fat weight. My son has to eat at least four times a day to just maintain his weight, and when heavy practices begin, he will drop weight. They don't want to get fat, just stronger and bigger with muscle gain. It would be helpful if there were a carefully planned training table which would help with their gaining and maintaining "good" weight.

[Smoodaddy]

I am in complete agreement with the need for a training table. A highly disiplined person could probably follow a dietary meal plan even in the school cafeteria, but why not remove all barriers and help these guys out.

[ALL4SMU]

I feel that if we want to be a top-notch program, we must be have all the advantages that other schools have. I can think of two majoy disadvantages that the SMU coaches have to deal with.

1. The whole thing about not being able to bring a recruit on an official visit until he has been accepted into the school.

2. If we want our players to perform well, they are going to have to be in tip-top shape. For some this might require gaining weight, while with others, it might require dropping weight. We really need this training table. I cannot believe we can build a 50 million dollar stadium but not have a training table.

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"Show me a happy and gracious loser, and I'll show you a failure."- Knute Rockne

[Rayburn]

A training table would be an advantage for recruiting purposes alone. I don't think SMU's athletes are starving. At least not the ones I've seen.

[DiamondM]

I think that training table is a traditional football expenditure that uses money that could be spent better elsewhere in the Athletic Department. I see it as unnecessary babysitting of adults, if it is a matter of "well, the coaches can tell them what to eat but that doesn't mean they'll do it." If we can't trust 18-22 year olds to follow a training regimen unless they are sppon fed, we have more problems than the absence of a table. If it is a matter of time to eat, then why can't the coaches schedule weight training and team meetings, etc. around the not so difficult meal schedule? I don't think it's a matter of comraderie, because at least when I was there, the football players tended to sit together any way in Umphrey Lee. Actually, there are quite a few healthy, nutricious choices at SMU, and a proper weight maintenance or weight gain regimen could probably be designed, but if not, I'm sure there are a few key items that could be added to the current menu. So that leaves recruiting tool as a reason to have it, which is essentially this: "if you come to SMU, you'll eat better food, and more often, than non-football players just like other big state schools who are wasting your tax money to do so. Come see our perks." It just doesn't make sense to me.

[ALL4SMU]

While I certainly respect your opinion, I am going to have to disagree. I don't feel that a training table is "unnecessary babysitting of adults". I feel that it is a valuable tool for student-athletes. I think athletes of all sports could and would benefit from a training table. I know they certainly do at other schools. In order be serious in gaining weight, a player (or a regular person) must eat two grams of protein for every 1 pound of lean body mass. For some of our lineman, we are talking about a figure in the neighborhood of 500 grams of protein a day. That is going to be very difficult for an athlete to do without knowing a lot about nutrition and having good choices right in front of him. A training table could provide a set regimen for each individual player, according to his or her needs. And in regards to losing weight, everyone knows that it is a difficult process. A training table is not going to stop an athlete from going to the local bar, pounding ten jack and cokes, and then going to the greenville whataburger and eating a double cheeseburger with fries. The way to stop that is with discipline. Plain and simple. If a player does not have the needed discipline, than there are ways for a coach to "strongly encourage" a player to eat right. What a training table will do is give the player no other option as to what he or she can eat at his or her meals. Now if a player does this, and continues to gain weight or not lose weight, then a coach can punish him with some sort of physical activity.

I would not look at this as an expenditure that is not necessary, I would look at it as a way for coaches to protect their investment. The coaches and the school have invested quite a bit of time into these kids in addition to a large amount of money (what is tuition these days anyway?).

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"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder"

"Show me a happy and gracious loser, and I'll show you a failure."- Knute Rockne

[jettison]

Arguing for a nutritious meal plan, then signing off with 'Beauty is in the eye of the BEER holder'... now that's classic irony.

So, they call it a training table why? Is it because at some point in recent history somebody decided dining halls for exclusively athletes would not be allowed.

When it's 1000 degrees and you are wearing pads and wrecking each other on torn up turf, inevitably people lose weight. I don't think my brother had any trouble following his coach's diet recommendations, and he gained the necessary weight, only to lose the weight during spring practice... it's impossible not to under those conditions.

I'm speaking from both sides, because I worked hard through school without a full scholarship and ate crappy food with everybody else. I think we shouldn't be lobbying for nutritious food for athletes only... I think all the students deserve better food, and they always have a choice anyway.

[ALL4SMU]

I was arguing for a meal plan for athletes...not for me...Beer is good.

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"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder"

"Show me a happy and gracious loser, and I'll show you a failure."- Knute Rockne