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In the Southern Hemisphere, serious rugby players and coaches are already well into their preparation for the new season, while in the Northern Hemisphere, mid-season strain and injuries are beginning to take their toll and recovery becomes an important part of preparation, for the season is long and arduous.

Thank heavens for the ice-bath now recognised as a vital part of after-match procedure - a procedure, unfortunately, not available to the ordinary rugby player or club, unless you are prepared to fill your own bath with ice and leap into it after a match or tough practice! Not my idea of fun but, ironically, we unknowingly used this method of guaranteeing quick recovery many, many years ago, when clubs did not have hot water showers and one had to immersed oneself in the icy, winter water trickling from a battered shower-head in an attempt to remove all the mud from all the bodily bulges and crevices.

For those who are not familiar with the ice-bath treatment, here is a description of why and how.

It takes the body a long time to recover from hard training, matches and the injuries resulting from them. A professional outfit cannot afford to have players unable to take part in practices or matches because of bruises, strains, tears and fatigue - nor indeed, can any side. The practice in the top professional sides, now, is to insist that players immerse themselves in a bath of ice water for a period of time (thank heavens I am past playing!) after which they jump into a warm/hot shower. They repeat this process three times. (Holy hell!)

The cold, icy water constricts the blood vessels while, obviously, the hot shower dilates them, or, I should say, returns them to their normal state.

Most of you coaches and players are aware of the fact that what causes stiffness in a muscle after hard work on the field or in the gym is the formation of lactic acid within the layers of muscle. It causes pain and tightness in the muscle. It has been found that leaping in and out of bath into shower, from cold water to hot, contracts and expands the blood vessels, clears out or, better put, flushes out this lactic acid and thus relieves stiffness and pain. It is not the leaping that does it (I cannot imagine anyone getting slowly out of ice water, strolling across to a warm shower and then ambling back to immerse himself, once more, in ice).

The rate of recovery from hard games and training is considerably accelerated by this procedure.

This, my first 2005 article is short but I do believe that one cannot write at any length on the subject of ice baths. It would be a sort of contradiction, for many reasons!