Steroids - we done this yet?

[goodNumber10]

Ex-rugby player Dean Colclough broke anti-doping rules - banned from all sport for 8 years:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-26327387

how rife do you reckon this kind of stuff is within union and/or league?

 

[ratsapprentice]

It's been done before, yes.

I don't really care TBH.
I don't consider it cheating. Well - I don't feel cheated by athletes using PEDs in the same way that a lot of people do.
Clearly it's illegal - so it is technically "cheating".

The only issue surrounding PED's in my mind is the potential danger to health of players.
I'm not suggesting that PED's are universally/inherently dangerous because they aren't, but they do have potentially severe effect on people and should not be used outside of the guidance of a specialist - which is made difficult by their legal status.
I'm of the opinion that they should be legalised and brought above board for athletes.

The social implications are greater than the sporting ones.
If they were legalised then you'd have 15 year olds wanting to take whatever Usain Bolt is on, and probably doing so without the advise of a specialist who knows what they are doing - which can (and does) lead to problems.
Particularly as people have very warped ideas about them - people will take more and more and more thinking that it will overcome their genetic inferiority to elite athletes.

In terms of how many players use them... very difficult to say.
Simply - unless you have been in the professional environment (as an S&C coach/team doctor) then you probably don't know - no matter how sure you are either way.
I'd think that they probably are used most often for injury recovery.

 

[goodNumber10]

Disagree with pretty much all of that first paragraph - i do feel let down by athletes who do it.

Agree about social impact and effects of miss managing it

What about the bbc article I posted? any thoughts on that?

 

[ratsapprentice]

Care to explain why..?

 

[goodNumber10]

Because for me athleticism should be natural.

 

[ratsapprentice]

So your issue is that PED's are synthesised?

You think that cryotherapy chanbers, hyperbaric chambers etc. should be illegal too?

 

[Maverick1987]

I think anything to help recovery is ok but any PEDs are and should be banned IMO I don't feel for example Lance Armstrong is as well respected as Wiggo for example he won by cheating

 

[ratsapprentice]

It's only cheating because they are banned - why do you think they should be banned in the first place?

 

[goodNumber10]

Heh! I was waiting for that... I've not given it that much thought but I think there is a difference, yes. I'm not sure I'm capable of articulating it well enough. At least without coming across a massive hypocrite.

Sport science is a minefield for this kind of argument so I can only give my opinion within my own opinion within the context of my involvement within the sport.

As a coach I expect people to work hard within the rules of the game both from a training and playing point of view.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

M...mass?

 

[Patchey]

M...mass?

Mass is king.

 

[goodNumber10]

Lol

 

[goodNumber10]

It's only cheating because they are banned - why do you think they should be banned in the first place?

It's not really our call, the simple fact is they are banned....... the other things you mention aren't and are within the laws of world sports governing bodies.

There is a whole host of reasoning as to why they are banned, and not being a scientist or privy to that data I'll bow to their greater knowledge, but it's a semantic argument as with any kind of legal tolerance discussion not just steroids.

I wasn't really aiming for the is "Steroids are bad m'kay" discussion, it was more how prevalent they are in the sport and what peopel thought of this guy being banned for 8 years.

 

[ratsapprentice]

You know he's retired?

 

[goodNumber10]

yes, funnily enough i read the article right before i posted it and used the term "Ex-Rugby player" in my opening post.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Banning a retired player...

 

[goodNumber10]

What's your point?

 

[goodNumber10]

You understand he's banned from all involvement in any sport, not just rugby union?

 

[DCC]

Rats apprentice - what are you actually talking about? Players that take steroids are cheats, simple as that. And any player talking them and playing rugby is a cheat because they are giving themselves a huge, unnatural advantage over players that are clean, and play the sport properly and train properly.

Has anyone heard of any teams/ex players who do this currently? I'd be interested to know.

- - - Updated - - -

I'd like to discuss this Dean Colclough and whether or not there are any others like him out there? Ex players that deal steroids to current players etc? Does this go on, and if so, whom? Feel free to send me a private message with any names.

Steroids is a growing problem within the sport. The figures from NICE show that the needle exchange programme has had a 2000 per cent influx in the past two years, and that's down to people in the UK using steroids. Almost half the banned sportspeople on the UKAD list are rugby union or rugby league players. So rugby accounts for more than 50 per cent of all bans across sport, and most of it is steroids.

There's a great deal of anecdotal evidence coming out of south Wales about teams in the lower leagues being driven by steroids. What do people think? Is this true? Has anyone heard anything?

It's a debate worth having because this is a problem that is getting worse in the sport, and those with views like Rats Apprentice above are both who are apologists for doping within sport.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Apologist?

I simply disagree with it being outright illegal in the first place - I'm not saying that it isn't cheating, because clearly, that would be factually incorrect.

Nice necrobump, btw.