Before you start
Use it when
Use when an athlete is ill and the family needs to organize what is happening before practice or a clinician call.
Have ready
- Observed symptoms, start time, severity, and function
- Fluid/food access, medications already directed, and support contacts
You will get
- A familiar-food/fluid access plan
- Training hold, urgent-care, or qualified-review prompts based on selected observations
Select all current symptoms
Select every observation that applies. This creates a conversation brief, not a diagnosis or return-to-play decision.
Above the Neck
Head and throat symptoms
Systemic
Whole-body symptoms
Below the Neck
Chest, body, and energy
GI / Stomach
Stomach and gut symptoms
Use this in practice
- When an athlete or parent reports illness, have the family record symptoms, start times, temperature readings already taken, and what has stayed down.
- Use the availability section to put familiar, tolerated choices within reach without prescribing amounts or introducing a new product.
- Send participation and return questions to the athletic trainer or clinician — a coach and this tool do not set that date.
Direct evidence
What this tool teaches
Get the facts ready before anyone decides about practice
Sick Day Conversation Prep gives a result. This is the idea behind it, for the runner, the family, and the coach.
For the runner
- When you are sick, your body needs rest, fluids, and food you already like.
- A doctor or the trainer decides about practice, not this page and not your coach.
- The list gets your facts ready so that call is quick.
Tap what you feel, then help a parent write down when each one started and what stayed down.
For example Mia woke with a fever and a chest cough on Tuesday. She tapped both. The page told her family to write down every temperature reading, then call the trainer before talking about practice.
Not true: if it is above the neck you can always run it off.
For families
- Tap every symptom, then print or copy the brief before you call. It lists the questions the trainer or pediatrician asks first.
- Put two familiar choices within reach, such as water and the soup your runner already knows. Illness is not the day to test a new drink or powder.
- Tell the coach your runner is unavailable until you have guidance, and do not promise a return date. The clinician sets that, not this page.
- Put the practice, race, travel, and school details in one message so the clinician can see the timing pressure you are under.
Try this week Write the athletic trainer's number and the pediatrician's after-hours line on the fridge now, while nobody in the house is sick.
Watch for Fluids that will not stay down, far less urine than usual, or symptoms that keep worsening mean a same-day clinician call. Trouble breathing at rest, chest pain, fainting, confusion, or blue lips mean the emergency route now.
For the coach
Say this
- You are out until your family hears back from the athletic trainer or your doctor. I do not set that date, and neither does this page.
- Ask your family to tap what they see and put the practice, race, and travel dates in the same message to the trainer.
- Chest pain, trouble breathing at rest, or fainting means emergency services now, not a note for the morning.
Ask themWhen did each symptom start, and what have you managed to keep down?
Why it works
Whether a sick athlete trains depends on the illness and on history this page cannot see, so it organizes the family's observations for the clinician instead of ruling.
A sick stomach tolerates what it already knows, so the brief puts familiar drinks and simple foods within reach and adds nothing new.
The symptom zones exist to speed the call, not to sort athletes: a fever or a chest cough changes the questions the clinician asks first.
Run it with the team
Post the link with the illness paragraph at the August parent meeting, then send it again in the first week of December. Families own it; my only entry is unavailable on the roster, with no symptom written next to a name.
Don't say
- “Above the neck, you can run it off.” That shortcut skips fever and history; the athletic trainer or physician decides.
- “Drink a lot and you will be fine by Saturday.” Forcing fluids and promising a return date are calls a coach does not make.
Where to go next