Wrestlers and especially parents of wrestlers worry most about catastrophic injuries like broken limbs and twisted joints. However, if you want to make a wrestling coach break out in a cold sweat, let him think that a contagious rash has broken out among his team. These conditions are not only common in wrestling, but have the potential to shut down an entire program while athletes recover.
Kinds of Rash
Contagious skin rashes are a kind of skin infection, in many cases caused when an infectious agent gets a foot hold in a small cut or abrasion. Rashes common to wrestlers include bacterial infections like impetigo, parasitic rashes like ringworm and yeast infections in the armpits or groin. Although specific symptoms vary from rash to rash, all of them show signs of discoloration accompanied by discomfort or itching.
Risk Factors
The infectious agents that cause skin rashes spread best when infected skin is in contact with other skin that has been cut or abraded. Unfortunately, this describes exactly the conditions during most wrestling practices. The agents like moist areas without direct sunlight, again an almost perfect description of most school wrestling rooms and locker rooms.
Personal Prevention
As an individual, you can reduce your risk of contracting a skin rash by keeping yourself and your equipment clean. Shower with hot water and soap after each practice or match. Launder your uniform regularly and wear different clothes to each practice. When storing your wrestling gear -- especially your headgear and shoes -- hang them up, preferably in direct sunlight. Don't just leave them in your gym bag for days at a time.
Team Prevention
Team managers and coaches need to take a double-pronged approach at preventing rashes. Cleanliness is the best weapon, so mats and other equipment should be wiped down with disinfectant after every practice session. Along with those preventive measures, you should also encourage cleanliness among team members and be alert for signs of skin rash on your athletes. If one wrestler shows symptoms, you must bar him from the mat until he gets a doctor's approval to get back.
Mat Rash
The injury known to wrestlers as mat rash isn't a rash at all. It's an abrasion from rubbing one body part or another too quickly on the mat or another wrestler. Mat rash isn't contagious, but does present the broken skin that increases that wrestler's risk for contracting a contagious skin rash.
References
- All Star Activities: Wrestling Skin Disorders
- MayoClinic.com: Impetigo
- "Coaching Wrestling Successfully"; Dan Gable; 2004
