HYDRATION PROFILE AND SWEAT LOSS PERCEPTION
OF MALE AND FEMALE DIVISION II BASKETBALL
PLAYERS DURING PRACTICE
LAUREN K. THIGPEN, JAMES M. GREEN, AND ERIC K. O’NEAL
Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama
ABSTRACT
Thigpen, LK, Green, JM, and O’Neal, EK. Hydration profile and
sweat loss perception of male and female division II basketball
players during practice. J Strength Cond Res 28(12): 3425–
3431, 2014—Hydration affects multiple aspects of basketball per-
formance, but few investigations have examined the hydration pro-
files of collegiate basketball players. We examined multiday
prepractice hydration status of 11 male and 11 female NCAA
(National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division II basketball play-
ers’ sweat losses, fluid intake, and how accurately players esti-
mated their sweat losses. Urine-specific gravity (USG) was
spontaneously assessed before 2 practices. Sweat losses and
fluid intakes were measured during a conditioning practice (CP)
and sport-specific practice (SP). After practices, players filled
1,030 ml practice bottles to estimate their sweat losses. Urine-
specific gravity between practices exhibited a moderate correlation
(r = 0.54; p = 0.012) and were consistently high (17% of samples
= USG .1.030) with no difference in mean USG between men
(1.026 6 0.004) and women (1.022 6 0.008). Athletes’ estima-
tions of their sweat loss volumes between CP and the longer SP
were strongly correlated (r = 0.88; p , 0.001). Estimation error
was high (absolute error for both practices = 71 6 52%) and error
direction varied greatly within men. Women consistently underesti-
mated sweat losses by 63 6 28% and 65 6 20% during CP and
SP. Sweat losses during SP equaled 2,471 6 495 ml and 1,910
6 441 ml for men and women, respectively, but high practice fluid
intake limited body mass losses to 1.1 6 0.6% by the end of
practice. It is plausible that hypohydration is related to poor con-
ceptualization of sweat losses. Simulating the methodology of this
study could help identify chronically hypohydrated athletes and be
used to educate on between-practice fluid needs.
KEY WORDS urine-specific gravity, collegiate athletes,
dehydration, gender
Address correspondence to Eric K. O’Neal, eoneal1@una.edu.
28(12)/3425–3431
Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
Ó 2014 National Strength and Conditioning Association
Copyright © National Strength and Conditioning Association Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
INTRODUCTION
D
ehydration of ;3–4% body mass impairs anaer-
obic performance and is likely exacerbated later
in exercise where repeated high-intensity effort
bouts are required such as in basketball (11).
Dehydration also results in slower response time and deci-
sion making for basketball players (3) and degrades basket-
ball shooting and sport-specific movement drills (4,9).
Training and competition during a collegiate basketball sea-
son is intense, and the short time between practices and
games makes proper rehydration imperative to optimizing
performance.
There is lack of information examining the day-to-day
hydration status of male vs. female collegiate basketball
players during rigorous training periods. However, evidence
from other collegiate sports and higher-level basketball
players suggest regular hypohydration and possibly a differ-
ence between genders may exist. The National Athletic
Trainers’ Association (8) promotes that athletes should
attempt to exhibit urine-specific gravity (USG) less than
1.020 before practice or competition. Armstrong et al. (1)
found male collegiate tennis players displayed consistently
higher prematch USG levels (1.027 6 0.005 for both days 2
and 3 of a 3-day tournament) compared with women com-
peting in the same environment (USG day 2 = 1.021 6
0.008; day 3 = 1.017 6 0.010). Volpe et al. (22) also reported
similar high USG levels (.1.020 = 66%) and greater levels of
hypohydration in men than women (47% of men and
28% of women = USG . 1.020) when collecting spontane-
ous prepractice USG levels of athletes across 14 different
sports (basketball not included). This gender-related trend
is also exhibited in professional basketball players. Osterberg
et al. (16) reported that 52% of male National Basketball
Association (NBA) players had pregame USG levels greater
than 1.020, and Hamouti et al. (10) found all 11 male
national level European basketball players had USG levels
greater than 1.020 before a morning practice. In contrast,
Brandenburg and Gaetz (6) reported pregame USG levels
of 1.005 6 0.002 and 1.010 6 0.005 before games held on
consecutive days for elite female basketball players.
One possible explanation for such high rates of hypohy-
dration for athletes, particularly men, reporting to practice or
VOLUME 28 | NUMBER 12 | DECEMBER 2014 | 3425
 Hydration in Basketball
games and matches may be that some athletes vastly
underestimate the amount of sweat they lose during practice
resulting in a false sense that their rehydration efforts have
been effective. Runners have been shown to consistently
underestimate their sweat losses by ;50% whether reporting
sweat loss estimates on pen and paper (17) or quantifying
sweat loss estimations by filling paper race cups with water
(15). Sweat rates vary greatly between athletes, but losses in
excess of 2 L$h21 are not uncommon in basketball in pro-
fessional male basketball players (16). Athletes will typically
void a third or more of their postexercise fluid intake (23),
meaning heavy sweaters must consume vast amounts of fluid
that may potentially exceed inherent thirst drive to regain
fluid losses.
If athletes could conceptualize the volume of sweat loss
they incur and were informed of how much fluid would be
needed to return to a state of euhydration, more effective
between-practice rehydration might be possible. The au-
thors are unaware of any investigation that has examined
how accurately nonendurance athletes perceive their indi-
vidual sweat losses during practice. Therefore, the purpose of
this study was to determine how accurately collegiate men
and women basketball players estimate their sweat losses.
Additionally, spontaneous prepractice hydration status
(USG) and practice fluid consumption were assessed. We
hypothesized that the majority of athletes would report to
practice hypohydrated and underestimate sweat losses, but
that men would report more hypohydrated and underesti-
mate sweat losses to a greater extent than women.
METHODS
Experimental Approach to the Problem
A descriptive examination of natural prepractice hydration
status of collegiate basketball players was assessed using
USG from collections of spontaneous voids before off-
season, morning conditioning practices (CPs) and preseason,
afternoon official sport-specific practices (SP). Fluid intake,
practice sweat losses, and estimations of sweat losses were
also quantified, and comparisons of dependent variables
were made within participants between practices and
between genders when applicable.
Subjects
Male (n = 11) and female (n = 11) NCAA (National Colle-
giate Athletic Association) Division II college basketball
players (age range = 18–22 years) volunteered to participate
in this study. Participants were approached before an early
preseason practice and advised of the experimental proce-
dures and associated risks. All players completed a written
informed consent form, physical activity readiness question-
naire, and health status questionnaire before data collection.
Each player had passed a physician administered physical
before the athletic competition year. Player height was deter-
mined using a stadiometer (Detecto, Webb City, MO, USA),
and body fat percentage was estimated using skinfold
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3426 Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
Copyright © National Strength and Conditioning Association Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
thickness measurements (Lange Caliper, Cambridge, MD,
USA) at 3-sites (men: chest, abdomen, thigh; women: tricep,
suprailiac, thigh) (18). Age, height, weight, and body fat were
21 6 1 years, 188 6 9 cm, 85.4 6 7.6 kg, 8.7 6 2.4% for men
and 19 6 1 year, 175 6 8 cm, 75.3 6 10.1 kg, 14.2 6 6.4%
women, respectively. All procedures were approved by the
local institutional review board, and subjects provided writ-
ten consent before data collection.
Procedures
Investigators collected data for a CP during late September
to early October that was completed before in-season SPs
were allowed. Data for the SP were collected during mid-to-
late October and included individual and team drills.
Description of each practice duration and activities com-
pleted, heart rate, and environment are displayed in Table 1,
in addition to a description of each practice activities. A
description of activities during CP and SP are listed in Table
1. All efforts were made to minimize investigators’ influence
on normal practice routines. Team coaches were informed of
the procedures that would take place and practice dates to
conduct testing were established. Practice dates were chosen
in coordination with each team’s head coach to ensure that
each practice would be rigorous in nature (i.e., not on days in
which walkthroughs would be taking place).
Participants provided a urine sample before the start of the
selected practice as they arrived for morning CP or for
afternoon SP. Prepractice USG was measured in duplicate by
2 investigators using a manual refractometer (Master-URC/
NM; Atago, Tokyo, Japan). Investigators instructed coaches
to refrain from informing athletes of the dates testing would
take place so that spontaneous prepractice USG levels could
be assessed without participant bias. The majority of samples
were collected during CP and SP. However, some athletes
were unable to urinate during the short period after they
arrived to the gym and before practice began for one of the
CP or SP practices. Investigators made unannounced visits
to assess USG before practices shortly after the CP or SP
practice for players who were unable to provide a sample.
One female player was unable to provide any urine samples.
All urine voids after the initial weigh-in were collected and
measured to use in calculating sweat loss. Prepractice body
mass was measured to the nearest 0.1 kg on a digital scale
(BWB-800; Tanita Digital Scale, Tokyo, Japan) with partic-
ipants wearing minimal clothing (undergarments and bas-
ketball shorts). After weight assessment, participants
changed into their standardized practice clothing (different
set of clothing than worn during weight measurement) and
were fitted with a heart rate monitor (Team2; Polar Electro
Oy, Kempele, Finland) that measured heart rate continu-
ously in 5-second increments.
Investigators filled, weighed, and labeled one 1,030 ml
practice sport bottle with water for each player before each
practice. Practice bottles were matched to athletes, and
investigators monitored the sport bottles to ensure that
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Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research | www.nsca.com

TABLE 1. Description of CP and SP.*

CP SP

Men Women Men Women

Start time, hours 0605 0600 1330 1700

Duration, min 45 95 170 170
Heart rate, b$min21 159 6 7 144 6 8 135 6 14 153 6 11
WBGT, 8C 20.0 6 0.0 20.4 6 0.7 17.2 6 0.4 18.5 6 0.9
Dry temperature, 8C 22.5 6 0.1 23.9 6 1.0 19.6 6 2.5 23.7 6 0.8
Practice activities DWU (15), DWU (15), RT (30), SDDP/SPR (15), 4v4 HC DWU (10), AD (30), SDDP
(duration in min) SPR/SR (30) SPR/SR/AD (50) (30), SDDP/SPR (10), (15), 5v5 HC (20), SDDP
5v5 HC (20), SDDP (10), (25), 3v3 FC (10), 5v5 FC
4v4 HC (20), 5v5 FC (20), SDDP (10), 5v5 FC
(30), SDDP/SPR (30), (20), SDDP (20)
RT (20)

*CP = conditioning practice; DWU = dynamic warm-up drills; RT = resistance training; SPR = sprints; SR = shuttle running; AD = agility
drills; SDDP = shooting, dribbling, defensive; or passing drills; HC = half-court; FC = full court; WBGT = wet bulb globe temperature.

athletes only drank out of their bottle and did not spit out practices and games and two, 3 L pitchers of water in
any fluids. During practice, the bottles were kept on ice in a privacy room. Participants were given the instructions,
a cooler and made continually available to the athletes as “Please estimate the volume of sweat you believe you lost
dictated by the practice conditions. Wet bulb globe temper- during today’s practice by filling the sports bottles with
ature (TH-8 Temperature Monitor; Physitemp Inc., Clifton, water from the pitchers. You may use as many bottles as
NJ, USA) was recorded at court level every 10 minutes desired. One bottle is equal to 1.03 liters or approximately
throughout each practice session and a log was kept 35 fluid ounces of water.” After the participants finished their
describing the drills and activities during each practice. estimations, the sport bottles were weighed to the nearest
After practice, players showered, dried off, and changed 2 g. Participants were allowed to change their estimate, if
back into the same set of minimal dry clothing they wore desired, after seeing the mass of the filled bottles. Investiga-
during the initial weight assessment so postpractice body tors instructed participants to not share their sweat loss esti-
weight could be determined for use in sweat loss calcu- mation with teammates.
lations. Postpractice bottle mass was measured to the nearest
2 g (KD-200; Tanita, Tokyo, Japan) to determine fluid Statistical Analyses
consumption. After weight assessment, players were pre- Independent and paired samples t-tests were used to analyze
sented with a set of three 1.030 ml sports bottles identical to differences between genders or within subjects. Pearson
the bottles they were accustomed to drinking from during r was used to examine correlation between variables
associated with sweat losses,
estimations, and USG. Data
are presented as mean 6 SD.
Statistical significance was con-
TABLE 2. Prepractice USG.*
sidered as p # 0.05.
Level of dehydration† cases (%)
RESULTS
Mean 6 SD #1.020 1.021–1.030 .1.030
Prepractice Urine-
Women (n = 10)z 1.022 6 0.008 5 (25) 11 (55) 4 (20) Specific Gravity
Men (n = 11) 1.026 6 0.004 4 (18) 15 (68) 3 (14) Few athletes exhibited preprac-
Total (n = 21) 1.024 6 0.007 9 (21) 26 (62) 7 (17)
tice USG levels #1.020, and
*USG = urine-specific gravity. there were no differences
†Classifications based on NATA (14) guidelines; minimal = #1.020; significant = 1.021– between genders for mean
1.030; serious = .1.030.
zOne female player was unable to provide a prepractice USG sample. USG (Table 2). Urine-specific
gravity is also displayed by
NATA classifications in Table 2.

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Copyright © National Strength and Conditioning Association Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
 Hydration in Basketball
Figure 1. Scatterplot depicting first and second urine-specific gravity
measurements collected (r = 0.54; p = 0.012). Markers with no fill
represent men (n = 11). Markers with fill represent women (n = 10).
The USG between practices displayed a moderate correlation
(Figure 1; r = 0.54; p = 0.012) when data for both genders were
combined suggesting consistent rehydration behavior with
many individuals displaying repeated levels of prepractice hypo-
hydration or hyperhydration. When the 2 USG samples were
analyzed by gender, a strong correlation was found for women
(r = 0.72; p = 0.02), but there was no relationship (r = 0.21; p =
0.54) between samples for men. However, this is likely because
of the small sample size and minimal distribution range of very
high USG scores for men, whereas there were 2 female athletes
with consistently low USG levels (Table 2 and Figure 1).
Sweat Losses
Sweat loss expressed in total, rate per hour, and percentage
of body mass in addition to fluid intake and sweat loss
estimate data are displayed in Table 3. Both SP lasted 170 mi-
nutes and were very similar in activities, but the differences
TABLE 3. Sweat losses and fluid intake for CP and SP (n = 22; mean 6 SD).*
Sweat loss
Total, ml Rate, ml$h21 % body mass
Men
CP 969 6 250† 1263 6 326†z 1.1 6 0.3†z 523 6 250†z
SP 2471 6 495* 872 6 175* 2.9 6 0.6 1535 6 571
Women
CP 1112 6 271† 702 6 171 1.5 6 0.3†
SP 1910 6 441 674 6 156 2.5 6 0.4
*CP = conditioning practice; SP = sport-specific practice.
†Significantly different (p # 0.05) from SP within gender.
zSignificantly different (p # 0.05) from women within the same practice context (i.e., CP or SP).
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3428 Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
Copyright © National Strength and Conditioning Association Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
in duration and activities make comparing CP data difficult
as the men’s practice was much shorter but of higher inten-
sity (almost all sprinting and shuttle drills). Predictably, total
sweat losses were greater during the SP than CP for both
groups (Table 3). Sweat rate was greater during the CP than
SP for men but not women between CP and SP because of
the difference in nature of activities between practice types
(Table 3). No player, male or female, lost 2% or greater body
mass from sweating during CP, but 5 men and 1 woman lost
more than 3% body mass during the SP. During SP, total
percentage body mass lost was not significant (p = 0.10)
between genders (Table 3).
Fluid Intake
Both men and women averaged replacing over half of sweat
losses in each practice condition (Table 3). Fluid intake dur-
ing CP was significantly different (p = 0.04) between men
and women and neared significance (p = 0.054) during SP
(Table 3). When fluid intake was included, men experienced
a loss of 0.52 6 0.27% during CP and 1.12 6 0.60% during
SP. Women lost 0.47 6 0.46% (CP) and 1.06 6 0.54% (SP).
Sweat Loss Estimations
Men vastly overestimated sweat losses during CP and
underestimated sweat losses by ;30% during SP (Table 3).
Sweat loss estimation accuracy differed between genders for
CP and approached significance for SP (p = 0.07; Table 3).
Female players showed striking consistencies and greater
underestimation than men in both practices with only 1
player overestimating during CP and no players overestimat-
ing sweat losses during the SP. A strong (r = 0.87; p , 0.001)
relationship was discovered between the adjustments in total
sweat loss estimations between practice types confirming
players’ had consistent judgments on sweat losses (Figure 2).
Despite similarities in sweat loss estimation accuracy, there
was no relationship between mean USG and CP estimation
accuracy (r = 0.22; p = 0.34) and SP estimation accuracy
(r = 0.20; p = 0.39).
Fluid intake Sweat loss estimation
Total, ml % sweat loss Total, ml % sweat loss
54 6 22 1316 6 847* 142 6 102†z
62 6 19 1740 6 1200* 71 6 57
744 6 230† 71 6 25† 394 6 242† 37 6 28
1101 6 411 58 6 19 632 6 284 35 6 20

Figure 2. Within-subject sweat loss estimations between practices (r =
0.87; p , 0.001). Markers with no fill represent men (n = 11). Markers
with fill represent women (n = 11).
DISCUSSION
Three key outcomes were drawn from the current sample of
collegiate basketball players. The first is that the majority of
our male and female collegiate basketball players did not
arrive to practice in a euhydrated state, with 2 of 3 players in
this study exhibiting USG levels of more than 1.020 for both
practices. The second finding is that although sweat losses
varied greatly between and within genders, the majority of
basketball players did not accumulate greater than 1–2%
prepractice body mass loss because of ample fluid intake
during practice. The most novel outcome of this study was
that basketball players sampled, particularly women, had
very poor conceptualization of actual sweat losses.
With the exception of 1 male and 2 female players, all
other athletes had mean USG levels greater than 1.020 with
17% of all samples exceeding 1.030 (Table 2). These results
support the findings of Osterberg et al. (16) who found pre-
game USG levels to exceed 1.020 in more than half of pro-
fessional American male basketball players during 2 separate
games and Hamouti et al. (10) who reported 100% of
professional European male basketball players (n = 11)
exceeded USG levels of 1.020 before practices. Current
NATA guidelines (8) demarcate USG levels greater than
1.020 as representation of dehydration. Armstrong et al.
(2) have suggested this indicator may be slightly too conser-
vative, particularly for first morning voids. However, even
when using a higher USG level as an indicator of hypohy-
dration such as 1.025, a striking number of players did not
report to practice in a state of euhydration as displayed by
the high concentration of scores in the upper right quadrant
of Figure 1. The CP and SP USG were moderately corre-
lated (r = 0.54; p = 0.012) and exhibited a similar relationship
(r = 0.61) for between game USG levels reported by
Copyright © National Strength and Conditioning Association Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
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Osterberg et al. (16). Together, these findings are important
as they indicate that hydration behavior is repeatable for
many individuals and that multiple spontaneous USG eval-
uations may be used to direct coaches or athletic trainers’
attention to athletes that are habitually hypohydrated.
Gender differences in hydration status as assessed by USG
have often demonstrated that female athletes and exercisers
will begin training more well hydrated than men (20–22).
Brandenburg and Gaetz (6) reported repeated, unusually low
USG levels in elite professional female basketball players before
competitions. Based on these observations, we incorrectly
hypothesized similar findings in our sample, as there were
no differences between genders in USG (Table 2). Although
female USG means were 0.004 less than their male counter-
parts, the small sample size was greatly skewed by 1 female
outlier with very low and repeated USG levels (Figure 1).
Brandenburg and Gaetz (6) did not report the pregame nutri-
tional activities for their athletes, but it is probable that an
evening meal was provided and that ample opportunities to
consume fluids were available as is typical for most compet-
itions at this level. It is also possible that light or no practice
occurred the day before competition as USG increased by
0.005 before the second game that took place the day after
the first game offering plenty of opportunity to rehydrate with-
out large fluid losses through sweating. In contrast, the athletes
in the current study were responsible for feeding themselves
and had completed a practice or conditioning session the day
before each sample collection.
The vast difference in precompetition USG levels for elite
male (16) and female (6) basketball players is puzzling. A
simple explanation for these discrepancies may be the inher-
ent differences in disproportionality higher sweat losses of
men than women, which are not likely paralleled by similar
increases in thirst (5). Although sweat losses were substantial
for both men and women, the higher rates for men may have
created a rehydration obstacle that could not be overcome
with simply drinking according to thirst within the short
time between practices (Table 3) as no men but 2 women
displayed repeated USG levels of #1.015 (Figure 2).
We propose that the perception of sweat loss could also be
a critical factor in effective rehydration efforts. Hydration
is likely not considered to be as important of a factor to
performance and safety by athletes, coaches, or athletic
trainers in basketball as it is in other sports that compete in
hotter outdoor environments such a long distance running
and cycling or American football. Nichols et al. (14) reported
that 63% of collegiate athletes knew that weighing them-
selves before and after exercise was beneficial, but only
18% actually incorporated this technique. Without knowl-
edge of sweat loss volume, athletes most likely simply drink
based on thirst or are guessing at how much fluid restoration
is required, which is key to ensuring a proper hydration
strategy (13).
With the exception of the men’s CP, the results of sweat
loss estimation in this study reinforce Passe et al. (17) and
VOLUME 28 | NUMBER 12 | DECEMBER 2014 | 3429
 Hydration in Basketball
O’Neal et al. (15) who found the majority of runners under-
estimate sweat losses. Although examination of mean differ-
ences for sweat loss estimation accurately depicts sweat loss
perception of our female athletes (i.e., consistent vast under-
estimation), results for our male participants are distorted
without consideration for individual responses. During CP,
6 men overestimated sweat losses substantially, whereas 5
underestimated to nearly as great of an extent. These char-
acteristics did not carry over to the SP where only 1 indi-
vidual vastly overestimated sweat losses. Previous
investigators have suggested that runners focus on visible
sweat losses and neglect to consider sweat losses they do
not see (i.e., evaporated sweat) (15). Even during extremely
humid and hot environments, less than 25% of sweat losses
will remain on the skin or in clothing, and under this sce-
nario sweat rate may be a much greater consideration by the
athlete than total sweat loss (15). We feel this scenario is
manifested for the men’s CP and SP practices in which the
intensity (HR increased by 25 b$min21) and sweat rate
(increase of ;30%) for CP were much greater than SP.
Although this rationale does not explain the vast underesti-
mations by some men during CP, it is strengthened in the
fact that players tended to over or under predict with con-
sistency as displayed by the strong correlation (r = 0.87) of
sweat losses between practices (Figure 2). Additionally,
sweat rate and estimation accuracy remained virtually
unchanged for women whose practices were much more
similar in activity intensity. Regardless of direction, the find-
ings of this study indicate that athletes are “lost” in terms of
general awareness of sweat loss volume, a key tenet in devel-
oping an effective rehydration strategy (8,13,19).
Although the effects of dehydration on basketball perfor-
mance are limited, shooting and repeated sprint and agility
tasks following simulated basketball activity scenarios sug-
gest performance declines at loss of 2% body mass (9), and
physical (4) and cognitive (3) performance continues to
decrease with additional increase in dehydration. No player
lost 2 or more percent body mass during either practice
when fluid intake was accounted. However, these numbers
may be deceiving as the 2% body mass loss marker is based
on athletes beginning activity euhydrated, which was not the
case for many of the players in this study. Team and inter-
mittent sprint sport athletes often have greater access to
fluids during training and competition than endurance ath-
letes, but fluid consumption typically takes place at a much
lesser rate than sweat losses (7,12,16,24). Although condi-
tions vary greatly between the investigations cited and our
study, the participants in this study replaced over half of
their sweat losses during each practice type. It could be
viewed that the athletes’ high fluid consumption during
practice represented an attempt to avoid excessive dehydra-
tion, but it is our anecdotal belief based on practice obser-
vations and prepractice USG levels that fluid intake levels
were exceedingly high due to inadequate between-training
bout rehydration practices.
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3430 Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
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PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Current results indicate that the majority of both male and
female collegiate basketball players report to practice in
a state of hypohydration and have poor ability to estimate
sweat losses. After completion of this study, each player was
presented with their individual results for USG, sweat losses
and estimations, and the investigators gave a tutorial on how
to calculate sweat losses. Sweat losses were presented to the
athletes in terms of their practice sport bottles, and 500 ml
and 2 L commercial water bottles. It is our belief that
increased awareness on how to track sweat losses and
particularly providing a physical volume of fluid for the
athlete to view is instrumental in increasing athletes’ con-
ceptualizations of hydration needs. Temporarily incorporat-
ing the methodology used in this study could be a useful tool
for athletic trainers as chronically dehydrated athletes can
easily be identified. Additionally, these evaluations can be
used to provide encouragement to individuals who are ade-
quately rehydrating between practices to continue their cur-
rent practices.
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