Safety and Security

Written and reviewed by Rohit Singh, Computer Science & Commerce faculty at UniDrill (MCA, Osmania University · 6 years teaching). Based on NCERT Health and Physical Education Class XI, Chapter 7.

Why was the fastest man in Seoul sent home?

In 1988, a sprinter won the Olympic 100 m final in a world record 9.79 s. Days later he lost the gold medal and the record, because a drug test came back positive for steroids. That sprinter was Ben Johnson, and his story shows the two halves of this chapter. First, safety: a sport must be safe for the body, from the ground you run on to the shoes on your feet. Second, security of fair play: a sport must not be won by substances that damage the athlete and cheat the others.

The chapter in one line: safe facilities → safe habits → safe body (no harmful substances) → fair competition (no doping)

The big idea: prevention comes first

Injuries do more than hurt. An injured child can develop a fear of the sport, a psychological phobia, so simple safety rules are applied to stop injuries before they happen. The rules are meant for physical education teachers, trainers, coaches, school administrators and the people who make sports equipment. Students in technical activities such as gymnastics, swimming and self defence must also be taught them.

Safe sports facilities

The sports ground. The builder should remove every possible hazard before play begins: nearby high tension electric lines, barbed wire, bushes and wild grass, and close walls with a hard surface. The surface must be clean and free of stones and broken bricks. Hard surface courts for basketball, badminton and tennis need proper space around them. Chain link fencing or stairs for coaches, players and spectators should be about 6 metres from the end lines of the play field. The logic is simple: a player running at speed needs room to stop.

The field. Extra players of each team get a separate sitting area so the teams do not mix. Spectators sit away from the playing area to avoid untoward incidents. Trees and bushes are shifted away to prevent collisions, a warming up area is kept away from the competition arena, and broken glass and sharp stones are cleared.

Sports instruments. Modern equipment is built for performance, so makers must treat the safety of the sportsperson as a priority and use high standard material. Players must not use damaged equipment. Where space allows, the playing surfaces of different games are built separately, as the respective federations advise.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: a safe surface is clean and free of stones and bricks, and synthetic surfaces suit modern Kabaddi and Kho-Kho. In reality: the surface is treated as part of the safety system in every sport. A surface that is too hard raises impact stress on joints, and one that is too slippery raises the chance of falls, which is why indoor courts and mats are made for a specific game. The principle is that the surface should match the speed and contact level of the game.

Uniform, shoes and T shirt. A good uniform improves mood and comfort. Poor fabric and unsuitable shoes make play painful. Three things must be chosen with care.

Pause and predict: a student wins a pair of shoes that look fashionable but have a flat, weak sole. After two weeks of football practice, his legs feel stiff and tired. Which of the four shoe objectives has he lost?

Check your answer: proper balance and ankle support. A flat or defective arch cannot support the foot, so body weight is unevenly spread, the legs take extra stress and the muscles stiffen. That is exactly the chain the chapter describes.

The gymnasium and the swimming pool

A gymnasium serves many sports. Students use it to build the body, to recover after injury and to get into shape. It is an asset of the institution, so injuries there are mostly preventable management failures.

A swimming pool adds another danger: water. The safety team includes instructors, assistant coaches, life guards, gatekeepers and sweepers, and the three pillars are human power, water quality and cleanliness.

Why it matters. Notice the pattern: every pool rule protects one of three things, the swimmer's life (life guards, kit), the swimmer's health (chlorination, showers) or the swimmer's footing (matting, stairs). When an MCQ asks "which is NOT a pool safety measure", check each option against these three.

Why injuries happen and how to prevent them

Injuries are caused by a mix of the environment and the player's own attitude. Six factors are listed: poor equipment, surface and floor; ignorance of the rules; lack of technical and tactical knowledge; lack of fitness and conditioning; ignoring safety in technically hard sports like gymnastics, diving, judo and wrestling; and lifting heavy weights without helpers. The facilities should also keep the needs of differently abled students in mind.

The first line of defence is supervision by the coach and instructor. Fitness matters strongly: developing physical fitness can help a player prevent injuries by up to 60 per cent in that game, and it improves reaction ability, decision making and self confidence.

Tobacco, alcohol and substance abuse in adolescence

Adolescence is a vulnerable stage, and alcohol and tobacco (pan masala, gutkha, khaini, cigarette, beedi) are the two substances most misused by adolescents. They are easy to get, and children of parents who misuse them face a higher risk. Recovery is possible with treatment and support from loved ones.

What makes tobacco harmful. Tobacco is smoked (cigarette, beedi, hookah) or used as smokeless tobacco (pan masala with tobacco, gutkha, khaini). Beedi is not safer than cigarettes. Four terms are worth separating.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: carbon monoxide is highly poisonous, and cigarettes contain about 4000 chemicals. In reality: carbon monoxide is dangerous because it binds to haemoglobin far more strongly than oxygen does, so a smoker's blood carries less oxygen to the muscles. For an athlete this means earlier tiredness and weaker endurance, one more reason tobacco and sport do not mix.

Smokeless tobacco and "light" cigarettes. Pan masala is often thought harmless because it is a mix of areca nut (supari), flavours and sweeteners. In fact, it is a specially designed mix meant to cause addiction. Continuous tobacco use causes oral cancer, and pan masala, gutkha and khaini all cause it, while smoking causes cancers of which lung cancer is the most common. Labels like "low tar" or "additive free" do not make a product safe. "Light" smokers often inhale more deeply and more frequently to get the nicotine they want.

Pause and predict: a friend says, "I smoke only low tar cigarettes, so my lungs are safe." What happens in practice?

Check your answer: the smoker compensates by inhaling more deeply and more often to get the nicotine, so the supposed benefit disappears. All tobacco products labelled low tar or additive free are still harmful.

Effects on women and pregnancy. Women who smoke are more likely to face infertility and delays in conceiving. Smoking in pregnancy raises the risks of premature delivery, still birth and death, and smoking raises the risk of cancer of the cervix. Tobacco use by a pregnant mother is nearly as dangerous as alcohol, and chemicals in gutkha and pan masala harm the unborn baby. Pictorial warnings on tobacco packets are mandatory in India. Selling tobacco products to children, and selling them within 100 yards of an educational institution, is banned.

Warning signs and causes. Warning signs of alcohol or substance abuse include feeling depressed or hopeless, irritability and aggression, declining grades, money or valuables disappearing from home, a new friend circle that is hidden from the family, avoiding family, risky behaviour such as rash driving, and an urge to drink daily. The causes are peer pressure (the commonest), the wish to look grown up, rebellion against parental or social norms, and curiosity. Effects include poor concentration, poor school results, depression and anxiety, deaths from drunken driving, crime and a much higher tendency toward suicide.

Myths and facts. These are among the most testable lines in the chapter, because each is a one line statement.

Common medicines. Medicines are used not only for disease but increasingly for cosmetics, weight loss or weight gain, often bought over the counter without a prescription. A medicine is anything used to diagnose, prevent or treat illness, and it can help or harm depending on how it is taken. Take only medicines prescribed by a doctor, never fall for advertisements that promise weight change, stamina or beauty, follow the dose and time intervals, take them with water (not tea, milk or juice) and store them in a cool, dry place away from sunlight. Check the manufacturing date and expiry date on the label. Prescription drugs are given by the doctor after examining you, while over the counter medicines can be bought without consulting one, and even those can harm.

Doping: winning the unfair way

Athletes have used plant extracts since the ancient Olympic Games, so doping is not a modern invention. Governing bodies ban substances because of the health risks, the unequal opportunity for athletes, and the example a drug free sport sets for the public. Substances are banned if they give an unfair advantage, pose a health risk, or violate the "spirit of sport".

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) defines doping as the use of any method or substance that might harm the athlete in a quest to gain an unfair advantage over fellow competitors. Training at altitude to raise the blood's oxygen carrying ability is allowed, but achieving the same result with drugs is prohibited. Some ethicists argue that drugs are no different from new materials in apparel and equipment, which also aid performance, but anti-doping bodies maintain that doping goes against the spirit of sport.

Why athletes dope. To keep up with rivals even at the cost of health, to wind down and relax, to cope with the pressure of constant winning, to boost self esteem, to mask pain from injuries, to control or reduce weight, and to hide the use of other banned substances.

WADA. The World Anti Doping Agency is a foundation created through a collective initiative led by the IOC.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: two principal categories of performance enhancing substances: dietary supplements and injectable supplements (hormones and drugs). In reality: this is a teaching framework. The official WADA Prohibited List is revised every year and groups banned items into more detailed classes such as anabolic agents, peptide hormones, stimulants, diuretics and masking agents, and some substances are banned at all times while others, such as narcotics, are banned only in competition. Use the two category scheme for the exam and treat the list as the working rulebook.

Classification of doping substances.

Basic doping drugs and methods. This table is the chapter's centrepiece, so learn each row's "side effects" column.

Gene doping probably began in 2001, when the IOC Medical Commission met to discuss the adverse effects of gene therapy in sports, and WADA banned it in 2002. EPO (erythropoietin) is a peptide hormone that the human body makes naturally, released from the kidneys and acting on the bone marrow to stimulate red blood cell production.

Harms of other prohibited substances. Beyond the four above, the chapter lists further classes and their risks.

Testing. An athlete can be tested at any time. In some sports only the winning team or the top three are tested, in others athletes are chosen by random draw by the Doping Control Officer (DCO), witnessed by the team or representatives. There are two types of doping control tests.

The technical procedure aims to plan effective testing and to keep the integrity and identity of the samples from the moment the athlete is notified until the samples reach the laboratory.

Pause and predict: an athlete is visited at home at 6 a.m. by a doping control team with no warning. Which test is this, and why is surprise important?

Check your answer: Out-of-Competition testing. Without advance notice, an athlete cannot clear a banned substance from the body or hide its use before the sample is taken.

Exam traps

60-second revision

Where this chapter connects

• Previous: Yoga and its Relevance in the Modern Times covers the lifestyle side of staying healthy, which complements the habits of safety here.
• Related: Understanding Health explains the health dimensions that tobacco, alcohol and drugs damage.
• Next: Health Related Physical Fitness builds the fitness that, as shown here, cuts injury risk.