We asked about intake of creatine, sports drinks, and other food supplements or pain relievers. To help you gain a real sense of what WebBall's contributors think, we ran the data through a few filters. The table below shows the average, most common, or median choices made by category - all entrants, those from younger teams only, or older teams, and split between coaches, players, etc.

General Observations: The range of votes was extreme - there's a lot of uncertainty out there. Coaches are more cautious than players. Older teams are more tolerant than younger teams. And so on. Below the table are some of the comments received - showing the caution of coaches, but followed by an apparently very well informed comment from a young player whom many of you may know through his Mudball website.

In my opinion, no coach should encourage the use of creatine, steriods or the like, or put a player at risk by masking an injury with pain relief. At the high school level and below we all need to understand that we should be involved because we love the game of baseball, pure and simple. Once players reach the college or minor league level they can make these decisions on their own.

- Jim Binney

We need more time and research on Creatine, I fell as coaches we should tell our players there could be problems with it. Good work habits and diet should be enough.
- Randy Edge

I coach kids, little kids. Not much of a problem with drugs. I would recommend vitamins for them, but just supplements, nothing specific. I recommend sports drinks, just like I recommend water. I wouldn't hesitate to have a parent give a kid an ibuprofen (childrens) or Tylenol for pain. That's probably the key - parental involvement. Just make sure the parents head is on straight.
- Jerry Daniszewski

At the 13-14 year old age level, I prefer to see reliance on good nutrition and drug/supplement free conditioning.
- Robert Heym

I am a 13 year old player. I have used creatine for over a year now, and I have had no side effects, but I feel it has helped me in some areas. Before I was even allowed to start using it, my parents checked with 3 doctors, including a kidney and liver doctor. All 3 doctors said that they thought it wouldn't do any good for me, but they all said it definitely wouldn't be bad for me. I have had fewer injuries than I used to have, and I have had a couple of sports physicals since I've used it and haven't had any side effects. Creatine is actually something that your body makes anyway. Taking the supplement only adds more of what your body is making. Your body has a chemical called ATP. It creates energy by breaking it down to someting called ADP, by taking away a phosphate molecule. Creatinine (which is what creatine is called when it's in your body) works to put a phosphate molecule back to turn it into ATP again. The faster your body makes ADP back into ATP, the more enery you have available. Taking creatine allows your body to make ATP faster. Creatine is not an artificial chemical, it is not a steroid, and it is not a muscle enhancer. It is almost the same as taking a high carbohydrate energy drink.
- Austin Taylor