Youth Sports Injuries
Many never
believed that sports injuries in youth were a problem, most simply assumed
those unfortunate injuries in teammates was because they were unlucky. It was
not until myself personally who had to deal with this epidemic, which to me
never really existed, that the seriousness of it was brought into light. Every
year more than 3.5 million children, age 14 and up, suffer an injury from sports
(“Sports Injury Statistics”). There is a serious epidemic of youth sports
injuries that had been overlooked for far too long.
Sports have
been a world pass time since 776 BC, when Greece staged their first Olympic
games. However, the dynamics of preparation and pressure to perform has changed
drastically. The importance and enjoyment of sports has shifted from children's
enjoyment to pressure from adults, “youth sports participation has evolved from child-driven, recreational
free play for enjoyment to adult-driven, highly structured, deliberate practice
devoted to sports-specific skill development,” (Sports Specialization In Young
Athletes). As a child, being apart of a sports team allowed many to find a fun
and healthy way to stay active. It also provided many friends that lasted
lifetimes, and a sense of purpose for young kids. However, in recent years, the
focus and purpose of sports has been pulled to the desire of the parents, with
claims of striving for greatness.
With hundreds of sports branching all over the world, it
is a common dream of children to become a professional athlete. The
professional athletic stars of today, and even the past, as idolized above all
others, and are recognized over the entire globe. The greats like Babe Ruth,
Jackie Robinson, Usain Bolt, Pele, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods, and
Serena Williams are treated like gods in today's world, becoming staples in
their sports arenas. Their greatness
transcends the bounds of sports and time, and it is the dream of every parent
and coach for one of their children and athletes to achieve that level of
greatness. To almost every parent who desires for their child to become one of
the greats, the only way to do that is to start their child as early as they
can, and to train them specifically in that sport until they are exceptional. A
study was taken from young athletes that have achieved the elite level, and it
was found the greatest influence and pressure to perform came from their
parents, while the intense training came from their coaches (Sports
Specialization In Young Athletes).
The participation of youth in sports and intensity is an
ongoing debate with very divided arguments. A large part of society sees no
issue with how youth are being treated and pressured in sports. The other side
of the debate is desperately attempting to raise awareness to parents, coaches,
or anyone that will listen to try and make a change before it is too late, and
children are forced to endure the consequences. There is also a large trend of
who is in which side. Those who see no problem with the current system are
mostly parents currently involved in the programs, coaches, and even scouts and
recruiters. Those who oppose are typically doctors, parents whose children have
dealt with the injuries directly from the programs, and the athletes who had to
endure the injuries themselves. The majority of the debate focuses on how much
is too much, and when to stop. Malcolm Gladwell, for instance, says that in
order to be the best in whatever you choose to do, you must practice that task
for 10,000 hours. This is a poisonous theory that is ruining the lives and
minds of many young athletes who only desire to be great. In order to achieve
the 10,000 hours, one would have to practice 20 hours a week for 10 years. Not
only is that unrealistic an extremely time consuming, but detrimental to
health. From even a fraction of this amount of training, comes a lifetime of
injuries of overuse and decay. Intense training and rigorous sports
specialization is the reason to why many professional athletes are forced to
retire in their 30’s. Baseball players suffer from elbow and shoulder
complications, football has concussions and ankle injuries, soccer comes with
knee, ankle and head injuries, and the list goes on. Due to the intense
pressure in striving for excellence, as the athletes are being specialized at a
younger age, the professional athletes are being forced to retire at younger
ages.
As mentioned before, I have had personal experiences with
the detrimental effects of rigorous sports training on the young body. Since I
was three years old, I have been pushed into intense training in multiple
sports. Soccer, competitive cheer leading, and snow skiing had become my life
and entire childhood focus. By the age of 8, I was on a nationally ranked
competitive cheer team, the captain of both my league soccer team and co-ed
team where I was two years younger in both, and a high level snow skier. The
only problem was that I was not good enough yet, for years I threw myself into
training, until I had to choose which sports to continue with in order to more
intensify the training in one sport. At 14 years old I stopped cheerleading and
skiing and focused solely on soccer. Looking back I wished I paid more
attention to my aching knees, or my throbbing hips. If only I had taken the
twisted ankles and all the sprains seriously maybe I would have been able to
continue on with my sport. When the pain had become too much, nearly three
years later, I was told that my hips were in horrible shape. Both of my
labrums, the cartilage inside the hip socket that allows it to move properly,
were shredded, and I would need extensive surgery and rehabilitation to salvage
them. After two hip surgeries, my
surgeon told me the cause for why my injuries were so extensive. Surprisingly,
it was not because I ignored my pain for three years, it was because I started
so young. As a child grows, their bone and cartilage grow with them, however,
because of the training beginning at such a young age, my cartilage was not
allowed to grow and develop, therefore leaving my hip vulnerable and
susceptible to injury. Not only was I not allowed to continue with the sport I
loved, but I will be facing the effects of those injuries for the rest of my
life.
Thankfully, I have been luckier than others who have had
to face the ultimate consequences on intense injuries. One man nearly lost his
son, a 13 year old football player, to sports. Victor Lystedt, told of his
son's head injury that has now left him with a serious and permanent brain
injury. When Victor’s son, Zack was tackled and hit his head, he was taken off
the field and to the hospital for a concussion. Zack had developed a lump and
bleeding on his brain from the impact of the fall and was rushed into surgery
to save his life. The extensiveness of this injury was because Zack returned to
the field too soon after a prior concussion, simply because he wanted to play.
Now Zack was on a ventilator for weeks and was in a coma for 3 months before
waking up. It was nine months before Zack said his first work, 13 months until
he could move an arm, and more than 20 months until he could eat without a
feeding tube. After three long years, Zack was finally able to stand, and he
later recovered the ability to walk. (“A Fathers Story”). Zack will be facing
his brain injury for the rest of this life, knowing that if he only took his
injuries more seriously, he could have avoided the life threatening injuries
and could have even been able to play his sport for years to come.
There
are many solutions to fix this epidemic, on a ranging scale of availability and
difficulty. Many solutions have to happen at the home with the parents and
their child or athlete. Another large portion to preventing injuries happens
with the coaches of the sports teams. The epidemic of youth sports injuries is
constantly at rise do to ignorance, so in turn, the best solution is awareness.
Once awareness is raised and parents, coaches, and players see the possible
consequences, actions will be taken to end the serious issue of premature
athletic injuries.
When
imagining the type of parents that would lead to young athletes facing serious
injuries, you imagine the over-enthusiastic parent screaming at the sidelines
of their child’s game. However, often times, it is the quiet parent who is very
minimally involved who does not notice when their child could be showing signs
of injury. The minimum to play sports for high school and in outside sports
leagues, even at high levels, is a simple sports physical from pretty much any
clinic. Many grocery stores even offer sports physicals during busy sports
seasons from local clinics. A sports physical does not check the body chemistry
or look for any signs of potential injuries, things that need to be checked often
and monitored frequently. When giving a physical, the therapist checks for
breath sounds, consistent heart rate, and basic reflex abilities. Some doctors
or physicians have started attempting to inform parents of what to do and what
not do. For instance, one of the issues consistent with very involved parents,
is their attempt to live through their child’s experiences. Often times,
parents push their children to participate with sports because they are
attempting to fill a void left from unfulfilling their childhood dreams of
becoming a phenomenal athlete. When this occurs, parents often push their
children harder than necessary in attempts to gain that level of excellence
they once desired for themselves. Another issue that often involves parents, is
their overcommitment to their child’s sport to boost their own personal ego and
status. The child is often discouraged when they do not live up to their
parent’s expectations, “Perfectionism is a very hard expectation to live up to. Laying guilt on a child because “their
performance made YOU look bad,” is highly destructive.” (Porter). The remainder
of the parents simply allow their children to continue on without taking
precautions, simply ue to ignorance. Parents who are minimally involved, who
simply just show up to their child’s games to be supportive, often do not know
what to look for as far as warning signs and what precautions to take to
protect their child from injury or overuse.
Another solution would be to next
inform the coaches. Two issues often arise when looking at how coaches deal
with injuries. Coaches can help both prevent and heal injuries in their
players, simply by learning how to deal with those players. Obviously, a simple
way for coaches to help reduce the amount of young athletes is to prevent
injuries before they can happen. However, that is not always possible, as it is
inevitable to prevent all injuries from happening. One of the best way for
coaches to help their injured players is to aid them in their return to their
sport, and making sure they do not push themselves past their limit or lose
focus of taking care of their injury. Injuries do not only affect an athlete’s
physical state, but their mental health as well. When an athlete is injured,
they tend to lose their sense of identity, thinking that they are “no longer
important to the team,” and they often “lose their structure, confidence, or
dreams.” (Temple). As Doctor Pete Temple
advises, coaches should encourage their athletes returning from an injury to be
realistic, to refocus, consistently keep a positive attitude, and, above all,
continue to act like an athlete. By acting like the athlete they once were,
they continue to maintain their sense of athletic identity, and maintain a goal
for them to achieve and return to. Dr. Temple also advises to practice your
sport as much as you can, for instance, while you may not be able to play a
full basketball game, if you can shoot free throws, you should shoot as many
free throws as you possibly can, in attempting to keep your athlete mentality.
As the awareness of the severity of
sports injuries is becoming more well known, many groups and organizations are
forming to spread awareness and aid in preventing said injuries. STOP Sports
Injuries is one of the main organizations leading the prevention movement
against premature injuries. They contain tips and resources for parents,
coaches, and even athletes. STOP also contains sports specific methods of
preventing injury for about 25 sports specifically, as well as general tips.
Tips for coming back from specific injuries such as ACL tears, concussions,
overuse injuries in both sports and performing arts, conditioning tips, and
even nutritional info.
An ongoing theme in The Plague by Albert Camus was the sheer
neglect and refusal to believe the obvious truth. The same can be said for
parents and coaches today. The citizens in the beginning of The Plague refused to believe the
epidemic was an actual and serious problem that could greatly affect them and
their lives. The athletes today are experiencing the same sensation, as they
continue to ignore the ever present threat of experiencing a serious injury
that could potentially affect their entire lives. The characters often
portrayed the plague as unimportant or even non existent. Players frequently ignore very serious
injuries or play them off as something much less serious out of either blatant
neglect or ignorance. If Camus were to witness or experience this epidemic
today, he would marvel at the absurdity of the general public and participants
in this serious epidemic. The entire concept of risking a child’s future health
and well-being is simply illogical and irresponsible, and can be contributed to
a man’s stubbornness to accept the outcomes of serious situations, which is an
ongoing theme of Camus’s book. Camus would agree that this epidemic is
extremely absurd and farfetched, just basing off the fact that at least half of
injures that occur in youth sports are 100% preventable.
It is shocking to witness how far
parents and coaches will stray into complete and utter neglect to gain their
advantages and excellence through their players. At the end of the day, it is
the players and athletes who suffer, due to their leaders ignorance or neglect.
It is the players who will be suffering and coping with the long lasting
injuries for the rest of their lives, and in some cases, the injuries will
prevent the athletes from participating in a sport that they truly love and
care about. The best way to prevent a child from experiencing this is to simply
be knowledgeable about the potential consequences and results of not knowing
and understanding the dangers of overuse in sports. By spreading awareness
about the seriousness of sports injuries in young children and teenagers, we
can significantly improve the health of the athletes, and even create better
athletes for the future.
Works Cited
“Sports Injury Statistics.” Sports
Injury Statistics | Johns Hopkins Medicine Health Library, www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/pediatrics/sports_injury_statistics_90,p02787/
Healy, Michelle. "1.35 Million Youths a Year Have Serious Sports
Injuries." USA Today. Gannett
Satellite Information Network, 06 Aug. 2013. Web. 06 Mar. 2017
Jayanthi, Neeru, et al. “Sports Specialization in Young Athletes:
Evidence-Based Recommendations.” Sports
Health, SAGE Publications, May 2013, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3658407/
OrthoWustl. “Youth Sports Specialization: 10,000 Hour Pathway to
What?” Youth Sports Specialization:
10,000 Hour Pathway to What?, 1 Jan. 1970,
stlyac.wustl.edu/2015/08/youth-sports-specialization-10000-hour.html
“Traumatic Brain Injury.” 2014, doi:10.1002/9781118656303
Porter, Kay. “Do's and Don'Ts for Parents of Young Athletes.” Association for Applied Sport Psychology:
Do's and Don'Ts for Parents of Young Athletes, www.appliedsportpsych.org/resources/resources-for-parents/dos-and-donts-for-parents-of-young-athletes/
“Mind-Hab: Helping Injured Athletes Return to Play.” Mind's Eye Sports Performance, www.mindseyesports.com/mind-hab-helping-injured-athletes-return-to-play/
International, Inc. Advanced Solutions. “Injury Prevention Resources.”
Our Resources, www.stopsportsinjuries.org/STOP/Prevent/STOP/Prevent_Injuries/Our_Resources.aspx?hkey=605a1398-5a54-49ab-924e-7f55965d8409
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