The Rise in Youth Sports Injuries

In my last article, Specializing in Youth Sports, Good or Bad, I touched on the current increase in injuries to young competitors playing sports. Just the fact that the sheer number of young athletes participating has gone up over the last several decades, would automatically cause an upswing in the number of young sports enthusiasts having to seek medical attention. There is just an inherent physical risk in competitive sports that cannot be denied.

However, it does appear (even with the greater numbers participating) that the number of young athletes being injured, and the severity of those injuries, is quite large. If my memory serves me correct, I believe there were about 6 out of the 18 soccer players (or 1/3rd of the team) on my oldest daughter’s club soccer team (sophomores) that had torn their ACL. And 4 of those 6 eventually went on to tear the ACL of the opposite knee as well. These are some pretty serious injuries requiring major reconstructive surgery, something I never even heard of when I was competing in high school. I mean you did hear of the occasional male athlete blowing their knee in football, but that just did not seem to me to be as common as it is today. Even walking the halls in the high school where I teach I see more athletes on crutches, in casts, boots, and/or ace wraps (both male and female) than I can ever remember from my day. Sure you did see or hear about it at the professional levels of some sports, but that was expected.

The question then becomes, “Why?” I am sure there is more than one answer to this question. First (as I mentioned in the first paragraph), the large increase in numbers participating today compared to years past would suggest an increase in the number of injuries sustained. It is just a matter of percentages; more people equals more injuries.

Secondly, the continuous repetition of the same muscle groups doing the same thing all the time, especially when athletes specialize in one sport, can and does cause imbalances in muscle groups (around joints) if consideration is not given to proper training for this possibility. Now I do not want to give anybody the idea that specializing in one sport is a “bad” thing (my feelings on both sides of this issue are detailed in my 3 part article, Specializing in Youth Sports, Good or Bad), just that it is a factor needing to be considered when discussing the increase of youth sport injuries.

There is also research that demonstrates the increased risk to females, most notably at the knee, over males due to anatomical, neuromuscular, and biological differences. Years ago, before women engaged in the intense type training that you see today, how would anyone have known about this risk? Now both men and women are training, playing, and performing at maximal levels.

Another factor is the increased level of intense type training, in addition to the amount of time this type of training takes, that young athletes are putting in, in order to improve their abilities, has to be a consideration. Athletes are bigger, stronger, quicker, and faster (even the average athlete) than they ever were. This all amounts to more stress on body parts and thus, more risk of injury. This, in addition to the body not getting enough rest and/or time to recuperate, and not spending enough time keeping muscles flexible enough to move through wide ranges of motion, certainly seems to lend itself t

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