Organized athletics benefits children in several aspects. Aerobic exercise, improving hand-eye coordination, and learning to work with others are a few of the positive facets of youth sports. Over aggressive coaches and parents, poor fundamentals, and the fortunately rare injuries are the unnecessary negatives.
We, along with Sports First, have been offering programs to reduce the effects of the negative aspects of youth sports. Unfortunately, we can do little to improve some coaches and parents attitudes and their tendency to stress winning as the primary lesson of athletics. We agree, Winning isn’t everything, but it sure beats whatever is second place. Winning in youth sports should be defined as learning and improving from both wins and losses.
To improve fundamentals, coaches and parents in the past, have needed to rely on their memory of their days of athletics. Our memory is not perfect, and our instruction may have been faulty. Sports First has been providing Instructional Coaches Clinics since coming to this area 18 months ago. Injury prevention through proper technique has been the primary focus of these meetings.
Injuries in organized sports in the adolescent are fortunately rare. Catastrophic injuries are usually prevented in this age group by adult supervision and proper equipment. Most injuries seen in youth sports are common orthopedic injuries. These are the same “playground” injuries that we see daily. Sprained fingers, wrists, and ankles are usually minor problems. If swelling or pain persists more than two days, the injury should be evaluated by a qualified specialist. Any injury accompanied by intense pain or deformity should be evaluated immediately.
Some injuries seen are overuse or repetitive stress problems. These are usually due to poor fundamentals and can be corrected with proper training and stretching exercises. A common problem is heel pain from poor support and cushion provided in children’s athletic shoes. This is often seen in shoes with cleats. Shoe modification and specific exercises will often correct this problem.
The most common site for overuse injuries is the knee. Jumper’s knee and Osgood Schlatter’s disease both cause pain in the front of the knee and are a result of forceful jumping, landing, and running. Shin splints and stress fractures of the lower leg are usually the result of too much activity too quickly. Prevention of exertion activities, along with ice and anti-inflammatories are the main treatment modalities.
The elbow is the second most common site of overuse injuries. Great stresses are applied to the elbow in throwing sports and gymnastics. Any child with persistent complaints of elbow discomfort after activity should be evaluated because of long-term problems which can occur if repetitive injury continues. The forces applied to the elbow can damage the supporting ligaments, as well as the underlying bone. Alteration of throwing technique, and restriction of amount of throwing are usually part of the treatment plan, with surgery occasionally required.
Shoulder pain can also be caused by improper throwing techniques and can result in rotator cuff tendonitis. Icing, rest, anti-inflammatories, and a sport-specific exercise program usually results in improvement.
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