As a parent, you want your child to be able to take part in events at school, as well as in the community, including sports activities. However, with sports comes the risk of sports injuries, and there is no sport where an injury isn’t a possibility, even following the best proactive and preventive practices.
The good news for parents is that there are some things that can be done to limit the chance or the risk of sports injuries. Talking to children and teens about any signs of injury and following up with medical examinations by your primary care physician or a sports injury doctor if they don’t improve in a reasonable amount of time will be critical.
Types of Injuries
There are really two very different types of sports injuries that anyone can experience, and children are no different. One type is an acute injury, which happens because of a single event that causes damage to the tissues of the body. This could be a strain, sprain, bruise or a fracture, or it can be a combination of issues related to the event.
The second type of injury is caused by overuse or incorrect repetitive use of a body part. Think of this as an injury that comes from doing the same action over and over again, like a pitching or throwing, swinging a racket or kicking a ball. Often, children and adults alike are making these repetitive moves incorrectly or changing the way they are moving their body because of an overuse injury.
Preventive Steps
It is important, both at school sporting events and community sports teams or activities, for parents to be aware of the experience of the coach and the methods he or she uses to train the athletes. Often, sports injuries related to overuse or even acute injuries can be prevented by a comprehensive warm-up and strengthening program developed and implemented by a trained coach.
Parents should plan to attend a few practices, or if they can’t, at least talk to the coach in advance to find out the typical training routine. Also, parents should notify the coach if the child has a past history of injury, even if they currently have a clean medical check prior to joining the team.
Make sure your child is not feeling pressured to play to a level he or she is not comfortable with. Often, acute and overuse sports injuries occur when athletes suddenly increase their intensity of performance or try to compete at a level that is simply beyond their current physical ability.
Suburban Orthopaedics offers treatment for both acute and overuse types of sports injuries. To learn more, see us at www.suburbanortho.com. You can also follow them on Twitter for more updates!