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When it comes to injury rates, young athletes are becoming more and more like the pros and as a result, serious injuries in young athletes are happening more often, and even more alarmingly, at much younger ages than in the past. Numerous research findings support this trend.
“This is a trend we also see here locally,” says orthopaedic and sports medicine specialist Geoffrey Collins, MD, with Center for Orthopaedics. "The growing popularity of tournament teams and select sports create a level of single-sport focus with year-round intensity for young children. This can lead to the type of overuse injuries that typically were seen more in older teens and young adults in the past.”
Dr. Collins explains that because young athletes are still growing and developing, they are at a higher risk for injury than adult players. Current research has found:
· 40 percent of all emergency room visits involving children aged 5 to 14 are for sports injuries.
· More pre-high school students are sustaining shoulder injuries serious enough to pull them from play.
· Injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) are now being seen in 9- and 10-year-olds. Surgery to deal with the injury can cause more lasting "growth plate disturbances." Growth plates are the areas of developing tissue at the end of the body's long bones.
Another study noted a rapid increase in arm injuries in young pitchers, apparently the result of an improper throwing motion and overuse. One of these injuries, "little league elbow," seems to result when the athlete winds up and uncurls the body too late before releasing the ball. According to the study, about 60 percent of 11- to 18-year-olds have sustained an injury due to the repetitive motion and overuse of the elbow and shoulder.
Dr. Collins says this is the perfect example of how year-round playing can lead to additional complications. “Baseball has traditionally been a spring sport, but now it is very common for young boys to play baseball all year long. As a result, these kids aren’t playing other sports. In the past, childhood athletes would play baseball for a few months in the spring and summer, then switch to football in the fall, and then basketball in the winter. The neural system needs many different types of activity to develop motor control, and many kids today are missing out on this. Rotating into different sports creates selective stress in different areas of the child’s body, which would have time to recover as they moved into another sports season. We’re not seeing that anymore. What we are seeing instead is overtraining and overuse injuries in much younger athletes, which is cause for alarm.”
Experts agree that players, parents and coaches need to pay better attention to the needs of young athletes’ developing bodies. Dr. Collins says the two key problems are the “focus on a single sport and the lack of expertise in coaching/training these kids from a physiological, biomechanical, psychological and medical perspective."
Dr. Collins stresses that the main thing parents and coaches need to understand is that you can’t treat young children as if they were younger versions of adults or even older teens. “Their growing bodies can’t take the stress of intense training or constant, high-level play. Let kids be kids, and focus on helping them develop into well-rounded, healthy athletes.”
For more information on kids and sports injury prevention and treatment, call Center for Orthopaedics at 721-7236 or visit www.centerforortho.com |
