Sports and exercise have many benefits for school children but also comes with a risk of injury. It is estimated about 1 in 15 children see a doctor each year for a sport related injury. Fortunately most of these are minor in nature.
As the school bell rings marking another school year, here are some tips to making your child sports a safer experience.
Ensure that the equipment is in good condition and properly fitting. Shoes and protective gear only work properly if they are the right size. Children are constantly growing and may need replacement gear. Buying oversized gear to grow into is also risky.
Children should go through a warm up before sports, emphasizing on using muscle groups and variation of routines are important. Although stretching can be an important part of training, it does not prevent injury, structured warm up does. There are specific routine for different sports, for example the 11+1 warm up for football that has been shown to reduce knee ligament injuries.
Competition does create a certain degree of stress and this is both normal and beneficial. But when the playing environment becomes negative from parent expectations, aggressive coaching and bullying teammates this reduces both performance and attention of the athlete, both risk factors for injury.
Before and during sports be sure to remain hydrated. Special drinks are not required, but an adequate supply and access to water should be encouraged. In addition to hydration, other healthy choices such as good nutrition and adequate sleep have been shown to decrease injury.
There needs to be adequate rest between sporting activities to allow the body to recover. If you don’t allow muscles to recover the child’s performance will decrease and risk of injury will increase.
Once a child has an injury, even if it is minor, consideration should be given to sitting out until things improve. The old adage of playing through pain has been proven time and again to be not only ineffective but can lead to further injury. Encourage your child to discuss any issues and seek professional help if there is any concern.
As a child shows athletic potential there is a trend in pushing the child to train year round in a specific sport. This greatly increases the risk of repetitive stress injury and psychological burn out. Variation and cross training leads to a healthy balance of exercises routines that develop different skill sets and muscle groups.
Good luck to all our youth both academically and athletically as they enter a new year.