Health and Wellness

Times have changed and the sport have changed. There was a time when I was young, we played sports from sun up to sundown, and even then we played another game, when it got dark. We played baseball, basketball, waffle ball, soccer and other sports throughout the year. Unfortunately, in today’s day and age many young athletes are advised to concentrate on just one sport.

When young boys and girls only play one sport they tend to play a sport year round with very little free time. Apart from playing in the season and they attend sports camps, seminars and personal coaching. These types of athletes tend to use the same muscles over and over and take very little time to train properly. There’s an old saying, “logger to take a day to sharpen his ax and still be effective at work.”

When children do the same things over and over and still the same muscles are used. When the muscle begins to slowly decay, so that the tendons, ligaments and joints.

When children are young and their mechanical strength is not the greatest, because they are young and learning. Poor mechanics, which is produced by repeating will begin to cause stress to the soft tissue in the affected area.

On top of that, the sports have changed drastically over the past five to ten years. Competition has increased with the stress of parents and coaches for these young athletes to produce. It’s all about winning not about developing a solid foundation. Win jackets, trophies and scholarships at any cost, without considering the body of the new battle cry. The problem is that young athletes began to cry with pain due to repetitive use.

Why am I concerned? So in my practice I have seen a wave of repetitive use injuries. Repetitive motion injuries are the types of injuries that are produced by repetitive movements. For example, there is a large increase in elbow injuries in young baseball pitchers. In fact, that the increase in elbow injuries leading to major elbow surgery. I grew up around a lot of athletes, and I do not know who needed surgery for the elbow. (Popularly known as Tommy John surgery.) Now I’ve seen kids come into my office complaining of a central (inside) elbow pain as young as seventh grade.

There is no way that a young child should have surgery to repetitive motion. It is up to parents and coaches to be smart about the amount of land a young player throws during the game. These coaches need to understand that just because you have a good young pitcher on your team you can play it every time you feel you need to win.

Young gymnasts are coming into my office with injuries that are going on for weeks if not months with my coach to tell them that they are not tough enough. 3 to 5 hours of practice a day, six days a week continuously forces the full effect on their bodies. Many coaches do not fully understand the true physiology of athletes to recover, how to improve performance or to develop strength and explosion. But they all have an opinion about how to push kids to the point of injury.

If our society continues to push the kids as hard as you are now coaches must get a better education to help children excel them no harm. Believe me I am all for pushing young athletes to help them train to the best that they can be, but the tipping point that must be secured. Coaches need to better understand when to push and when to back off. It was not a “severe” It’s about understanding who you are training and what their limits.

I train a lot of athletes and there are some young men and women who can take tons of punishment. There are others who can and many times you have to be careful to understand what their limits. What most coaches neglect to understand the mental aspect of training and how to push those limits without breaking the spirit of a young athlete.

Dr. Malcolm Conway is a world-renowned sports injury specialist who treats athletes from grade school in December His latest book, Raising an elite athlete, is a book to help parents wade through the maze of information that can help them raise their young potential athletes in any sport.