When talking to parents and their youth athlete at COR Clinic we find that they are highly under educated on how to prevent injuries in there child’s sport, which is truly unfortunate. I guess they assume that the coach is going to watch out for their kids, but when it comes down to it, everyone should be informed because prevention of injury crosses lines of all play.
As you can see by figure 1 “Responsibility Hierarchy” emery et al show that prevention of injuries are the responsibility of all who participate within sports: the athlete, parents, coaches, sports organizations and government agencies that govern over the sports themselves.
As you can see by figure 1 “Responsibility Hierarchy” emery et al show that prevention of injuries are the responsibility of all who participate within sports: the athlete, parents, coaches, sports organizations and government agencies that govern over the sports themselves.
What I want parents to understand is that they have responsibility along with those whom govern the sport (coaches and offi
cials). I cannot emphasises this enough, so please do not hand off the responsibility to someone else, take responsibility which will therefore allow your kids to take responsibility of there actions on the field.
cials). I cannot emphasises this enough, so please do not hand off the responsibility to someone else, take responsibility which will therefore allow your kids to take responsibility of there actions on the field. There are many factors that go into prevention of injury. Lets take a look at figure 2 from emery et al "Factors affecting risk of injury." As you can see there are host (athlete) factors and environmental factors. There are more host factors as compared to environmental factors therefore monitoring the the youth athlete is important.
As you can see the gender is important factor because boys and girls go through extremely different hormonal difference and without proper understanding of the differences injuries can occur. This will require that the parent talk to there physician or physical therapist about these changes to understand these differences.
As we all know, boys and girls tend to have extremely different maturity levels throughout childhood. Girls tend to be more focused and mature at an earlier age as compared to boys. Boys tend to have more sporadic growth spurts as compared to girls much of it during puberty.
Growth spurts are important to monitor. When a child is in a period of growing rapidly, attention should take place to make sure there coordination is not lacking, for it can lead to injury. If it is found that there coordination is lacking the parent and coach should understand it will take some time for there child athlete to regain their coordination this period is called maturation, we will cover what to do in future blog segments.
Growth spurts are important to monitor. When a child is in a period of growing rapidly, attention should take place to make sure there coordination is not lacking, for it can lead to injury. If it is found that there coordination is lacking the parent and coach should understand it will take some time for there child athlete to regain their coordination this period is called maturation, we will cover what to do in future blog segments.
Physical condition along with athletic skill is important in performance in the sport along with injury prevention. It is well known that athletes regardless of age are more prone to injury if they are in poor shape as compared to those who are in good shape. Therefore making sure that your child is in good shape for there sport prior to competition is important to prevent injury. Level of skill is important too. For example if your child is a 10 year old soccer player and all the kids are able to dribble around other competitors and your child is not able too, your child would more than likely be tripped more often when some is stealing the ball away from them, which would potentially incrase the risk of injury from falls that they cannot avoid due to poor skill.
Cognitive level as well as temperament is very important in the prevention of injury. If the youth athlete is not able to understand how their sport is played and the rules at which it is governed by they can put themselves into compromised positions in relation to other youth athletes around them.
As you can see there are many factors that go into the foundation of injury prevention for youth athletes. It is important to have a foundation of understanding among each factor and communicate with each level of the responsibility hierarchy to prevent injury.
Please contact COR Clinic for further information on any of the above subject at 480.272.7638. We look forward toward your comments.
