NEWS in SCIENCE
Focusing on One Sport Injuring Youth Athletes.
By T.B.
The pressure to win and be good in sports is leading to injuries. The need to be great leads athletes to focus on one sport. This is leading to an increase in injuries to the hips, legs, knees, ankles, and feet. These injuries usually occur to the tendons, ligaments, muscles, nerves, and joints. These injuries are a lot of times non-contact injuries. This shows that the injuries are happening because the constant use of the same parts of the body.
Sports already causes the body great stress. To apply this level of stress to the same parts of the body over and over increases injury risk. The athletes in this study were from 29 high schools in Wisconsin. The athletes were asked to take a survey. They were asked to rank their focus on one sport as low, medium, or high.
After surveying the athletes those with low focus on one sport were less likely to be injured. Those who said that they had medium or high focus on one sport were more likely to be injured. The use of the same muscles over and over without resting them between seasons.
The amount of injuries are becoming more usual than in the past. That is because the rising popularity of travel sports. Allowing players to play outdoor sports by going where the weather is nicer. With indoor sports players are spending time playing sports that traditionally would be saved for when the weather is bad. Instead of playing a new sport when each season ends. This provides rest to specific parts of the body since all muscle aren't used the same way.
Sports medicine providers need to inform parents and coaches of the risks. These injuries can be prevented with better awareness from players, parents, and coaches. Two stories of preventable injuries include a surgery on the elbow of Matt Blaney and a leg injury for Tiffany Lins. In society when players’ health is being put behind winning and being great this needs to stop.
McGuine, T. A., Post, E. G., Hetzel, S. J., Brooks, M. A., Trigsted, S., & Bell, D. R. (n.d.). A Prospective Study on the Effect of Sport Specialization on Lower Extremity Injury Rates in High School Athletes. Retrieved September 17, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28735552
Please send any questions or comments to Dr. Spitzer (spitzern@marshall.edu )
Note: Any opinions expressed in these articles are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent those of Dr. Spitzer, the Department of Biological Sciences, or Marshall University.