PART 2 - Injury Prevention for our Young Athletes

Fortunately this ACL/knee/female athlete issue is becoming well known. There are numerous places (physical therapy, sports medicine, private soccer clubs, athletic performance centers, private gyms, YMCAs) that have ACL prevention programs. They don’t actually improve the quality of your ACL, but they attempt to properly strengthen and balance the leg muscles which can protect the ACL, they improve your overall flexibility and core strength, teach the athlete how to run with a better alignment if needed, and also how to land in a safer way after a jump. Additionally, there is a push for clubs and coaches to adopt a certain type of warm up (PEP program) before each practice that has certain types of exercises and stretches that focus on ACL injury prevention, it only takes about 15 minutes and has been shown to decrease risk for ACL. I was very happy to see my daughters team this year is doing a very similar warm-up to the PEP program.

I know the additional training guarantees me and my daughter nothing, but she reports her knee pain is gone and her legs and core are much stronger overall. Fingers crossed. What I’m (and fellow parents) trying to prevent is what’s happened to a U16 team in my area that I have friends on. They’ve had 5 ACL tears in her age group in one year, one meniscus tear and numerous less serious injuries. 2 of the ACL tears were on the same girl/both knees, the 2nd coming 1 week after coming back on the field from her 1st tear.

I know youth sports injuries are not just a ‘girls soccer player’ issue. Little league baseball has been a pioneer and has dealt with injury prevention by limiting the number of pitches a kid can pitch per game and has mandated forced rest periods (1-3 days depending on pitch count). I know the coaches hate it, but who wants their kid to screw up their arm or shoulder at age 14 (or younger). High schools are forced to limit the amount of practice time for lots of sports, have a legal start date, and have a day there is no practice or games each week (usually Sunday). Otherwise overzealous coaches would have our kids out there 24/7. And….to make it worse, the kids at this level want to be out there 24/7, they want to be the best, they want to show they are the hardest worker, quickest recoverer, etc. so we as parents are fighting not just the culture, but our own kids sometimes.

Bottom line, in my mind, is that, at the high level, young athletes are being pushed to become perfect players on perfect teams who need to win every game and every tournament. The girls with the ‘best’ coaches start to adopt that winning attitude and will do anything to please the coach, including playing when in pain, playing too aggressively, toughing it out, practicing as much as possible, and on off days the run or lift. We, as parents, have to be the ones who safeguard our kids health, because everyone else (including your child) has another agenda. If 4 practices a week are too much, put your foot down; if your coach doesn’t seem to be doing a proper warm up or stretching, have a word with him (or his director), if your kid is exhausted and in pain every night make him skip a training every so often, if your kid is trying to play on two teams per season (club and school) etc, you may have to make the difficult decision to pick one—two teams at that level is a LOT of wear and tear.

Quick tip sheet for parents:

--see the big picture—don’t have a win at all costs attitude, and don’t encourage it in your child (she’ll get enough of that from her peers and coach)
--discuss health and injury prevention often at home
--think about checking out an ACL program
--ask your coach how he is trying to prevent knee injuries
--ask club how they are trying to prevent knee injuries
--encourage your kid to stretch often, not just for 2 minutes before practice
--consider having your kid do a bit of gymnastics, yoga, pilates, or ballet to help with flexibility, balance, coordination
--if your daughter has a Warrior Girl personality and focus, try (good luck!) to encourage other interests, sometimes these kids are at highest risk because they (and their self-esteem) is completely wrapped up in the sport and they do 'LOVE it LIVE it' just like the T-shirts say. French Immersion and Math Camp might be a tough sell but start with something less frightening like Rock Climbing or Horseback riding.
--ask your Doctor if taking Glucosamine and/or Chondroitin is recommended for your athlete (I’m no expert on that, so I'll let you do that research, but it's worth a look).


Back to us parents: Here's a similar situation for all levels of youth sports: Have you ever been at practice and heard thunder, seen lightning, then watched as the coach continued practice, pretending he heard nothing? It’s up to you to safeguard your kid by stepping in and getting him/her off the field. Same with injury prevention, you may be the only one looking out for your kid, so just do it.

GAS PRICES.....gasp!

Yea, I know….you are sick of reading blogs entries and news items about high gas prices. Me too, so I’ll make it short. However, high gas prices have the potential to SUCK the life out of a small sub-section of youth sports. That subset of sports is the competitive, travel teams. Emphasis on the TRAVEL part. Generally, you have to travel at least an hour or two, each way, every weekend for the games or competitions; big tournaments can be states away, and once or twice a year, the kids may even need to fly. I know I’ve flown 4 times with one of my kids (2 different sports) and she’s only 12 now.

Additionally, if your athlete is on a really top team, chances are that team is not located in your neighborhood, so you even have to TRAVEL 3 or 4 times per week just for PRACTICE. In the club that my youngest plays soccer, there are countless kids who drive (actually they are driven) 2 to 3 hours each way, for practice (how the parents got that dedicated and can afford that much time in a car is stuff for another post). Even competitive cheerleading is that competitive; the gym I work out in has a competitive cheerleading program and there are some kids that live 2-3 hours from the gym and practice 4X/week here (I really must get a thesaurus….feel free to replace some of my competitives with: elite, high level, serious, top level, premier, travel, crème de la crème, whatever your local dialect calls for).

Don’t forget the other people (coaches, trainers, referees, etc) who have to drive or fly these distances to the games and tournaments and their gas bill is ultimately paid for by the parents with team fees.

In my neck of the woods here are some of the solutions we’ve been discussing and started to put into use:

1. Carpooling—already universally used for practices, many families have begun carpooling to games and tournaments. Sometimes this means that there’s no room for Dad (or Mom), but I haven’t heard any complaining. As the kids get past about 13 or so, they’d prefer both Mom and Dad stay home; so you could end up a designated parent in an SUV with about 4 or 5 players. If you are lucky they each come with a 20 dollar bill from their parents for gas money.

2. Check out the parking lot at the games…..not so many SUVs and minivans this year, huh? Not a single Hummer in sight at practice tonight. I’ve traded my SUV for a hybrid car…lucky we just happened to have one in driveway. Oh wait….that was a dream, dang. Well, I’m hoping to soon (right after winning the lottery next week).

3. I’ve heard it suggested, but yet to see it come to fruition, that some leagues may go back to scheduling 2 games in one day (for soccer and baseball anyway) so we (parents, coaches and officials) only have to drive to the field once per weekend.

4. Some families have decided to move their kids to a league closer to home even if the level of competition and coaching is not quite as high as they would like.

5. Clubs and teams have been making decisions to forgo certain tournaments and competitions, focusing on either on those closest to home or the most important. I personally am thrilled with this one, I’ve saved a good bit of $$ on hotels also, this summer.

6. A few parents are choosing to forgo certain competitions or games. Not so popular with the other parents and coach, though. Last minute replacements, smaller bench, and position switching is stressful on the whole team. But….ya gotta do what ya gotta do sometimes, right? If it comes to that though, I recommend seeing #1 above and sending your kid (and some cash) with another family so you don’t break his heart and make yourself the parent that becomes the focus of the weekends sideline gossip.

GOOD LUCK to all and may all your hybrid car dreams come true (Toyota Prius if we need to get specific).