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Back to School Sports Injuries Avoidable With The Right Precautions

Kids are going to be headed back to school before we know it, and thus many reports are arriving in a bid to get coaches, parents, and administrators to do what they can to protect children from injury.  One such report focuses on explaining what types of injuries might await and how to prevent such.

The report divides injuries up into two categories:  acute and overuse.  Acute are the ones that tend to garner the most attention both in the media and on the playing field when they occur.  They’re what happens when a player trips, breaks a bone, collides with another player, and so on and so forth.

Overuse injuries are the more insidious type of threat, as they don’t immediately make themselves known.  Typically, pain will accumulate the longer that an athlete puts too much pressure on one limb or muscle or engages in the same motion again and again and again without rest.  The damage is exacerbated when a player is asked to play through the pain or not given ample time to rest.

Most non-severe injuries should prompt intervention in the form of RICE, a generally accepted acronym that stands for Rest Ice Compression and Elevation.  Those directives are relatively straightforward, but parents and coaches should keep in mind that it doesn’t always apply to more serious injuries.  Visible pain, head injuries, and any damage that has the potential to immobilize or alter in any way the injured area should prompt at the very least a visit to the physical trainer but more likely a trip to the emergency room.

The article also tackles the somewhat controversial topic of weight lifting among children.  It’s important to note that children should not be encouraged to put on body mass via weightlifting until puberty has already taken place.  To do so prematurely would be to leave the child susceptible to overuse injuries and body deformation.  Ideally, such training should only take place under the watchful eye of a physical trainer and only at light levels that can aid flexibility and strength.

Children headed back to school should get a physical every single year, and the proper equipment ought to be purchased prior to the start of the activity.  Kids should be tasked with warming up and coaches should stress injury prevention techniques as a means of protection.  Fatigue, soreness, and slowly intensifying pain must be taken seriously, with kids given a break when they occur.

Finally, the environment itself should be safe.  Gym floors should be free of slick patches and fields should be carefully kept with attention paid to eliminating divots and other ankle hazards.

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