Keion Carter

PERIOD 3
April 21st, 2016

Injury Prevention in Athletics

(Children / Teenagers)

Kids around the world have many interests and hobbies, many to choose from,
but the most popular interest to a child is sports. Athletes all over the world dedicate
time and gratitude to become an amazing athlete, or even make a living from the sport
itself. Although, the road ahead for those child athletes are going to be a huge obstacle
due to many reasons. The biggest bump to affect a childrens activity with the sports
world are of course, injuries. What is an injury? An injury is a physical unfortunate event
that happens within the body, which is harmful or even life threatening, depending on
the part of the body that was damaged severely. Many children pass on getting checked
or examined medically by doctors and physicians to stay playing the sport. Overuse and
overpractice are the leading cause of injury to a child and high school athletics. Being
an athlete myself, I completely understood what it feels like to sit out and watch others
be great, and take the shine as an all-star, but that is not the case at all. Many have had
a terrible injury from over practicing with a strict coach and tearing a muscle within my
leg, and I was later examined by a therapist.
The problem with today, up to 2 million athletes around the world annually ends
up having a sport related injuries. Athletes 14 years and under are the most common to
risking an injury, which 3.5 million teenagers a year bring upon a major injury within their
athletics. Up to date, up to 50% of high school student athletes injuries are sustained by

Keion Carter
PERIOD 3
April 21st, 2016

overuse injuries. What is an overuse injury? Overuse injuries are injuries caused by
repetitive trauma or force upon the area of contact within the person or
persons body that causes it to break or fracture. There are two main injuries that can
occur, there are acute injuries and overuse injuries. Acute injuries are actually the less
risky injuries such as a wrist fracture, ankle sprains, shoulder dislocations, and
hamstring assorted injuries. The main question is, how may a athlete overuse a injury?
There are many strict coaches that like to push to their players to their very limit, no
matter what the cost is, they want 150% from every player. Coaches of all sorts should
be cautious of their players within a certain sports, especially contact sports such as
basketball and football. The two injuries combined have over 200 deaths per year,
during practice or during a full game in effect. The main death of football and basketball
players are concussions.
Concussions are a temporary unconsciousness caused by a blow to the head.
Football players worldwide takes headshots every single game and play through with it
like it never happened, and believes that they will be fine for the rest of the game. Well
they are wrong, every football squad should have a trainer on their team to rely on to
make sure that they are clear enough to play. Young Andre Smith, a 17 year old
teenager in Illinois, died from major hits to the head after constantly coming back and
forth off of the field from injuries. The coach cited, As anyone who has participated in
athletics knows, there is a risk of injury any time a player steps on the field of play.
Football, in particular, has been under the microscope over the last decade, and
organizations at all levels of play, including high school, have been taking aggressive
steps to try and reduce injury over time, which was too late to be said for young Andre.

Keion Carter
PERIOD 3
April 21st, 2016

Recent data founded in therapists created a statement that may think stretching can
subdue injuries.
Stretching is a form of physical exercise in which specific muscle or tendon is
deliberately flexed or stretched in order to improve the muscle's elasticity and achieve
comfortable muscle tone. Many doctors have surveyed whether or not if stretching helps
prevent sports related injuries. For the player to begin certain exercises such as
hamstring stretches, calf stretches, and groin stretches. What is the most common sort
of injury? Sprains and strains of your ligaments throughout your body. Sprains are an
injury to a ligament (tissue that connects two or more bones at a joint) & strains are
injury to the muscles such as tearings within the certain muscle. Guidelines that are
called the Gameplan, are certain things you can do to prevent injury in your athletes or
even yourself. Although, to prepare for an injury, you must be diagnosed with one and
be identified within the specific time of the injury. 30 to 45 million kids participate in
sports worldwide to the athletic world. 7.3 million of them are high school athletes within
the nation. For examinations, experts released information based upon evaluation for
the athletes is only 500,000 athletes were diagnosed from doctors visits including
therapists. 30,000 of them were even hospitalized for an injury, but the numbers still
never added up the way they are supposed to. Statistics cleared form Lucile Packard
Childrens hospital stated that nearly 775,000 children just last year were examined and
diagnosed with sports related injuries with blows to the head, dislocations, sprains and
strains (which are most common). Many identify that over-practicing in the mix of high
school sports bring along major injuries to the student
athletes, and nothing is being done about it.

Keion Carter
PERIOD 3
April 21st, 2016

Over-practicing is basically practice among a sport or athletic activity is done that

way too often. To prevent over practice, take certain breaks, 10-15 at a time at least.
Over-practice may burn the kids out, and make them break down in many ways.
134,000 cases of kids over-practicing show that passing out upon impact or extreme
fatigue, can even pass away from dehydration or even just one blow to the head.
Certain guidelines to prevent over-practicing is simple, we know kids wanna be the best
they can be, but taking breaks would not hurt them. Although, if they ignore the fact of
taking breaks and drinking much fluid, they will become upon an injury. Kids must be
shown how to take care of themselves and how to treat their body the right way, or they
will face severe consequences throughout life. NCHSAA should most definitely have
some guidelines or even tell to show kids the importance of injury prevention in the
sports world. Not only that you can be severely hurt, or even killed, you can become
handicapped as well within seconds of playing that sport you love. The NCHSA only
provides referees and scholarships to athletes within high school sports, but does it
mean anything if the kids hurt or even kill themselves over the sport they strive for? I do
not think so. Burnouts are mainly nervous breakdowns caused by over-practice and
usually ends up making the child pass out within the workout session. The term is
called, Energy Overload Syndrome, (EOS). Interestingly, the most common sign of EOS
is fatigue. This happens not because the body lacks energy, but because it has too
much. Your body is intelligent and it can recognize when it is overloaded. The bodys
natural response is to make you tired, so that you will go to sleep. While asleep, the
body will adjust your energy levels back to normal.
When playing a sport, many kids begin to feel dizzy or have other side symptoms

Keion Carter
PERIOD 3
April 21st, 2016

affecting their sight, and even their minds. Many kids begin to start playing again,
although the best decision for them to make should stay on the sidelines. More than
62% of athletes within the United States begin getting injured in practice more than
likely than in an organized game. The three main injuries with sports are the ACL tear,
hamstring strains, and the groin strain. The ACL is tissue that connects the thighbone to
the shinbone, at the knee. Most ACL injuries occur during certain sports such as
basketball, soccer, football, skiing, and tennis. Basketball and Football has over 200,000
cases of an ACL ligament being tore, which is considered the worst sport injury of all
time. Doctors and therapists claim it is near impossible to prepare for an ACL tear, the
only main thing you may possibly do is strengthen your ACL tendon. Kids eight years
and older are less likely to come about a sports related injury as serious as an ACL,
sprain or strain. Children that young arent coordinated and have slower reaction times
than middle school and high school athletes. Acute injuries for that age are minor, such
as scratches, bruises, and cuts upon the body. The serious injuries around that age are
eye injuries such as a damaged cornea, broken bones, or ligament injuries. Parents
must prepare their kids for sports such as equipment and toughness.

Beginning with sports at a young age is always better for the kids athletic features and
begin to feel the sport and love it. Sports are totally different with kids that have played
for their whole lives, dealing with injuries to someone that is just beginning.
The surface of the fields and courts in sports are also a factor towards athletic
type injuries within the nation. Some fields in football are thin grass, and cause athletes

Keion Carter
PERIOD 3
April 21st, 2016

have less traction while playing the sport and throw them off. Many football fields are on
baseball fields as well which are just dirt, the dirt that feels like extremely painful rubber
rubbing against your skin and breaking your ankles. Mike Golden, of Reidsville High
School, has been hurt every season of the football program. Although, having played
minimum games he played through strains, shoulder injuries, and even an ACL tear
himself. I never noticed how badly the turf can affect your game, I took one step at the
wrong time in the backfield and I just heard my leg pop out of place. (April 21st, 2016)
Prevention through football games and the surface of the field can oddly, but surely
create an injury in high school sports. NCHSAA needs to appear upon the field itself,
with a field crew for every high school to assure safety on the field for athletes around.
Paul George, a professional Basketball Player for the National Basketball
Association was injured during a USA Basketball scrimmage. The goal post from the
basketball goal was too close to the goal line as George went down for a dunk, and it
severed his leg straight in half. The goal post is supposed to be 15 feet away from the
baseline, which when George got hurt, it was 10 feet away. It felt like gasoline was on
my leg and someone lit a match. Just internally, my leg felt like it was in flames. It was a
quick five minutes, and then my body kind of went into shock. I immediately took my
mind off of what had just happened, thanks to the docs and my parents coming over
from my side, my teammates coming over. That quickly went away, but I was in pain for
a good five or 10 minutes. (August 15th, 2014.) The surfaces of the court or field the
sport must be recognized for the safety of all players.
Around 40 million kids worldwide have been into an injury reflecting based upon
an athletic activity. When we look at stats, injury has grown over the years and

Keion Carter
PERIOD 3
April 21st, 2016

continues to grow annually and yearly within the era. Deaths rarely happen within
sports, sitting at 1.1% of athletes has died within athletic cause, but that does not
change the fact that it could happen again. Including year round participation, there is
always a risk of injury within your grasp, it is just natural within athletics. Kids deal with
tremendous pressure within friends, coaches, parents, and even the community, to deal
with a sport. Factors within the sports world of injuries include the nature of the sport
(contact, endurance), training sessions, coaching (over-practice), playing surface, and
of course equipment. Kids and teenagers must learn the concepts of injuries and how to
subdue them using rest, techniques, and tactics to protect themselves to do well on skill
on that court. Children around the world may not have the thoughts of injuries, but
sooner or later they will come into the picture. The NCHSAA, Parents, family, and
friends can always prepare their friend and child of what may happen to the in the
future. For everyone to send them a special message upon injury prevention may even
save that kids life one day. Injuries are unconditional physical distortion to the body that
is painful, withdrawing athletic activity. There is no cure, but there will always be
prevented within the sports world.

Many families encounter the worst of sports related injuries, such as being
paralyzed or even death upon playing. The NCHSAA should be more cautious upon
high school athletics and make it a safer environment towards all contenders within the
divisions. It is not the NCHSAA fault upon injuries, but they can make the biggest
improvement upon sports to try and prevent many risky injuries. Kids will go through the

Keion Carter
PERIOD 3
April 21st, 2016

pain of an injury, not to only sit and get ready to play again, but to learn an important
lesson.

AAOS - OrthoInfo: Sports Injuries & Prevention. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2016, from
http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/menus/sports.cfm

Preventing Children's Sports Injuries. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2016, from
http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/sports-safety.html

2016 Sports Injury Prevention Tip Sheet. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2016, from
https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/news-features-and-safetytips/pages/Sports-Injury-Prevention-Tip-Sheet.aspx

Sports Injuries. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2016, from

http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Sports_Injuries/child_sports_injuries.asp

STOP Sports Injuries | Sports Injury Prevention. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2016,
from http://www.stopsportsinjuries.org/

Keion Carter
PERIOD 3
April 21st, 2016

Preventing Sports-Related Injuries. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2016, from

http://www.safekids.org/preventing-sports-related-injuries

Prevention and Treatment of Athletic Injuries. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2016, from
https://www.hss.edu/conditions_prevention-treatment-athletic-injuries.asp

7 Reasons to Avoid Over Practicing. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2016, from
http://flowingzen.com/3883/7-reasons-to-avoid-over-practicing/

Common Sports Injuries and Sports Injury Prevention Tips. (2012). Retrieved April 26,
2016, from http://www.orthop.washington.edu/?q=patient-care/articles/sports/commonsports-injuries-and-sports-injury-prevention-tips.html