Sports Injuries

Sports Injuries are a big Problem in School Sports.

 When your playing a sport, the absolute last thing you are thinking about is getting injured. Your mind is on scoring, or getting. High school sports injuries are a huge problem. This is because prevention or even protection is not being watched for. Over three million athletes suffer from some sort of injury that causes them to loose playing time. There is no way anyone can stop an injury from occurring.

In 1998 athletes played in over 40 different sports, and received an injury from it. Roughly 3.3 million athletes were injured from playing those 40 sports. Football leads the pack in injuries especially with boys. Common injuries are bruises, sprains, pulled muscles, soft tissue tears such as ligaments, internal injuries, and back injuries. The most common injuries are knee and ankle. This sport is most safe if played with pads such as: helmets, shoulder pads, thigh pads, and knee pads. The best prevention is to use safety equipment, warm up exercises and proper coaching conditions.

Basketball, a popular sport has the highest rate of knee injuries, requiring surgery among girls. Some common injuries are strains, bruises, fractures, scrapes, dislocations, cuts and, dental surgery. This is most safest if played with eye protection, elbow and knee pads and, the proper shoes with ankle supports. Some ways to prevent injuries are strength training, aerobics, warming up, proper coaching and the right safety equipment.

In soccer, most injuries are bruises, cuts and scrapes, and headaches. In this sport you are kicked a lot and are hit with the ball. So the safest way to play, is with shin guards and cleats. Types of prevention are aerobics and proper training.

Baseball and softball are sometimes called Americas favorite pass time. Some common injuries are soft tissue strains from impact injuries that are fractures due to sliding and being hit by a ball. The proper preventions for baseball and softball are conditioning, and warmups.

Some common injuries for track and field are strains, sprains, and scrapes from falls, the only safety equipment and prevention is the correct footwear, conditioning for the parts of your body that have the most strain put on them, which would be you knees and joints in your legs.

Statistics show that over 25 million American children participate in school sports. Children are playing sports at earlier ages and at higher levels of competition. This growth has resulted in newer types of problems. For this, four million children receive treatment in hospital emergency rooms each year because of sports injuries, and another eight million treated by families and physicians. Most injuries occur in practices rather than games. In organized sports a re-injury is more likely to occur rather than in non organized sports. Another problem that effects young players, is the lack of coaching education. 90 percent of coaches in the U.S. have never taken classes designed to enhance there coaching techniques.

Psychological traumas are not accounted for in injury rates, and may have long lasting effects on self esteem, sports participation, and life long health and fitness habits. Parents need to know that each and every sport has a potential health risk, and to ask the coach what these risks are.

Athletes with the highest risk for injury are those who play contact sports, and those who are trying out a new sport. Most do not know the risk for injury in there sport.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, and The Academy of