January 13, 2009

Health Experts to NCAA: Keep an Eye on Youth Sports

National Harbor, Md. — It might seem a provocative question to pose to a group of athletics administrators: “Is excellence in sport compatible with good health?”

But there it was, stretched across a giant ballroom at a resort hotel here, just south of the nation’s capital, where the NCAA is about to kick off its annual meeting. One day before the main events begin, a group of scholars and athletics officials heard about the darker side of sports at the association’s scholarly colloquium, now in its second year.

Armed with a foreboding title, “Paying the Price,” and sobering terminology like “injury epidemic” and “traumatic brain injuries,” the session featured experts in sports psychology, exercise physiology, kinesiology, and orthopedics, who warned that an unchecked quest for greatness in sports can have dire physical and mental consequences for young athletes.

“The NCAA should be concerned about what’s happening in youth sports,” said Daniel Gould, director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University, who does research on burnout in athletes. An increasing focus on year-round training in only one sport can hasten burnout and injury among young athletes, Mr. Gould and other experts said.

Three-quarters of the one million sport-related injuries that happen each year are in athletes younger than 15 years old, Ronald F. Zernicke, an orthopedic expert who is director of the Bone & Joint Injury Prevention & Rehabilitation Center at the University of Michigan, told NCAA members. And 30 percent to 50 percent of all athletics injuries among youths are from overuse, he said.

At this rate, Mr. Gould added, by the time athletes reach college-level competition, “they’ve got a lot of mileage — what’s happening at the lower levels is very important.” —Libby Sander

Comments

1. It will take another couple generations of injured kids for our society to figure this one out. Sad.

   — John    Jan 14, 08:34 AM    #

2. The experts, as usual, are correct. As a society we would be much better off if youngsters stopped playing competitive sports and spent more time watching TV and playing on the computer.

   — Lee    Jan 14, 08:44 AM    #

3. Lee, I appreciate the sarcasm. I don’t think that is the underlying meaning of this article, though. Mr. Gould is referring to our youth specializing in one sport from a very early age, and playing that sport year-round. This repetitiveness causes imbalances in musculature, which can lead to bigger problems down the road. While it gives our youth an advantage to start young, I am of the philosophy that we should let kids be kids. If they want to play football or wrestle at age 5, then let them do it in the back yard.

   — Abe    Jan 14, 09:14 AM    #

4. The big money sports, particularly football, are the culprits here. We have kids taking steroids, bulking up anyway they can,and delaying school to gain advantage over younger and smaller competitors, all in the hope of beating long odds and becoming one of the elite. It’s a false promise leaving a trail of wreckage. I have friends who played collegiate football who before the age of 40 have been wracked by arthritic joints, inability to use even simple tools, and whose muscles have become lard. The drug regimens they are on are likely shortening their lives. Even a fairly minor injury incurred as a teenager can manifest itself with a vengeance later in life, but the kinds of injuries associated with football usually are well beyond minor. Since teenage football, particularly high school, is not going to go away and is resistant to change, it really does fall to the rule making bodies to take steps that discourage practices like “playing hurt” and “no pain no gain.”

   — CW    Jan 14, 09:40 AM    #

5. And hand in hand with these physical injuries, not to mention the attitude adjustments (you can read that as “Entitlement”) to the negative are the parents who coach as though it is their game and their time. Speaking as a football official, when I see these guys show up at games wearing wrist strap play lists, color-coordinated outfits and wrap-around sunglasses and spouting catchphrases and motivational acronyms, I know that we’re in for a long and contentious game…in front of 9-year olds who will forget about the final score within five minutes. Let the kids be kids, indeed.

   — Boots on the ground    Jan 14, 09:59 AM    #

6. I enjoy watching and playing competitive sports, but when I see kids below Jr High age putting on pads and helmets, I shudder. That is TOO young for full-contact football. Also, the focus on single sports cannot be good for young people – the human body needs a variety of exercises.

   — ap    Jan 14, 10:45 AM    #

7. Add hockey to the mix along with football.
   Getting back in the game ASAP despite the fact that an injury requires a lengthy recovery period is common.
   We fret over every cough and sniffle for our babies and then a few short years later are encouraging them to play through the pain.
   Sigh.

   — a mom    Jan 14, 11:15 AM    #

8. Our society has forced to a certain degree the idea that to be ‘somebody’ you have to play a sport, rather than just be who you are and hopefully excercise. I know, as I’m sure many others do, parents who lived through their children’s sporting activity. Pity the child and the parent. Even more frustrating is the parent who never participated in sports and yells at his or her kid to buck up when they don’t even know what the child is feeling mentally, emotionally, or physically (b/c they’ve never attempted to do what the child is doing).

   — tridaddy    Jan 14, 12:33 PM    #

9. Add every sport to the mix. My son is expected to play and work out for soccer year round, and a daughter for swimming. Both are getting burned out and one is in 9th grade and the other 5th grade- and the 5th grader was just injured. The coaches’ attitudes? “Go ahead and quit because you’re not really dedicated unless you do this year-round.” It’s lead to some great discussions about what it means to be dedicated, and committed and the range that those take. I think, very soon, they are going to be making some different choices and going with athletic clubs instead of teams! Hooray!

   — another mom    Jan 14, 01:57 PM    #

10. The specificity of sport is one that has long concerned
    the professionals providing care to the student athletes from both the
    physical and mental side of the fence. I am not sure that the issue is so
    much playing the sport, but the “off season” weight training and conditioning that
    go along with the sport. The continued repetitive motions associated with throwing,
    kicking, running, etc. for students at a young age are additive. We see far too many
    overuse injuries or “inherited” injuries in young athletes trying to matriculate into
    the collegiate ranks. The young student that is physically active and participating in a number
    of activities to help establish good cardio-vascular fitness as well as hand, foot, eye coordination is still the best “sport” a youngster can participate in. Far too many stories exist of parents’ spending money on extra lessons, club teams, and individual coaching only to have students quit in the end due to either burnout or injury. The club teams in many areas are getting to be more important than the school teams which lead to more specificity and thus the cycle continues.

    — Ross    Jan 14, 03:12 PM    #

11. Any one read “Warrior Girls” (Michael Sokolove) or “Revolution in the Bleachers – How Parents Can Take Back Family Life in a World Gone Crazy Over Youth Sports” ??? You might find them an interesting commentary on this situation.

    — former athlete    Jan 14, 03:52 PM    #

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