Injuries in School Sports
By: Raymond Russell
School
sports have become more and more competitive. Competition between
athletes makes sports become more physical and allows for more injuries
of players. A lot of the sport injuries affect the kids academics
because they will be out of school. Many kids in sports get injured but
they don’t say anything about it to keep playing. By not saying
anything, the injury will get worse and be an irritation in class. A
huge problem in today’s sports are head injuries. Head injuries affect
their concentration in class, how they study for exams and how they
think. Theses injuries hold kids back from their full potential. In school sports many
injuries are preventable if the right precautions are taken
during practice and games, if coaches and parents teach their kids
about right techniques and injuries, sports could be a lot safer for athletes.
Especially in high school sports players are more likely to get injured because of its more competitive environment. High school athletes account for an estimated 2 million injuries, 500,000 doctor visits and 30,000 hospitalizations each year. On average the severity of the injury will increase with the age. Many of these injuries will occur in practice because players will be reckless and do not properly warm up. Players are less likely to get injured in a game because coaches will watch and make sure, the stretches are done right. When an athlete gets injured 62% of the time its is from practice and 33% of injuries are from a game. "Coaches don't care 'bout stretching" (Justin Ekstrom) Adequate stretching before any physical activity will help decrease the risk of injury and help their ability to perform at an elevated level. If coaches and parents promote their kids to do stretches before a game or practice, it can reduce their risk of an injury. Many people think that sport injuries most happen in football, hockey and soccer, but one sport that has lots of injuries is baseball and softball. Since 2000 there has been a fivefold increase in the number of serious shoulder and elbow injuries among youth baseball and softball players. The shoulder injury is caused because of overuse of their shoulders when throwing the ball.
One
sport injury that has been a recurring situation are concussions.
"Multiple concussions are the big concern in football, compared to war-related head trauma, which usually involves one battlefield blast and the impact of the head against a wall, the ground or other hard surface” (Eric Dickerson). Some people think that to
get a concussion, you have to go lose consciousness but that’s not all
the time true. Some physical symptoms of a concussion are headaches,
blurry vision, nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light. The mental
symptoms are not thinking clearly, difficult to concentrate and finding
it hard to remember new things. The symptoms of a concussion will affect
students in school because whenever the teachers in going over
something new, it will be effortful for them to remember it. Also, it
will be strenuous concentrating on what is going on. It can set kids
back in academics and will make it challenging for them to catch up
again in school work. Some concussions will last for a few hours and the
more serious ones will last for a few weeks! Injuries associated with
participation in sports and recreational activities account for 21
percent of all traumatic brain injuries among children in the United
States. The sports that have the highest rates of concussions are girls
soccer and football. The best way to help prevent athletes from getting
concussions is teaching athletes, parents and coaches about concussions.
Also, creating an action plan just in case someone gets a concussion.
A
way to lower the amount of injuries in a sports, especially football
and rugby, is stricter rules that will make the game a safer. Some fouls
for unnecessary roughness aren’t strict enough. Sure they will lose 15
yards but that doesn’t mean that they will do it again in some other
game. To prevent them from doing it again, they should be suspended for a
part of the game and if it is a really bad play they should be
suspended for the next game. Teaching kids to play cleanly at a young
age will hopefully keep them in line later on in their sports career.
Also, showing them the correct way to tackle someone will prevent helmet
to helmet tackles. Doing this could reduce head injuries. Another way
to help stop dirty plays is encouraging parents to influence their
children in sports. Some parents influence the athletes to push harder,
hit harder and run faster, but if there is no need for that, then it
could prevent more injuries. If someone does get injured during a game
it should be necessary go to the trainer.
There are many ways for the parents, coaches and for the athletes to reduce their risk for an injury. Some ways to prevent injuries are very simple, like stretching before exercising and just teaching better ways to keep the game under control. Teaching athletes about concussions and the signs of concussions can help prevent head injuries. The better the recovery the quicker they will be able to get back into sports and more importantly catch up in academics. There needs to be some changes in how the sports are regulated and taught to athletes. With a few simple rules set in place, classes on injury prevention and coaches teaching good stretching, injuries can be almost eliminated from school sports.
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