Overuse Injuries

“Pain is temporary, pride is forever.” This quote represents what thousands of young athletes are going through daily. Many adolescents who are working hard to become the best in their league are now falling short due to overuse injuries. With childhood obesity increasing, U.S. citizens have overlooked the overuse injuries that affect the active youth. In 2003 more than 3.5 million children under age 15 suffered a sports injury that required medical treatment, thats about one attended injury for every 10 players, and seventy-five percent of those injuries were the result of overuse (Hyman, 2009). Overuse injuries occur over a long peroid of time and occur after repetitive micro trama to th tendons, The human body has the tremendous capability to adapt to physical stress. However if the body is put under to much stress without the proper amount of rest injury can occur. The most common injury that occurs from this is an overuse injury these include tennis elbow, runners knee, and shin splints. There are three main factors that are contributing to young athletes getting an overuse injury. The first factor is that these young athletes are being trained by parents and coaches who have no background in sports. These inexperienced coaches are providing the young athletes with improper training techniques, which can result in injury. Another factor that is leading to overuse injuries is the amount of pressure being placed on the athlete by coaches and peers. Wether it is a coach teaching their athletes to play through the pain, or parents pressuring their children so they can live vicariously through them, the well being of these young athletes is getting overlooked. The final factor stems from the previous two factors. Coaches are pressuring athletes to become specialized meaning they only participate in one sport. While this alone is not an issue, whats wrong with this is they are being improperly trained year round and rarely are given the rest needed to stay

References: Hyman. (2009, april 07). Until it hurts. Retrieved from http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/more/04/06/youthsports.untilithurts/index.html Johnson, H. (2008, April). Overuse injuries in young athletes. Retrieved from http://www.hscoaches.org/docs/Over_use_injuries.pdf Preventing overuse injuries. (2010). Retrieved from http://familydoctor.org/familydoctor/en/prevention-wellness/exercise-fitness/sports-safety/-preventing-overuse-injuries.html