Concerned For The Ever-Growing Youth Athlete Injury Epidemic

The average day for a student athlete is waking up around 5 or 6am, after only 7 hours of sleep, possibly skipping breakfast or if they have time eating a nutrient deficient breakfast.  They are now expected to be at peak attention in the classroom through a school lunch and afternoon classes followed by a daily 3 hour practice.  A 3 hour practice pushes physical limits with repetitive activity on an empty stomach.  Practice is followed by a random dinner meal, homework, social time and back to bed to do it all over again.  Less than adequate sleep, poor nutrition, poor timing of meals and improper training all contribute to the mental and physical destruction of an adolescent.

Pile this on a transition to club sports that bombard young athletes with year round game schedules, long practices, multiple competitions within one day and little time for academics or recovery.  Not to mention someone, somewhere is putting them through a radically inappropriate training program, based on a fitness magazing and with no formal education, to make them a bigger, stronger athlete.

As a former high school and college hockey player I have lived the above scenario.  I have also suffered two major injuries in my athletic career; a chronic hip injury on an undetected hip deformation (high school) and a torn ACL (college).  I now treat and work very closely with the youth athletic population.  Muscle and joint injuries are at an all time high.  Not acute injuries but rather chronic, repetitive, wear and tear, debilitating, degenerative injuries as early as 8 years old!

The necessity for proper youth athletic development is now!  I am seeing more and more developing, debilitating athletic injuries…  It’s quite frightening and its setting these youths up for continued physical health ailments. 

We are here to change this.  We are here to identify and account for their structural and functional uniqueness and their individual needs.  And by knowing this we can provide the appropriate measures to ensure the athlete has every chance of fulfilling a long, enjoyable career.

Call me to have you or your young athlete screened for biomechanical imbalances.  The mandatory ‘pre-participation physical’ does not detect the presence and development of these injury patterns.  Don’t let a small problem turn into a potential career ending and continued physical ailment.

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