Youth Sport Injuries There are a multitude of possible factors that could result in potential injury. It is my duty as a strength and conditioning professional to focus on preventing injuries, especially ones that result from factors that I have control over. Too many strength coaches under utilize and undervalue the importance of conclusive evaluation and screening assessment. While I would like to indulge more about evaluation tests, techniques, data, results, and correlations to injury rates, I will wait until a later article. I want to focus this article on the basis of youth sports injuries. I will address the fact that more and more of the athletes that I am screening are getting younger and younger. I am finding athletes as early as 8 years old with a history of non-contact sports injuries. How is this happening? Either inadequate or insufficient preparedness, and/or imbalances due to early specialization. These young athletes are not physically prepared or conditioned properly for the demands of the sport and, because they are typically only playing one sport now (year round), they are developing major weaknesses in the nondominant muscles related to the sports movements. What that means is that by doing the same thing on a year round basis, you are only getting better at certain movements (which are important) while you are getting weaker at all other movements, stabilizers, muscles, and connective tissues. These imbalances/ weaknesses need to be addressed in the weight room or by cross-training with a complementary sport (different movement patterns). The problem with cross training, in many cases, is that when choosing a complimentary sport, many athletes will choose a sport that has a negative impact on performance and training for their primary sport (more about choosing the right cross training sport in a future newsletter). Another problem is that, since the level of play at every age is improving in sports, taking a season off of learning and trying to master sport specific skills and the technical aspects of the game could also have a negative impact. So, what should you do? I recommend utilizing the services of a knowledgeable strength and conditioning professional to address all of your needs in order to balance out your athletic development. Knowledgeable, certified and specialized strength and conditioning professionals are committed to helping decrease the increasing prevalence of youth sports injuries. Many of these injuries are serious, and having seen teammates suffer from similar injuries, I know all too well that these can be very debilitating later in life. You only get one body and one chance: be smart and take care of it. Do whatever you can to keep it in balance. Jeremy Hoy is the founder and current performance director for Finish First Sports Performance. Coach Hoy is a CSCS (certified strength and conditioning specialist) with the NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association), with a college degree in Exercise Science from Slippery Rock University (one of the nation's best programs). He has experience working at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, NY, Duquesne University, Robert Morris University, as well as a variety of
other coaching positions with athletes at many different levels. Visit us on our website at http://www.finishfirstsports.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeremy_Hoy