I recently read an article I found interesting about child athletes and injury. I am a parent of child athletes and thought it would be good to share the information with other parents. A study was done for Safe Kids Week last year that revealed 1 in 3 children suffered injuries during sports severe enough to require medical treatment. More concerning for us at ProActive Physical Therapy is how quickly children return to their sport. 92% of parents rely on the coaches to keep our children safe during practice and games. While half of all coaches report feeling pressured to play an injured child. As well as 3/10 children think a good player should keep playing even if they are hurt unless a coach or other adult makes them stop. We emphasize the importance of the healing process that many acute injuries take. Often times even after the pain or initial swelling subsides from an acute injury there is resulting tightness, weakness, or instability that needs to resolved to help avoid re-injury.
At Proactive Physical Therapy we treat athletes of all ages with a progression from the acute stages of pain/ edema control and functional strengthening to return to normal activities such as walking, to proprioceptive and plyometric activities, to sport activities. Everyone always asks “when can I go back to playing?” “I need to play this weekend or my team will lose!” Well, we feel there is victory when all our patients have enough strength, flexibility, and stability to minimize risk of re-injury and resume all the activities they love. Often times, our patients are stronger with better proprioception than before the injury which will help keep them in their sport for many years. Now who is the winner?