Sports Safety IQ

Concussion Update, Part II: More Brain Injury Prevention & Awareness for Parents & Coaches

   During National Brain Injury Awareness month, what do you as a parent or coach need to know about brain injuries that can occur during sports activities? First on the list is that concussions are on the rise in youth sports. Players are more aggressive, hitting harder and playing tougher, sometimes to their own detriment. And I'm not just talking about boys. Concussions among female athletes are soaring, with head injury rates among female soccer players, for example, rising to the level of those in the NFL. The competitive nature of sports, coupled with the competitive nature of parents these days (pushing kids to excel at all costs) and the added lure of college scholarships and lucrative pro contracts, all point to a driving sports culture that is not going to change any time soon. In this culture, injuries to kids are going to continue to escalate.

How, in this race to the highest levels of sports, can we prevent concussions and head injuries?

Girl Athletes, Sports Injuries and Quality Coaches

As a follow up to last week's post, I was just reading an article in the Asheville Citizen Times, "Programs aim to help female athletes lower risk of sports injuries," and it reminded me of the additional risk girls and female athletes face with regard to knee injuries.  ACL injuries -- damage to the anterior cruciate ligament that stabilizes the knee -- are 4 to 6 times more common in female athletes than males, according to this article.

The main reason for ACL injuries in females is structural: wider hips means that knees turn in more, which causes problems when pivoting or jumping in sports like soccer, lacrosse or basketball. Hormones are also thought to play a role in the predominance of ACL injuries to girls, as well as lack of development of the supporting muscles, especially hamstrings.

Girls' Sports are Tough ...

                                               ... And girl athletes are tougher. But do they need to be? My head was still reeling from the article in the NY Times that talked about girls being more vulnerable to concussions than boys (NY Times, Oct 2nd, 2007), when I overheard the following story at my daughter's soccer game.

Turns out one of the team parents took their older daughter to the ER at Morristown Memorial Hospital after she blew out her knee during a soccer game. When they arrived at the hospital, the waiting room was filled with 25 kids in soccer uniforms, about 22 of whom were girls, according to the mom. When it was their turn to see the doctor, the mom told the doctor she couldn't believe how crowded the waiting room was with all the soccer injuries. The doctor's response? "This is just a typical Saturday afternoon -- overflowing with girls with concussions, knee and ankle injuries."

Parents, if you think your daughters need to be playing "this tough," think again. Young athletes, whether boys or girls, do not need to get hurt in youth sports. This is one of those gaps in common sense: parents believe that getting injured is all part of the sports experience, when in reality, 90% of injuries to kids playing sports are preventable.