The 2011 New Year is upon us and KIDSPORTS is back on the courts of the community running, jumping, dribbling, passing, and shooting its way into our basketball season!

As the 2011 season begins, we as an organization and a community face the challenges and rewards of our 21st century youth sport culture. A serious concern for us is the health and well being of the children and youth participating in sport.

As youth sport administrators, coaches, and parents we need to pay attention to how we teach and train our children during team sport activities. Articles from both medical journals and newspaper editorials are currently describing how the 21st century trends of youth sport participation are failing to meet the needs of injury prevention standards. Here are a number of recent articles describing these disturbing trends:

From NEWSDAY, December 8th, 2010: Youth sport injuries have become rampant in the United States, with emergency departments treating more than 8,000 children a day for sports-related injuries, safety experts reported yesterday. And from the American Academy of Orthopeadic Surgeons: 3.5 million children under the age of 14 receive medical treatment each year for sports related injuries.

According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) more than ½ of all sports injuries in children are preventable. Since 2000, there has been a fivefold increase in the number of serious shoulder and elbow injuries in youth baseball and softball. There has been a dramatic increase in overuse injuries, as well as training related injuries – primarily related to the volume of training.

Overuse injuries account for nearly half of all injuries sustained in middle and high school and over half of these injuries are considered preventable. Most overuse injuries occur during periods of rapid growth and almost always involve training errors.

Traumatic injuries such as ACL ligament tears and head injuries/concussions are also on the rise with the National Athletic Trainers Association (Newsday, New York, Dec. 2010) reporting that about 63,000 high school athletes suffer brain injuries each year. These numbers led the association to issue a report card on youth sport safety, giving the nation a C- for 2010.

As administrators, coaches, and parents we can help to develop a healthy youth sport environment that respects age appropriate growth, development, and training principles. We must however, work together to develop a game plan for our kids and it starts with information and education on age appropriate teaching, coaching, and training.

First of all, we need to provide coaches training that helps them to develop the 5 S's of youth sport training: strength, stamina, suppleness, speed, and skill (motor, movement, and sport specific) before we even begin to think about technical and tactical strategies.

Secondly, there needs to be a focus on the development of the ABC's of movement and motor skill development: Agility, Balance, and Coordination. Without physical education classes and the lack of playground accessibility, where else will children learn these important movement fundamentals that are in reality, best practice antidotes to injury prevention. The training of the ABC’s is optimally developed in children K – 5.

Lastly, we need to access and share information and education readily available on line and in books, training manuals, and DVD's. Working together we can help to establish a youth sport environment that keeps our kids playing, having fun, and developing healthy and age appropriate movement, motor, and sport specific skills so that they can play hard, play smart, and play together longer and injury free.

The following are recommendations and resources that will help us all to create a local youth sport environment that promotes fitness and proactive “pre – hab” injury prevention verses reactive injury re-habilitation and recovery.

• The American Academy of Pediatricians found that children who participated in a variety of sports and specialized in a specific high volume training sport only after reaching the age of puberty, tended to be more consistent performers, had fewer injuries, and adhered to sports longer than those who specialized early.

• Sports, Trauma, Overuse, Prevention: STOP is a national campaign backed by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Visit their website at www.stopsportsinjuries.org to read more about sport injury preventative practices.

• Physical Literacy Movement - CS4L- Canadian Sport for Life is a movement to increase sport’s contribution in Canadian society recognizing sport as an important part of everyone’s life by promoting each child’s healthy and logical development in a sport or physical activity. Visit www.canadiansportforlife.ca

• IYCA – International Youth Conditioning Fitness Association: the goal is to enhance the knowledge of youth sports/fitness professionals and volunteers throughout the world via intensive educational opportunities as well as continuing education requirements. The main purpose of the IYCA is to assist in the evolution of the youth athletic/fitness industry by regulating the knowledge and skill of the individuals who work within it.

As a parent, coach, or participant in youth sports, I would encourage you to spend some time visiting these sights to get more information on what you can do to make the youth sport experience a positive and healthy one for our kids. Together we can keep kids playing, staying healthy, and having fun. If you have any thoughts or experience in this area, I would be most interested in hearing from you.

Go KIDS!
Bev