USAToday reported in 2013 1.35 million youths suffer serious sport injuries.
Occasional bumps and bruises are expected when kids play sports, but for more than 1.35 million children sustain a sports-related injury that was severe enough to send them to a hospital emergency department.
Sprains and strains, fractures, contusions, abrasions and concussions top the list of sports-related ER diagnoses for kids ages 6 to 19 — at a cost of more than $935 million each year, according to a report out Tuesday from the non-profit advocacy group Safe Kids Worldwide. One in five kids who go to ERs for treatment of an injury is there for sports injuries, says Kate Carr, Safe Kids president and CEO. “Far too many kids are arriving in emergency rooms for injuries that are predictable and preventable,” Carr says. 12% of all ER visits (163,670) involved a concussion, the equivalent of one every three minutes. Nearly half (47%) were in kids ages 12 to 15.
Research reported earlier this year by Jayanthi and colleagues found that young athletes who played a single sport for more hours a week than years they were old — such as a 10-year-old who played 11 or more hours of soccer — were 70% more likely to experience serious overuse injuries.
Among other findings from the report:
• Football resulted in both the highest number of all pediatric injuries (394,350) and the highest concussion rate (40 per 10,000 athletes). Wrestling and cheer leading had the second- and third-highest concussion rates (15 per 10,000 athletes and 12 per 10,000 athletes, respectively).
• Ice hockey had the highest percentage (31%) of concussion injuries; its rate was 10 per 10,000 athletes.
• The most common injuries were to the ankle (15%), followed by head (14%) finger (12%), knee (9%) and face (7%).
Massage and Sport Injuries:
Anyone who routinely pushes their physical limits through any movement, sports, strength training and aerobics can benefit from a massage. Massage in an important part of any sports regimen. Sports medicine clinics and both professional and college athletic teams use massage to heal and prevent the wear-and-tear and minor injuries that naturally occur with strenuous movement. The added physiological and psychological benefits of massage also add to the reasons to do it.
Heavily exercised muscles may also lose their capacity to relax, causing chronically tight (hypertonic) muscles, and loss of flexibility. Lack of flexibility is often linked to muscle soreness, and predisposes you to injuries, especially muscle pulls and tears. Blood flow through tight muscles is poor (ischemia), which also causes pain. Some benefits of massage for exercise and injury prevention:
Reduced chance of injury by improving range of motion and muscle flexibility.
Performance enhancing results with improved power and performance.
Shortened recovery time between workouts.
Maximizes the supply of nutrients and oxygen through increased blood flow and the elimination of lactic acid in the muscle (a by-products of exercise).
Massage helps the body recover from the stresses of strenuous exercise, and facilitates the rebuilding phase of conditioning. The physiological benefits of massage include improved blood and lymph circulation and muscle and general relaxation. These, in turn, lead to removal of waste products and better cell nutrition, normalization and greater elasticity of tissues, deactivation of trigger points, and faster healing of injuries. It all adds up to relief from soreness and stiffness, better flexibility, and less potential for future injury.