Connecticut's Youth Athletes at Risk for Overusee Injury
Connecticut's young athletes are active year-round. And, while their window of opportunity for outdoor sports is short, the aspirations of athletes, coaches and parents are long when it comes to how much they try to squeeze out of those precious few fair-weather months. Many kids seeking an edge in their respective sport play for multiple teams, playing far more games, and attending more pracatices than we used to as kids. The problems of over-use injuries arise when parents and kids don't share with their coaches the fact that they are on the court, field or other competitive arena with more than one team, on the same day, whether just before or just after the one in which they are now playing. Baseball coaches and the orgainziations that operate compettive leagues, such as Little League and Cal Ripken, are probably the most sensitized to the perils of over-use now that there are well-defined protections in place: pitch-count rules by age group being the most critical in protecting young pitchers' arms. Pitchers are not the only young atheltes that need protection, though. As a coach, I have noted too often kids on my team with historically rare problems-chronic tendonitis, plantar fascitis (inflammation of the fascia in the foot) Sever's disease (a seriously painful/disabling problem in the heel), bone spurs, stress fractures etc. What is most alarming is how parents often ignore the doctor's advice to take a break to allow healing. Even I ask the question, "When can he start playing again?" when it's my kid's injury keeping him out. What is the coach's responsibility here? I believe that the coach must be the voice of reason by only allowing a child to return to the filed/court of play with a doctor's note permitting it, and explaining what limitations there should be, and for who long. The doctor's feedback is not, as far as I can see, a requirement in any of the leagues that I have coached in. Strangely, even the most advanced of the organized sports leagues, Little League, has managed to downplay or outright disregard the warnings of the very doctor who invented the pitch count rules. Why? Because it's what the parents/members of that league want. For instance, the pitch count rules are relaxed for Little League World Series play so that the marquee pitchers are not kept off the mound. Is this the message we want our kids to hear? As long as there is an audience that wants it this way, children's protection is not a primary goal? Let's all make an effort to remember these are kids, not young profesional athletes. Encourage your local teams, clubs and athletic associations to adopt standards for addressing over-use and return to play protocols for our young athletes, such as Westport, Connecticut's PAL concussion protocol, or its strict adherernce to Little League pitch count rules for rest and pitches per game.
