You know your child should be training consistently if they are passionate about their sport. The stronger your child is, the more sport specific skills he or she builds, the better he or she will perform. The question is, “Where should my child be training?” You want to work with a team who focuses on weaving injury prevention strategies into elite training protocols.
Injury prevention in youth athletes is essential for many reasons. Injuries can disrupt your child’s growth, lead to painful pathologies earlier in life, result in depression and feelings of isolation, increase risk of reinjury and additional injury, and reduce seasonal play time.
Injury prevention goes beyond foam rolling and stretching. It is an intentional mix of strength, proprioception, balance, and mental training with specific dosage, variation and verbal cueing.
While well-designed injury prevention programs result in the lowest injury rates and injury time loss the effectiveness is strongly influenced by frequency. Consistent implementation, utilization and adherence is essential.
The British Journal of Sports Medicine
Evidence based injury prevention strategies are superior to external supports (bracing, taping, pads) in preventing injury. A training program with intentional injury prevention strategies can reduce a risk of ACL injury by 73%. External supports reduce risk by a maximum of 2% (many studies show knee supports are completely ineffective at preventing injury).
Injury prevention training is more effective in children than later in life. The earlier your child begins training with these strategies the better, they will be healthier adults for it. It will give your athlete the best opportunity to develop strong and favorable movement patterns.
Pathologies like osteoarthritis have complex origins with many factors, one is a history of ligament sprain.
Often arthritis appears within 10 years of a ligament sprain or tear.
The American Journal of Sports Medicine
Joints with a history of multiple injuries deteriorate more quickly and result in pathological pain.
There’s a hidden bonus here. Among the reasons these training protocols result in injury reduction is the positive impact on overall strength, agility and responsiveness. These protocols result in fewer injuries because they make your child a better athlete. Our Sports Performance parents will tell you their child feels stronger on the field and plays better than ever.