I saw this story on CNN earlier. A basketball coach at Murrah High School in Jackson, Mississippi got upset about kids messing up a play in practice. To make his point, he apparently whipped the player with what appears to be a weightlifting belt. Someone caught it on video with a cell phone and witnesses say that is was not an isolated incident.
Here’s the CNN story.
Interesting story from the ABC affiliate in Tampa, FL. Seems obvious but there isn’t a lot of talk about this: as a result of nutrition and health care, genetics, early sports training and conditioning, kids are bigger than the used to be at the same age.
This leads to lots of different things – including the potential for more injuries on the field. They also report some interesting information about the lack of support in some communities. According to the article, only about a third of the nation’s high schools with a sports program have a full time athletic trainer – mainly because of cost. In addition, professional medical help for youth sports in a community often follows the availability of certified trainers in the local schools.
Sometimes we forget how good we really do have it here in Fairfax County.
There was another interesting nugget buried in the story: Researchers found that about 9% fewer 7 to 17 year olds were taking part in the top five sports in 2007 than in 1997.
There’s nothing that explains this in the research. Are kids dropping out and/or not starting a sport? Or are there so many different sports options that they are doing something other than a top five sport? At first glance I assumed there were more choices. But I wonder if there really are that many choices in communities that can’t even afford a full time athletic trainer.
I am a big advocate of putting fields on top of buildings. I really believe that this is an important part of Fairfax County’s long term growth and development.
Here’s an article about a proposal to build a parking structure with a fields on top of it in Milwaukee.
More proof that it can be done.
When is a team too good to play for the championship? Apparently when you are the undefeated fifth grade football team.
These are the things that drive me nuts. Why can’t these coaches set a good example for the players? That said, why punish the players for the coaches’ dumb behavior?
We sometimes hear too much about what is wrong with youth sports. Even more, I often hear complaints about governing bodies that seem more focused on their rules than they are on doing what is right. It’s absolutely true that we need the rules to make help govern how we do things. However, this story out of Florida helps understand why the rule book sometimes needs to be tossed out the window.
Major props to Winter Springs High School and especially the Florida High School Activities Association who gave the thumbs up to a dying man’s wish in less than half an hour.
Read the story about how a father dying of lung cancer got to see his daughter play on the high school lacrosse team for the first and only time. It’s worth it.
The Columbus Dispatch has done a week long series on youth sports. They look at a lot of issues from injuries to the business of youth sports to the danger of supplements and more. Take some time and check it out. It includes video, interactive graphics and articles.
The New York Times has a good health blog that covers lots of topics. Earlier this month they posted an interesting story about a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study examined whether surgery or physical rehabilitation is the best treatment for ACL injuries.
From the Times’ blog:
The findings suggest, the authors concluded, that “more than half the A.C.L. reconstructions” currently being conducted on injured knees “could be avoided without adversely affecting outcomes.”
It’s worth reading the whole blog entry.
There continues to be a lot of talk about concussions in sports. I written about some of the new programs before.
I read this article from a father/youth sports enthusiast/neurosurgeon with great interest. His conclusion really made me think:
Often young players and their parents don’t want to take my advice. They want their child to play – in spite of a lingering headache, in spite of an injury to their growing brain. I understand. Remember, I love sports as much as the next guy. But I have a rule for my own boys. If either one suffers a concussion at this tender age, he’s done with football. The risk for future complications is too great. That’s their dad, the neurosurgeon and sports lover, speaking.
Baseball is a relatively safe sport. There were 52 catastrophic injuries from 1983 to 2009. There were 43 in football in 2008 alone.
However, there is a move to regulate and potentially ban metal bats from High School and youth baseball. There are some scary stories about injuries that some believe are linked to these bats. USA Today has an interesting story about the controversy.
