Injuries On the Rise/Are Kids Leaving Sports?

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.

Comments are closed