Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about soccer injuries.  It really focuses on the different types of injuries that boys and girls get.

From the article:

More boys tend to hurt their ankles, while girls tend to hurt their knees. Studies have found that adolescent girls are four to six times more likely to tear their anterior cruciate ligament, found in the back of the knee, than boys of the same age, according to the Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness. Scientists are not sure why, but believe estrogen makes girls’ ligaments looser, and lower levels of testosterone make it harder for girls than boys to build muscle. Also, because girls’ muscles are different sizes and proportions compared to boys, Dr. Kirkendall says girls tend to stay more erect when they land, which absorbs less shock and can cause their knees to buckle.

Another interesting thing from the article:

Girls are also more susceptible to heat illness, according to a 10-year study of participants in the Schwan’s USA Cup, the largest youth soccer tournament in the Western hemisphere. In the two years when the heat index topped 84 degrees, girls were 1.7 times more likely to suffer heat illness—exhaustion, hyperventilation or cramping—than their male counterparts. (Both years officials shortened playing time, required water breaks and allowed unlimited player substitutions.)

The article is worth reading.

This weekend is the annual FPYC Father’s Day All Star Soccer Tournament.  It is a great event.  But it also tends to be a hot event.  Right now, the forecast is for 90 degrees on Saturday and 92 degrees on Sunday.

With that in mind, i just wanted to post  a reminder that heat is an issue for athletes – young athletes in particular.

This from US Youth Soccer:

Here are physiological/psychological reasons placing children at risk [from heat]:
1) Children absorb more heat from a hot environment because they have a greater surface area to body-mass ratio than adults. The smaller the child, the faster they absorb heat.
2) Children and adolescents may have a reduced ability to lose heat through sweating.
3) During prolonged exercise, children and adolescents frequently do not have the physiological drive to drink enough fluids to replenish sweat losses.
4) Youth athletes may be more easily distracted when they should be resting and rehydrating.
5) Some youth athletes may be under intense pressure to make a competitive squad and may not want to report feelings of heat distress or take the appropriate amount of time to rehydrate.

You can read more about heat issues here on this blog.

Parents of youth athletes often focus on winning.  Their child has to be number 1.  Their child has to be on the best team, has to have the best hook shot, or be the best pitcher.  Simply put: Their child has to be the best.

But now we know that the parents of youth athletes in the United States are themselves number 1 in the world.  I missed this the first time around, but a survey released in early April found that “those residing in the United States (60%) are the most likely to have witnessed abusive behaviour by parents at children’s sporting events followed by those in India (59%), Italy (55%), Argentina (54%), Canada (53%) and Australia (50%).”

I am sure this is not a list we want to be on the top of.  Frankly,the fact that the low scores were 16%, 24%, 25% and 26% isn’t anything to brag about.  While I give props to Hungary for their 16%, I think the Czech Republic’s 24% next lowest number is too high.  Certainly the United States’ 60% is unacceptable.

There are a number of resources out their.  I am most familiar with the Positive Coaching Alliance.  They have some ideas for parents.  We all need to make a commitment to helping change the youth sports culture that allows this kind of behavior.

Youth sports injuries continue to rise and the CDC says at least half of them are preventable.  There are a number of resources out there about this issue.  Here’s one i recently found.

STOP Sports Injuries is a site dedicated to informing coaches, athletes and parents about this issue and ways to help change things.

Some people just don’t seem to get it.  This recent story about a soccer coach assaulting a pair of young refs illustrates some of the issues we have in youth sports.  As another press report points out, this was a parks and rec game.

UPDATE:  Here’s another one.  This coach actually made players that struck out drink soda out of a teammate’s shoe.

The Centers for Disease Control has partnered with several youth sports groups to roll out the Heads Up: Concussion in Youth Sports program.  This is a program designed to help protect and educate athletes, parents and coaches.

They have a lot of resources on the site.  They have fact sheets, quizzes, posters, etc. that everyone can use.

For example, True or False: A repeat concussion that occurs before the brain recovers from the first can slow recovery or increase the likelihood of having long-term problems.  TRUE.