The Hazards of Childhood Sports

While childhood obesity is becoming a greater threat, the American Association of Pediatrics wants parents to become more aware of problems associated with children's sports.

Between 30 and 45 million children ages 6-18 are involved in organized and recreational sports each year. Overtraining, burnout, and injuries are becoming more and more common among children.

At one time, tendinitis, bursitis, and stress fractures were something only heard in pro athletes; such things are now heard in high school locker rooms. Some overuse injuries are exclusive to children: Little League elbow-damage to the growth cartilage in the elbow joint caused by repetitive whipping motions of the arm, osteochondritis dissecans of the knee and ankle (repetitive grinding together of bones that causes damage to the growing surface cartilage and may result in pieces of dead bone and cartilage dropping into the joint and wreaking havoc), Osgood Schlatter's syndrome (inflammation at the point where the tendon connects the kneecap to the very top of the shinbone) and os calcis apophysitis (inflammation at the point where the Achilles tendon attaches to the heel).

The a report in the AAP journal Pediatrics stated that pediatricians should "encourage athletes to strive to have at least one to two days off per week from competitive athletics, sport-specific training and competitive practice (scrimmage) to allow them to recover both physically and psychologically."

Children should also take at least two to three months away from a specific sport during the year. Their training time, number of repetitions, or distance should not increase by more than 10 percent each week.

In addition, the report said that doctors and parents should encourage then athlete to participate in only one team during a season. If part of a travel team, the child should follow the same guildlines as if they were on one team.

Parents should be very active in the child's participation. Often children just quit instead of admitting to pain. It is imperative that you communicate with your child. The effect of the injury can become a long term issue leading to problems later in life, such as arthritis.

Aiming for the Olympics or a professional sports career is unrealistic for most children; only 1 percent of high school athletes turn pro.

Dr. Lyle J. Micheli, M.D., Sports Medicine Director at Children's Hospital Boston believes that ensuring properly trained personnel are training the children is one step in the right direction of avoiding overuse injuries. He suggests that coaches participate in one of the American Red Cross's Sports Safety courses that he and other members of the U.S. Olympic Committee's panel of experts on youth sports helped design. He also states the importance of a pre-season physical every year to rule out any conditions that might give children the predisposition to an overuse injury.

Parenting Athletes.com was created by a former high-ranking junior tennis player, Pam Champagne, to provide parents with a winning solution to the pressing concerns in childhood athletics. Having felt first-hand the pressure of winning as a child, she suggests 8 winning practices for parenting athletes.

1. Support your athlete emotionally - Children are naturally sensitive to the emotions and feelings of their parents and coaches. It is the parents job to relax the natural pressure that exists in competition. Emotional support is the base of every child's development, not just athletes. Make sure your child knows they do not have to win your approval by doing well on the athletic field.

2. Allow your athlete to guide the sports experience - Talk to your children about their sports goals, expose them to champions of their sport, and most importantly invest your time and energy equally to that of your child's interest.

3. Champion your athlete - Championing goes beyond mere compliments and praise. You can champion actions, progress, dreams, traits, commitments, gifts, and qualities. Become more aware of the qualities and character traits your child demonstrates. Whether or not your child wins, nurturing these traits will make a lifelong difference.

4. Respect your childs individuality - Each child has different strengths. Never compare your child to another, each one grows and matures at a different rate. Those who may mature faster, may not always exceed the skills of the late bloomers who worked harder at the sport.

5. Teach and model the big picture continually - Figure out what you want your child to learn from sports, a potentially life long character building activity. You can help your child athlete understand that in sports, as in life, any particular loss, or victory for that matter, is small and relatively insignificant. This type of encouragement can help deter them from resorting to steriods and over training which can have lifelong consequences.

6. Focus on mastery and enjoyment rather than winning - Winning can be a goal, but shouldn't be a focus. Help the child to become focused on the process rather than the goal. Small victories such as improvement of skills and attitude should be focused upon. This helps reduce the tension and increase the enjoyment.

7. Honor your family unit - It's easy for sports to absorb a huge amount of time, especially if you have more than one child participating. It is important to set aside unscheduled, unstructured time for you and your child. There's no set rule here except to know your child's natural energy level, capacity, and level of desire. Be on the alert for any signs of burnout, fatigue, or stress. At the early signs, have a talk and make a change.

8. Build supportive relationships with your child's sports family - Coaches, refs, other parents, and your child's teammates are all in this together with you. It's important to communicate with them in a respectful manner. Keep things positive with all these people; let the coach do the coaching, discourage another parents negativity by steering the conversation in a positive way. The more harmonous the relationship with these people the more "happy success" that will result.

The most important part of having children in sports is to remember that they are just children. They aren't necessarily going to want to do this for the rest of their life, or the rest of the week. Be patient, encouraging, and positive always.