When children do the same things over and over again the same muscles that are used. When the muscle slowly begins to detail to make tendons, ligaments and joints.When children are young their mechanics and strength are not the best because they are young and learning. The bad mechanics that occurs repeatedly begin to cause tension in the soft tissue in the affected area. Moreover, the sport has changed dramatically over the past five to ten years. Competition has increased along with the stress of the coaches and parents of these young athletes to produce. It's all about not winning on the development of solid foundation. Earn jackets, trophies and scholarships at all costs, unrelated to the body is the new battle cry. The problem is that young athletes put to mourn with pain due to repetitive use.
Why should I worry? Well, in my practice I am seeing an increase in repetitive use injuries. Repetitive motion injuries are the type of injuries that occur through the recurrent movement. For example, there is a significant increase in elbow injuries in baseball pitchers. In fact, that rise in elbow injuries are leading to major elbow surgery. I grew up around a lot of athletes in competition and did not know anyone who needed elbow surgery. (Popularly known as Tommy John surgery.) Now that I've seen children come to my office complaining of elbow pain, medial (inside) of only the seventh grade. There is no way that a child that young should need surgery for a repetitive motion. Depends on the parents and coaches to be smart about the number of fields in a young player pitches during a game. These coaches have to understand that just because you have a good young pitcher on your team can play it whenever you feel you need to win.
Young gymnasts come to my office with the injuries that have happened were it not for weeks or months with their coaches tell them they are not strong enough. 3 to 5 hours of practice a day, six days a week of constant impact force fully in their bodies. Many coaches do not fully understand the physiology of how real athletes recover, how to improve performance or how to develop strength and explosion. But everyone has an opinion on how to bring children to the point of injury. If our society continues to push as hard as children today are coaches need to get a better education to help children excel not harm them. Believe me I am in favor of promoting young athletes so they can train the best you can, but there is a turning point that has to be ensured. Coaches have to understand when to push and when to back off. It is not about being "tough" trying to understand that you are training and what are its limits.
