Student athletes getting injured in drive for excellence

Kicking off the conversation tonight with this. A warning from pro athletes and experts like to keep kids well-rounded when it comes to playing sports. Yeah, that’s right here in Florida teams can get out and practice year-round. That’s why you’re seeing numbers like this. Take a look at us. The sunshine state has the highest percentage of high school football players recruited by division one schools, 9.9% according to the NCAA. That’s one intent way ahead of the number two state Georgia followed by Louisiana and other states across the South working hard and landing. The sports scholarship, of course, is fantastic, but doctors say half of all sports related injuries and kids are from overuse. Kendra Calmlin spoke to parents about that fine line between pushing kids to be their best and making sure they don’t get hurt.

Kids are pushed to run fast and perfect the pass. As long as it’s the child’s decision. I think way too many times the parent ends up pushing a child to specialize in a sport, particularly at a very young age. The end game should be for parents should never be about a college scholarship or going pro, right? Because it’s such a small percentage. Only 2% of all the high school athletes ever play a college. Only 2% of those that play college make it to the pros. So the end game really needs to be about making sure your child’s learning life lessons that are gonna make them successful no matter what career they ultimately choose.

Dr. Seung Yi, he says, too much repetitive practice in playtime can wind up with kids getting hurt.

A lot of the injuries, um, that I’m seeing in my clinic nowadays are overuse injuries, especially in younger kids. A lot of times it’s just from repetitive stress on their ligaments, bones and muscles that are, you know, in their shoulder, elbow and hip and knee joints, mostly even with an injury, most kids are going to want to hit the field. Some not all coaches maybe worried more about a win. That’s why the positive coaching alliance believes it’s up to parents to say your out. The parent has to be the one that’s looking out for their child’s best interest. My kids. I’m just hoping that they can play what they want to play and as many sports as they can and go through school playing sports and hoping that they just go to college.

Tara Martz’s nine year old, plays baseball, basketball, and soccer and already has some aches that know not to overdo it. He just has growing pains in his knees, so the all the sports that he does, sometimes it aggravates him, but he just, when he’s feeling good, he plays and if he needs to take a break, he takes a break.

The little league says it monitors pitch and catch counts and encourages kids to play other sports to change up the impact on their bodies. Dr. Yi tells me kids’ bones are still developing and rest. Not more stress is the best way to recoup. Even if it means missing a game, it doesn’t mean they’re taking their eye off the ball, just making sure they don’t burn out in the home stretch.

I’m very competitive and we want to win obviously, but the most important thing at the end of the day, the first thing I ask them when they get in the car is, did you have fun? And they say, yes.

Kendra Calmlin, 10 News, WTSP.