Balance the Key to Protecting Teenaged Athletes from Injury
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Staying active is important for teenagers - and so is staying injury free. Unfortunately, injury is all too common, according to one study funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). But, according to another CIHR-funded study, innovative training techniques can help reduce the injury rate.
A survey of Victoria teens has found that nearly 40% had sports injuries serious enough to limit their normal daily activity. Unexpectedly, nearly three-quarters of the injuries - 70% - occurred in organized sports. Unorganized sports, such as biking, rollerblading or skateboarding, had much lower injury rates.
Dr. Bonnie Leadbetter of the University of Victoria, who conducted the study, fears that these injuries could discourage teens from continuing to participate in sports, which will contribute to increasing youth obesity rates.
Dr. Carolyn Emery, another CIHR-funded physiotherapist from the University of Calgary has found an innovative way to reduce those injury rates - training on a wobble board.
A wobble board is a disk perched on half a ball, with the rounded side of the ball touching the floor. By standing on the board and carrying out dynamic activities while trying to maintain balance while the board wobbles, teens who play fast-moving sports like basketball can help to prevent knee and ankle injuries.
The key, she says, is actually doing it. When a physiotherapist worked one-on-one with physical education students in a pilot study, there was an 80% reduction in sport injury. When coaches were primarily responsible for supervision and progression of training in high school basketball, 40% of participants did not follow the home-based component of the training at all. While there was a 20% reduction in injury rates, this reduction was not statistically significant, likely related to the poor compliance.
Now Dr. Emery and her colleagues are testing a more comprehensive neuromuscular training program that includes the balance training component with competitive soccer players. They want to know if the more competitive environment, with more parental involvement, together with a more comprehensive program, makes a difference.
“Kids and parents who are choosing to participate at a competitive community level of soccer have bought in more to injury prevention,” she says.
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