Starting at a Young Age

All sports are obviously dangerous, but I am going to tell you the most dangerous ones, according to healthgrade.com. 

According to an article written by Sandra Gordon, Basketball is a popular sport—more than 26 million youngsters ages 12 to 17 play it—but it causes the most injuries for players of all ages. This honestly comes as a shock to me because most people do not view it as physical as football or hockey.

In the same article as mentioned above, Gordon states that, “[Football] causes the most injuries of all sports for children and teens ages 12 to 17. Play it safe: Wear all pads and other safety equipment and warm up properly before playing. Remind your child of proper tackling techniques and to limit head contact.This does not come as a surprise to me because of how much contact is involved in the sport. The quote also includes ways to prevent the injury. This can be very helpful, because from my experience as football player, coaches do not always enforce wearing all the proper types of pads which could turn into to a very serious injury. 

Gordon shares that, “soccer, football, basketball and baseball, account for about 80% of all sports-related emergency department visits for children ages 5 to 14.”  This shows that these contact sports need more regulation, supervision, and education.  If children and their parents were given more education on prevention, I think these injuries would decrease.  It may help to decrease the number of concussions in all sports.  Surprisingly, hockey is the number one sport for concussions.  Gordon sites that 33% of hockey injuries are concussions.  Baseball and cheerleading also have a high incidence of head injuries.  Protective gear and proper training can again help decrease these injuries.

The last unexpected sport where injuries are high -- volleyball. There are many injuries to joints, primarily elbows and knees.  How to prevent these injuries must be drilled into parents and players -- education, education, education.  This education can prevent arthritis, joint replacement, and even depression later in life.  These injuries many times carry over into the adult years.

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