Injuries Effects on Athletes

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         In my overall blog posts I learned that in any sport at anytime you can get injured, and after your injury you may make an extraordinary recovery or not make one at all. Sometimes you can control how you recover and sometimes you do not have that luxury. Looking back on my blog posts I will highlight some of the key ideas and quotes.
When you are starting college on scholarship, there seems like there is nothing that could go wrong. Then you realize that it could all be taken away if you plant on your knee the wrong way in practice. Injury, although sometimes is very treatable, triggers a number of emotional responses. According to an article on NCAA.org, the emotional responses include, “sadness, isolation, irritation, lack of motivation, anger, frustration, changes in appetite, sleep disturbance, and disengagement.” All of these can be signs of mental illnesses because of injuries that not just affected your performance in the sport you love, but also could have taken away your free education and a chance at the next level.
It seems like there is nothing better than being a pro athlete, but is it really worth not being able to run around and play with your  kids at a young age? A former pro athlete chimed in on it. According to an article from the Washington Post a former offensive lineman, Pete Kendall states, “I can’t run anymore,” he then goes on to say that, “I can’t play basketball with my kids, can’t walk for any extended distance.” This definitely makes people realize the effects that playing a professional sport does to you. You have to wonder that if Kendall could go back would he change his path in life, and just play in college and get a degree so he can be effective in the work force?
Another point I would like to make is that all injuries are not career ending. Actually some people make remarkable recoveries and come back and compete at a championship level. I will refresh you on a few people who made it through a terrible injury. Niki Lauda- He was “one of the best drivers” in Formula 1 history who was trapped in a fire, and went into a coma. Surprisingly, he was back racing in six weeks, and took 4th place in the Italian GP. This in my opinion is one of the biggest miracles in all of sports to be in a coma and then a few weeks later be back to the sport that you love. This shows that athletes can come back from terrible injuries and still make an impact. Maria Sharapova- She was a tennis player who was “dominating every court,” despite a nagging shoulder injury that took her out of play and into surgery. Many thought that she would never be the same, and some thought she would never even return. But through vigorous rehab she was back on the court in a year. She won the French Open capping off an already impressive career making her one of the best to ever play. No matter what sport you are returning to I admire someone who can come back and play at such a high level.
I concluded that it truly depends on the person, if it is really worth playing professional sports, and risking injury.

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.

www.mamatoga.com

Athletes Who Made Comebacks After Career Threatening Injuries

http://english.sina.com/

All you hear about athlete’s injuries usually is how bad they are and how they are never going to come back, but I am going to give some examples of when athletes bounced back from injuries that appeared to be too devastating to come back. In an article on General Sports, here are some athletes who had devastating injuries and what happened and how they came back.

• Niki Lauda- He was “one of the best drivers” in Formula 1 history who was trapped in a fire, and went into a coma. Surprisingly, he was back racing in six weeks, and took 4th place in the Italian GP. This in my opinion is one of the biggest miracles in all of sports to be in a coma and then a few weeks later be back to the sport that you love. This shows that athletes can come back from terrible injuries and still make an impact.

• Maria Sharapova- She was a tennis player who was “dominating every court,” despite a nagging shoulder injury that took her out of play and into surgery. Many thought that she would never be the same, and some thought she would never even return. But through vigorous rehab she was back on the court in a year. She won the French Open capping off an already impressive career making her one of the best to ever play. No matter what sport you are returning to I admire someone who can come back and play at such a high level.

Niki Lauda and Maria Sharapova are just two of the names that truly stood out to me. They are very similar in making returns to their sports despite suffering a career threatening injury. Not only did they return but they both returned to their extremely high level of play with Lauda getting 4th place in a respected race, and Sharapova winning the French Open. No matter the sports they play, you have to love a good comeback story.

Next Blog: NFL players to never play again.

How did Injuries Effected Professional Athletes?

Source: http://fromdoctor.com/

Professional athletes seem to have it all at the time. They have all the money, fame, and girls in the world but at the end of the day they really have to ask themselves, was it really worth it? According to an article from the Washington Post a former offensive lineman, Pete Kendall states, “I can’t run anymore,” he then goes on to say that, “I can’t play basketball with my kids, can’t walk for any extended distance.” This definitely makes people realize the effects that playing a professional sport does to you. You have to wonder that if Kendall could go back would he change his path in life, and just play in college and get a degree so he can be effective in the work force? I can only imagine what he is going through. I play high school football and am banged up after every practice and cannot even walk sometimes. I wonder what he feels like playing with the biggest and strongest guys in the world on a daily basis.
All that being said, apparently most NFL players would not have changed a thing during their time in the league. According to the same article in the Washington Post a study shows that 93% of players with 0 to 2 major injuries are happy with their playing days, 91% of players with 3 to 4 major injures are satisfied with their playing days, and finally 85% of players with 5 or more injuries would not change a thing. This goes to show that athletes are affected by injuries, but playing at the highest level with 50,000+ people watching over you every week overrides it for most athletes.

Next Blog: How athletes in non-contact sports are still affected?

Student Athletes Affected by Injury

http://pixshark.com/injured-college-athlete.htm

Have you ever thought about what those athletes for your team are feeling when they are being called out for not playing? According to an article on ncaa.org, “For some student-athletes, the psychological response to injury can trigger or unmask serious mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, disordered eating, and substance use or abuse. This article basically says how young athletes brains handle injury, and how they do not just affect the body part injured but how it can have an effect on your overall well-being. I agree that this can happen from being an athlete myself. There is not a worse feeling than having your teammates go out and play without you in whatever sport it is that you are playing. For NCAA student athletes, it is even worse because of what else is at stake. If an athlete gets injured it can put their scholarship at stake which can definitely cause distress.

According to the same article as mentioned above, the emotional responses include, “sadness, isolation, irritation, lack of motivation, anger, frustration, changes in appetite, sleep disturbance, and disengagement.” All of these can be signs of mental illnesses because of injuries that not just affected your performance in the sport you love, but also could have taken away your free education and a chance at the next level. The big thing with these athletes is that they think that it is the end from there and nothing can get better, which again goes back to the emotional responses above. My main thing to athletes to say is that life does go on after you are done with whatever sport you are in, and you should be prepared when it does.

Future Research: How are professional athletes affected by injury?

Injuries’ Effects After It’s All Over

Source: http://mit.zenfs.com/

• Briefly explain why you are interested in studying your topic: I am interested in studying the effects athlete’s injuries have on them once they are done playing the sport they once played. Too many people want to just study about the head and after football, but the fact of the matter is that all injuries can have an effect on you in all sports once you are 5-10 years out of playing.

• The overall question I plan on answering by the end of the project: How are athletes affected by injuries that happened when they were playing the sport later in their life?

• Sub questions I will need to answer in order to answer the overall question: Are athletes in all sports affected, or just contact sports? How many professional athletes are affected by injury when they are done playing their sport? Does this topic only apply to professional athletes?

• My plan of research (what specific Library Databases, specific websites, names of authors, people, etc. will I pursue to find the answers to the questions above): ProQuest, famous sports writers, actual sports players that this has happened to

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