Sports injury among young athletes or neglect?

Overuse injuries up to 52% among young athletes. Is this a sport injury or neglect?

By Zuriel Z Lozano international goalkeeper coach, UEFA lic, MS in Sport & health science. Mental trainer, Speaker.

13 year old with BACK problems already?

As a coach, I’ve come across thousands of soccer players & athletes from other sports who are quietly suffering mentally and physically.

Therefore, I want to raise public awareness for SPORTS INJURIES among youth soccer clubs & other sports in the US.

Moreover, the injuries I’m writing about in this blog are not congenital disorders, or a condition present at birth.

These are sports injuries that comes from overuse, or doing too much.

At the end of this blog, see a few examples and ideas on how you could take care of your body and still maximize your training time.

 Let’s see some unusual examples:

9-10 yr old training late nights 10pm

There is nothing unusual about an adult soccer league playing their games late at night.

However, I’m blown away when I travel around the US & see 10 year old athletes still training at 10 PM.  They have their pennies on, cones on the ground and coaches encouraging players to stay focused. This not only in soccer but other sports as well.

Furthermore, an increasing number of young soccer players in middle school (11-13 yrs old) & high school are ALREADY complaining or suffering from back problems, had knee surgeries, shoulder, hips and even neck injuries early in their life. 

Keep in mind these are sport related injuries which come from either sports accidents or overuse. 

Resting is training

Here’s what I find very interesting: coaches, parents, athletes, club directors, tournament organizers & even physicians ALL KNOW that young athletes are doing way too much these days. However, nobody dares to ever say “hey kid, take a long break”.

In fact, there are a number of coaches and parents who will actually get offended if anyone suggest to them to let their young athletes take a “break or rest”.   

Here’s a scientific fact, RESTING heals the human body. In addition, RESTING will boost your performance in athletics. 

Athletes who don’t sleep or do not rest their bodies adequately are at risk of losing endurance, increasing stress hormones and decreasing hormones that help in healing human tissues.

This is the reason why there is so many athletes who are constantly training, playing and working out but they are NOT IMPROVING AT ALL. Some of them even look like they have no ENERGY, very moody, look slower than everybody else and seem to be uncomfortable with harder sessions.

There is power in resting!

“Kids are constantly missing parents, grandparents, sibling birthdays, holidays & even miss important doctor appointments to make soccer practices, games or tournaments, there is something odd about this”.

Train like a professional athlete

Let’s be clear, the best athlete in the world work their butts off but they are extremely smart about it. 

For example, Professional soccer players such as Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, they train 4-5 hours a day.  However, this is NOT just straight 5 hrs of training on the soccer field & playing games.

Every single aspect of their training is strictly monitored by professionals and precisely divided between proper warm ups, gym training, recovery training, tactical training, proper stretches and an advanced PRE & POST WORKOUT DIET!. 

Don’t forget, these professional soccer players also take 2-3 MONTHS OFF every year to fully recover. 

In the US,  how many MONTHS do amateur soccer players take OFF a year for recovery?  Probably zero. 

In fact, as you read this blog, you are probably thinking, “NO WAY my child can be off soccer for 2-3 months. He/she will lose playing time at a top team, scholarships possibilities, national spots etc…It just not likely

This is why sport related injuries is up to 52% among young soccer players!!

 

Maximize your training time.

I’m not discouraging anyone from hard work. Instead, I’m encouraging QUALITY & EFFECTIVENESS of training to minimize injuries and gain best results and possibly in less time.

For example, the 10,000 hrs rule says that to master something you have to train for 10,000 hrs.   However, use common sense, this rule main focus is on the amount of hours you SPEND TRAINING. It does not talk about the QUALITY of training.

Repetitions, are important part of training but in the modern days, the QUALITY of repetitions will help you accomplish great results in less time.

 

Not all trainings are created equal.

In other words, “robotic” training programs where you do endless repetitions & working under very structuralized drills, this type of training will NOT help you improve your skill effectively. 

For example, I will use guitar lessons as an example since I’ve been playing the guitar for many years.

If I teach a student 800 different guitar chords & musical notes will this make this student a well accomplished guitarist? the answer is NO!!.

Just learning chords & musical notes is your BASIC skills.  But putting these chords & notes together to create a musical masterpiece, requires precise adjustments & creativity.

Purposely training out of your comfort zone under the guidance of a TRUSTED  instructor or coach is the key of an efficient training program. 

Conclusion,

Injuries is part of being an athlete, injuries will happen sooner or later in sports. However, sport related injuries among young athletes has increased in record numbers. There is a systematic problem.

I would like to think that adults are looking beyond winning records, trophies, college scholarships, national spots etc to protect the young soccer players and other athletes from severe injuries early in their careers.

in the meantime, if you are a parent of a soccer player or an athlete who is looking to play in the next level,  then learn to work and train more efficiently to avoid unnecessary injuries, specially at a younger age.

Do you know any young athletes with injuries related to sports? leave your comments