It’s winter in Australia and that means the cold weekends watching the kids play sports like football and soccer are back!
According to Specialist Sports Physiotherapist, Dr Loretta O’Sullivan-Pippia, the most common injury seen obtained during kid’s sports is concussion, accounting for almost one-third of all injuries. “85 % of injuries were due to contact and collision. This was followed by injuries to the knee (12 %) and shoulder injuries (6 %). Soft tissue injuries (sprains, strains and contusions) sat at 25 %.”
Injuries are never good news (even if it does mean fewer Saturdays spent standing in the rain!) The good news is that there are many ways you can reduce your child’s risk of injury.
Keep an eye on their load – With the message getting out there that kids need to be active, it’s great to see so many kids participating in sport. It’s important to understand the load your child’s body can handle, and understand things that can impact their ability to handle load such as a growth spurt, increased academic, social and/or emotional pressures. Coaches should comply with these sport-specific loads, however, they often don't know what other sports and training your child are doing. So make sure you tell them! This includes the intensity, frequency, volume, and the type of ground (grass vs. concrete) your child is training on. Having adequate recovery after training or games and between sessions is also important: Load Management should also consider your child’s rest. According to the Australian Physical Activity Guidelines, children aged between 5-13 years should be getting an uninterrupted 9 to 11 hours of sleep per night and 8 to 10 hours per night for those aged 14–17 years. Kids should have at least one day of total rest from sport or training, and ideally no more than three days of activity in a row. Some run around like crazy playing at school - so good luck trying to make a weekday a rest day!
Remember to warm up and cool down – We make sure we do it, but it’s just as important for kids to warm up before playing sport (especially in the colder months) and to cool down after games. Drills before playing are a great way to warm up - it doesn't have to be a jog around the oval.
Injury prevention programs – Kids involved in team sports are encouraged to perform these programs. There are programs such as the netball knee program, fifa11+ program and the footy first program. These programs are based on evidence, require no equipment, are shown to work, but require compliance to be effective. It's hard to build them into a weekly training session and still manage load correctly. We believe they are best suited to players in a rep system that are specialising in a sport that has a high incidence of knee injuries such as netball, soccer and footy.
Seek a professional opinion early– Encourage your children to report pain as soon as it presents. A good way to judge whether a pain needs assessing is whether your child moves differently. If they say they have terrible knee pain, but then still run around and play like normal - don't be concerned. However, if they limp or won't play or do normal things, get it checked out asap. Early assessment means injuries can be dealt with quickly before they become more serious and potentially require prolonged time out of weekend sport. One of the hardest parts of a Physiotherapist’s job is telling a child they can’t play on the weekend! It’s also so important to actually complete rehab. The absence of pain does not always mean your child is ready to play sport again. Factors such as strength, muscle length and motor control are important considerations when returning to sport.
Concussion Management – As mentioned earlier, concussions are the most common injury seen in the ED during the winter sports season. Head injuries can be serious. It’s important to be informed on how to manage a suspected concussion. For information click here.
References:
Australian Government Department of Health (2019). Australia's Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines and the Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines. Retrieved from: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-phys-act-guidelines#npa517