All Articles by Brooke de Lench

Most experts agree that you should have your child undergo a thorough pre-participation physical evaluation or exam (PPE) every year. Not only can a PPE be an effective tool in identifying athletes who should not be playing sports because they have congenital heart defects or a history of concussions, but it is also useful in identifying medical problems effecting sports participation, such as asthma or the female athlete triad.

Proper conditioning can reduce the risk of injury in all sports, including baseball and soccer. It is particularly important for female athletes, who are predisposed to instability or dislocation of the kneecap (patella), pain and problems under the kneecap, and non-contact injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), especially in sports like soccer and basketball that require twisting and cutting.

Overuse injuries have become commonplace among young athletes in the last decade (although "Little League elbow" has been a problem for decades). They are not the kind suffered by children and adolescents engaging in free play or "pick up" games, but are clearly a product of the organized youth sports boom. The damage to hard and soft tissues resulting from undetected, unreported and often untreated overuse injuries can be permanent and lead to problems later in life, such as arthritis.

Parents need to be pro-active about safety by insisting that the directors of the youth sports program in which their son or daughter participates puts safety at the top of their list,

Chances are wherever you live the weather is subject to change at a moment's notice. Squalls, tornadoes, or electrical storms can occur with little warning. If your child is playing or practicing in less than ideal weather conditions, you need to be aware of the possible hazards and have a plan worked out ahead of time to avoid the kind of potentially dangerous situation that can develop without a weather policy.

e-mail from one of MomsTeam's readers illustrates in a powerful way the kind of abuse that is too often condoned in today's "win-at-all-costs" youth sports culture, abuse that, simply put, has to stop.

Abuse in youth sports takes four basic forms: physical, emotional, sexual and neglect. Unfortunately, all forms of abuse are common and the damage from the most common form of abuse (emotional abuse) is no less real than the damage resulting from other forms of abuse.

Studies have shown that among the many effects of physical abuse are depression, anxiety, cognitive and learning difficulties, even a lowering of IQ (especially verbal IQ), disordered sleep, flashbacks, loss of empathy, aggressive behavior, chronically high stress levels which can lead to chronic health effects such as high blood pressure and increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and inability to maintain relationships.

Does your child's middle school have a no-cut policy or does it limit the number of children who get a chance to participate in interscholastic sports? What are the reasons for cutting kids who want to play sports from teams up to high school sub-varsity? Are there reasons why cutting is a bad idea? The founder of MomsTeam, Brooke de Lench, explains why she fought for a no-cut policy at her sons' middle school.

Several years ago, my triplet sons tried out for the travel soccer club in our town. Two of my sons were wait-listed for no apparent reason, along with over sixty other boys who had previously been in the program.