Youth Sports Injury Prevention

The politics of prevention and the barriers to preventive efforts - whether it is in sports medicine, heart disease, cancer, or terrorism - are similar. Over the past seventeen years, I have found that the single greatest barrier to preventive efforts is the fact that we are taught throughout our educational system to be reactive rather than being proactive. To think in a proactive or preventative manner is a much different mindset than thinking in a reactive mindset. It involves a different set of observation skills and a different set of implementation skills.

When kids return to school, it is imperative that families get their house in order as it relates to recreational and organized sports activities. Over 12 million student athletes between ages 5 and 22 will sustain a sports-related injury this year. Students will lose twenty million school days as a result of an injury related either to sports or recreational activities.