Dr. Cindy Chang, MD

The most common injuries for young athletes are fractures and injuries to the growth plates, such as Osgood-Schlatter's disease.
 
Transcript: "What are the most common injuries for young athletes? The most common injuries for young athletes are injuries to their bones, for example, fractures or their growth plates. And their growth plates are either the growth plates at the end of long bones, which are called facies, or the growth plates where tendons attach to bones called the apophysis. For example, if you've ever had or known of someone that had a big bump right just below their kneecap, where their patellar tendon attaches, they call that Osgood-Schlatter's disease. And people typically will know that odd and unusual name, but because it's so common. That's where the patellar tendon attaches to a apophysis or growth center on the shin bone. And when kids are growing and developing, they're jumping a lot, running a lot. And if they do a lot of it, and they don't have enough rest, or their muscle, especially their quadriceps are too tight, they can develop this inflammation with a tendon attaches to the growth area. And that can create a buildup of extra bone as they're developing. So again, the most common injuries are going to be those to the bone, much more than to tendons and ligaments, which are more common in the adult athletes with overuse injuries and acute injuries."

Parents looking for evidence-based research to help them understand the risks and rewards of their children's participation in sports can visit Google Scholar and the website AMSSM.org with its SportsMedToday.com portal for position statements on overuse injuries, burnout in youth sports, and psychological aspects of participating in sport.
 
Transcript: "What evidence-based research is available to help parents understand the risks and rewards of their children's participation in sports. It is so easy to listen to anecdotes, right? Like my daughter did it this way, and now she has a full ride scholarship. But it's really important to find the evidence as well. And so there are a couple of places that you can go. I am going to plug Google Scholar, and you can put that in on any search engine, Google Scholar. And you can use keywords, for example, pediatric sports. You can use overuse injuries, acute injuries, mental health, and you'll find some really great articles that outline some of the risks and rewards of participating in sports at a youth level. I'm also going to tell you about a website called AMSSM.org, stands for the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, of which I am a member. And there is a portal on that website called SportsMedToday.com, which talks about all injuries, and especially some pediatric injuries. But also there are position statements on that website that we have written talking about overuse injuries and burnout in youth sports citing literature, as well as the psychological aspects of participating in sport. So go to those sites and you can find some good information."

The most common soccer injuries for high school and collegiate players are strains and sprains to the lower extremities such as Achilles, calf, thigh and ligament injuries to the ankle and knee. 25% of reported injuries were concussions.
 
Transcript: "One of the most common soccer injuries for soccer players. In papers that we published in 2018, looking at injury data for high school and collegiate soccer for both boys and girls, men's and women's, we found that the vast majority of injuries were to the lower extremity. And those are strains and sprains. For example, that would be Achilles, calf, thigh, like hamstring or quad type of injuries, as well as ligaments injuries, primarily to the ankle and the knee. But 25% almost of the injuries that were reported were concussions. And so those are the most common injuries that we have found in soccer players at the high school and collegiate level."

Parents should consider mental health concerns associated with competitive athletics such as burnout, depression, anxiety, fatigue, loss of interest in the sport and friends, sleep disturbances, eating issues, decreased self-confidence, difficulty concentrating, and frequent illnesses. If any of these warning signs appear, they should take their child to a physician.
 
Transcript: "What mental health concerns should parents consider if their child is a competitive athlete? As a primary care sports medicine physician and team physician, I do worry about that, and I talk to the parents about possible burnout. And burnout is when their child feels that there's excessive physical or psychological demands placed on them in their sport and they stop having fun, they stop having satisfaction at their accomplishments and they start to have more anxiety at their performance. And there's different stages of burnout, but essentially some of the psychological symptoms that can come out of it is depression, anxiety, they feel overly fatigued, they have no interest in going to practice, sometimes it even extends to no interest even hanging out with their friends, they begin to have sleep disturbances, and eating issues and may even start to lose weight, they become more irritable towards you or their siblings. One thing they may notice is decreased self-confidence, and not only in their sport but in other aspects of their lives. They feel like they don't have control over their performance. The other thing is schoolwork suffers, their inability to concentrate, focus on things. So there's a mental performance decline as well. And the other thing is that oftentimes they may end up having some frequent illnesses, more so than normal. So if any of these warning signs appear, please take them to a physician."

Find a village of support, communicate with your child about why you can't always be present, and enlist other parents to help in your absence.
 
Transcript: "What advice do you have for parents who are struggling to find a balance between their own work schedules and the activities their children are involved in? First of all, find that village. Find that community of support around you, who can help in the carpooling responsibilities for a group of kids on a team, for example, or a group of kids who are involved in orchestra, or any other type of event or practice that they need to attend. Explain to your child that you can't always be there to take them to practice, or you can't always be at every game, for example. But let them know that you love them, and that you support them, regardless. Enlists other parents who may be there to take some video or pictures, so that after the event, you can share in that experience. And have them describe how their day was or how their time was during that event. So that you can participate in it with them. It helps to sit down and explain your work schedule with your child as well. Sometimes they don't really understand what the responsibilities are. My own children didn't really know my responsibilities as a head team physician for a college until they were a bit older. But if I sat down and explained really what my day-to-day was, and why when I wasn't at home, why I wasn't at home, then they could better understand why I couldn't always be there to help out at any of their events or other activities."

To ensure that children get the appropriate amount of rest and recovery, parents should avoid overscheduling their child's activities and create a balanced schedule which allows for 9-11 hours of sleep per night and some free time. This will help to ensure that their child is happy mentally and physically.
 
Transcript: "What strategies can parents use to ensure their children are getting the appropriate amount of rest and recovery required for optimal performance? I know that my husband and I struggled with this, with our two children, who are now grown adults. But I'd like to share two things with you. And the first is to avoid overscheduling, and the second is balance. And so those go hand in hand of course. Depending on the age of your child, they should be getting 9 to 11 hours of sleep every night. And so looking at that and visualizing that sometimes with your child is important. So they can see what that really means. You can either use a face of a clock, or you can use just a template and write it out and say, here's where you need to be sleeping, because this is when your body and your mind, as well as your physical body, your brain and your arms and your legs, that's when they're recovering from everything that you did that day. And then you want to make sure that there's a little bit of free time for them, where they're not studying, they're not in school, and they're not playing a sport, or they're not taking piano lessons, for example. They need some downtime as well, as well as we all do. The overscheduling is the one thing I see happening the most, because the kids want to do a lot of things, and their parents want them to do a lot of things. And they end up doing way too much. And therefore, there's not enough rest and recovery for them to be happy, both in mind and in body."