Sunday, October 01, 2006

Injuries in Sports - Rising or Not?

I'd love to find out if someone has done a study on whether there has actually been a dramatic injuries in the last 10 years. Doesn't it seem like half of a team is out due to one injury or another. Look at the Red Sox this year: Manny, Coco Crisp, Wakefield, Papelbon, Nixon, Clement, Pena, Gonzalez, Varitek, Wells, etc. I could go through a similar list for almost every pro team.

So what's the cause?
  • Too much practice
  • Not enough stretching
  • Use of performance enhancing drugs
  • Starting competitive sports too early
I see similar injuries with my 10 year old. One day his knee hurts, another day a foot, another an ankle. I think it is due to highly competitive sports. Kids just don't play multiple sports on the playground and after school. Now it's organized. That means repetitive stress to joints, muscles and bones are ever present.

In pro sports, there seems to be a rash after all the stuff about steroids came out. It still is present after drugs were banned.

If someone finds a cool article on this, it would be much appreciated.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've been thinking the same ever since Nomar was on the cover of SI. He put on 20 lbs of muscle in the off season, juicin... Ever since then he's been plagued by injuries.

Mary with a 't"