WHY THERE'S AN INCREASE OF OVERUSE INJURIES IN YOUNG ATHLETES & HOW TO AVOID THEM

We really push for our younger athletes to avoid specializing in a single sport before their bodies have fully developed.

Specializing in a single sport too young is the growing and leading cause of a lot of the overuse injuries that we see today. Instead, we highly encourage parents to have their kids play other sports, rest, and also just take a break!

Some of the top pro athletes today in the NFL say they did not specialize in one sport. They played several growing up, which helped them.

We at SMASA want the same kind of success for your children!

Something that has changed over the last 30 years is that we see a lot of overuse injuries. And that's because we've been starting our kids in sports at ages as early as 5 or 6 years old. Playing in these little leagues—and playing year-round. Baseball being a common one.

This is why we see kids who are throwing out their arms, wearing them down, and needing surgeries that we really didn't see a lot of in the past. They're not given enough rest.

We're taking away the time that kids have to be a kid.

Playing other sports allows their specific body parts that are heavily relied on in one sport, to get the necessary rest while also building up other muscle groups.

And instead of playing year-round, even when the sports are diversified, we also just tell them to take a break.

Professional athletes don't train 365 days a year, but we're doing that to our kids. And that causes a lot of traffic to come into our clinic, that could have been avoided if we had given them proper rest and guidance on how to train properly.

We’ve had kids who will train three or four times a day, in addition to their regular practice at school. And then they wonder why they have a stress fracture, or other overuse type injuries.

It really is a scary thing because more kids these days have had multiple surgeries, and dealing with arthritis before they're even 20—and it's mostly related to a lot of overuse stuff.

So, prioritize proper rest and have fun while doing it! You can't make a life out of your sport just yet.