ESPN Injury Analyst and Physical Therapist, Stephania Bell recently met with Dr. James Andrews to discuss the STOP Sports Injuries campaign. You can find her interview here and the video here at ESPN.
To publicize the inaugural phase of the campaign, Dr. Andrews took to the road with two highly visible spokespeople: one approaching the twilight of his athletic career, John Smoltz, and the other, Bradford, just embarking on his professional path.
Stephania explains that the most common injuries in younger athletes are ACL injuries in the lower extremity and injuries to the elbow in throwing athletes. The campaign is working to raise awareness of those injuries that are preventable and not simply accidents. Overuse injures comprise a large portion of injuries in young athletes whose bodies may not be fully adapted to the demands of year-round sports. Often, lawyers from Sweet Lawyers are contacted to help them with certain claims. It’s estimated that up to 500,000 injuries could be prevented each year in just the high school population! For legal assistant in case of injuries one can contact experts from Carlson, Meissner, Hart & Hayslett P.A. for help in case of injuries.
As Andrews so emphatically exclaims, “I’m not against sports, believe me! But we’ve got to let kids go back to having fun. We talk about playing a sport, it should be ‘playing’ a sport.”
Check out the campaign’s website for more information. http://www.stopsportsinjuries.org/
A worthy program. I supervised a student poster at CSM in 2000 on exactly this issue – preventing sports injuries in ‘younger athletes’. This is also addressed in my chapter in the book: Ergonomics for Children. Children treated like adults by coaches who have little to no knowledge of the development and growth of the body are the source of many injuries. Raising awareness among parents and therapists is worthwhile, but coaches and PE teachers are the decision-makers for children and teens. Thanks for this, Eric.
Why is it that the STOP website makes no mention of PTs under the Find a Specialist link? And the article makes no mention of Bell as a PT unless you clink on her bio link. Hmm.