The Olympics are a wonderful time for sports. The best athletes in the world comes together in an epic 2+ weeks sports spectacular. One of the things I love about the Olympics is seeing sports that you don’t often see on television. For me, I love watching the sport I played at the NCAA Division I level, water polo. I get to show my kids what dad did “back in the day.” Their usual response is some like “wow dad that looks hard,” “you really played that, cool,” or “interesting, can I watch my device now.”
As a parent in the digital age our children are exposed to significantly more content than I was as a child. I didn’t play in a competitive water polo match until I was a freshman in college and I cannot say I watched it either. These days things are different where many children specialize in a single sport and is often detrimental to a child’s growth and development. According to a December 2023 article from the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), early sports specialization can increase the risk of overuse injuries in adolescents. Early specialization is when a young athlete focuses on intense training in a single sport year-round, excluding other sports. This can lead to injuries that affect muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones because young athletes’ tissues aren’t strong enough to handle the repetitive forces. Some injuries that can occur include stress fractures, injuries to the ends of bones, and permanent damage to the bone’s ability to grow.
In addition to that here are some other numbers to consider from the NCAA:
Roughly 2% of high school athletes are awarded athletics scholarships to play college sports, and about 5.7% make a college roster. However, the percentage of high school athletes who play college sports varies by sport:
- Baseball: 12% of high school varsity baseball players play college baseball
- Ice hockey: 26.2% of high school ice hockey players play college ice hockey
- Lacrosse: 12.5% of high school lacrosse players play college lacrosse
We also know that physicians appealing to patients with data isn’t the most effective way to convey information. So, here’s my challenge to you. If you or your child expresses interest in a new sport have them try it out. It offers them a new challenge and offers them a break from their regular sports. Who knows they might become the next Olympic gold medalist in that sport.
As always, if they get hurt give us a call or click. There are no other sports medicine physician in the region with my experience across the board in sports medicine including my experience of working the 2023 FISU World University Winter Games (essentially the Olympics for college students) last January in Lake Placid, New York.