This year, my oldest, Grasshopper and Sensei, switched from years and years of soccer to volleyball. She set her sights on making her high school Junior Varsity Team. She trained last year at a local volleyball skills program and with a private coach and she made the JVb team which is all freshman. Her volleyball experience so far has made her transition to high school very smooth and so far she’s hasn’t suffered from any sports related injuries which as not the case with soccer.
Her soccer related sports injuries started in 5th grade. First she had problems with pain in her ankles and we had it checked out with a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and a foot doctor. After an MRI, an expensive custom insert and a physical therapy routine with a stretchy band, it seemed that it was taken care of. It wasn’t. Her ankles were ok but then the following year, she started having trouble with her knee. And the year after that, she was in a lot of pain in her lower back and hip area.
I finally figured it out with the help of a chiropractor that her injuries that moved up her body were related to a growth spurt combined with tight lower body muscles. You can’t see these type of issues on scans of any sort. We tried a new approach. She started physical therapy to learn a 20 minute stretching routine she needs to do every day on her own. In addition, she took a weekly yoga class. With these changes, she was able to participate fully in sports again.
During our journey to find answers to my daughter’s sports injuries, we gleaned a lot of helpful mom “been-there-done-that” advice:
- Cross train. It’s become the norm for kids these days to lock down at a young age on a particular sport and train year round. Even if there is one sport that your child loves, try to find ways to cross train in a different to prevent injury.
- Stretching prevents injury. It’s not easy to incorporate daily stretching routines into a kid’s life. They are not really into that, it seems. Try a yoga class, yoga poses, or yoga cards. I have a yoga routine for kids if you need it.
- Stretch by problem area. PickyKidPix bought this stretching book at a used book store. It’s an oldy but a goody because you can choose stretches based on what muscle area you want to work on.
- Drug store orthotic inserts. It’s a lot less expensive to try a drug store insert before going with a custom one. You can always get a custom one made once you ascertain that a orthotic insert is truly going to fix the issue.
We were lucky that our health insurance covered our medical journey but that’s not always the case.
Supplemental Insurance for Serious Injury or Illness
According to the 2014 Aflac WorkForces Report, 66 percent of workers could not afford the costs associated with a serious illness or injury. Without health insurance, the average cost to treat a broken leg, for example, is over $10,0001 now just imagine a serious back injury!
Supplemental insurance could provide cash benefits to help pay for out-of-pocket expenses and other expenses that may not be fully covered by your major medical insurance such as:
- Broken teeth
- Concussions
- Ambulance, ground and air
- Emergency room visits
- Lacerations
For more information, visit here.
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Sports injuries scare me! I’m sort of hoping my kids stick with sports for fun and don’t get any crazy injuries.
Hi MaryAnne,
I’m noticing that my friends whose kids have been injured from doing sports is that it is usually when they are fooling around; not actually at the practice. Or at PE where they are fooling around, joking on the sidelines. Though I am sure you can get injured playing the sport on the field as well!
Some really great advice here. People don\’t realize that a lot of common injuries such as these can actually be easily avoided with correct stretching and execution, so knowing that would really help a lot of people.
Thanks so much Andy,
I am a true believer in stretching to prevent injury! When my daughter had problems, the doctor told her it was either Physical Therapy or yoga but that yoga was good because you can incorporate it into your life. PT is great too and it’s hopefully covered by your medical insurance. We ended up doing both but now when my daughter feels tight, she asks to do a yoga class. They have great free ones on FitTV too.
Sport injuries can be extremely dangerous if you will ignore it. At the first sign of any pains, be sure to have it checked by your health care provider. Back pains and other body pains can be easily handled by your chiropractor.
Great adice NLW. Thank you! I agree with not ignoring signs of pain! It only gets worse if you ignore it!