Injuries in young athletes are on the rise. This epidemic is generally overlooked or ignored, but that is unacceptable. These injuries can cause permanent damage or cause more issues later in athlete’s lives. The worst part is that many of these injuries can be prevented! In order to prevent injuries, young athletes should take the time to rest, not specialize in one sport until adolescence, and more safety and prevention policies should be put in place as well as be enforced. It is imperative that young athletes take the time to rest their body in order to prevent injuries from occurring as frequently. Sumathi Reddy explains, “Rest for young athletes is important. For every year a young athlete should take two to three months off…show more content… This allows time for muscle and joint recovery. When injury does occur, though, it is crucial to rest and let the injury heal so that it does not become a larger issue. Also, young athletes should play multiple sports in order to rest muscle groups and activate other muscle groups. Susan Perry says, “Medical experts agree that in addition to young athletes playing multiple sports in a season it is important for their bodies to get rest from all sports activity and that proper conditioning is needed to strengthen their bodies to help protect against injuries” (1). Overall, rest is an important part of preventing injuries from happening to young athletes. Children should not be permitted to specialize in one sport until their adolescent years because it leads to overuse injuries. Overuse injuries are…show more content… Nadia Kounang says, “Parents should be watchful when their children go onto the field. They should look out for any issues such as poor upkeep or broken equipment. Parents should also make sure that there is an adult prepared to respond if an injury occurs” (2). Safety is a key component in preventing injuries. Parents, coaches, and players always need to check for safety hazards when entering the practice or game area. Also, across the United States leagues have cut back on punishment for athlete’s violate game rules which is a safety issue that must be fixed. Youth sporting events cannot continue to get out of hand. Rough play is dangerous and leads to injury of one player or a few players. Carina Storrs makes the statement, “In her experience, Fields has noticed pushback from soccer leagues at the notion of enforcing rules against rough play and penalizing players for it” (3). The solution to the problem is simple; sports organization officials, coaches, and parents, need to make safety policies a priority at the youth level. Storrs writes that there are safety advocates who agree that sports organizations should make safety a top priority. Storrs also mentions in her article, “In order to make these changes, Nowinski said, safety needs to be seen as more of a priority in soccer among governing bodies, such as U.S.
