General Health & Safety

The emphasis in youth sports safety should be on injury prevention, says Lyle Micheli, M.D., Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, because many of the risk factors for injury can be controlled.

Lyle Micheli, M.D., Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, discusses the elements of an ideal pre-participation physical evaluation (PPE).

Kevin Guskiewicz, PhD, ATC., argues that, while there are trade-offs, contact and collision sports are relatively safe for younger athletes as long as the coaching emphasis is on protective skill development. 

Leading youth sports safety expert, Kevin Guskiewicz, PhD, ATC, explains how a certified athletic trainer (AT) is the "quarterback" of a school's sports medicine team, and why he predicts that the percentage of U.S. high schools that have an athletic trainer will increase in the coming years.

Regular PT visits can help prevent sports injuries and improve athletic performance, says physical therapist Patricia Ladis.

Because one of their most important jobs is to identify and correct muscular and other imbalances, a physical therapist is really an efficiency expert, says Patricia Ladis.

While increase in number of youth sports injuries is result of greater participation, especially by girls, says Lyle Micheli, M.D., Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, some suggest that today's kids are more prone to injury because they are more sedentary and come to sports less physically fit and well-conditioned.