At the recent annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, NYSHSI announced a Call to Action for a new model of development for youth sports. Youth sports programs face many complex issues and challenges in today's fast-paced and overscheduled world. NYSHSI has proposed a new model for athlete development that will work with youth, parents, sport governing bodies and other stakeholders to ensure young athletes and their families can enjoy sports in a safe, more appropriate and healthy manner. The important injury surveillance work of the Datalys Center is essential in assisting NYSHSI to improve the current culture of youth sports.
"We are excited to partner with the National Youth Sports Health & Safety Institute," says Thomas P. Dompier, Ph.D., ATC, president of the Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention, a joint venture of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), BioCrossroads, and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). "Combining the Datalys Center's technical capacity with the Institute's ability to affect education and policy will enhance both organizations' missions to ultimately make sports and physical activity safer for our nation's youth."
Through this strategic partnership, NYSHSI and the Datalys Center seek to collaborate on injury surveillance research projects with various stakeholders to enhance the overall health and safety of youth in sports.
"We are so pleased to have a partnership with Datalys," says Michael F. Bergeron, Ph.D., FACSM, executive director of the National Youth Sports Health & Safety Institute. "Comprehensive injury surveillance and analysis will be an ongoing, integral part of the Institute to help guide our research, education and policy initiatives and strategies. Our work with Datalys will make us a much more effective resource to all youth sports stakeholders."
The initial programmatic platform of the NYSHSI will revolve around four key areas of initial emphasis:
- Sports Trauma (e.g., concussion/mTBI)
- Environment (e.g., exertional heat illness/stroke);
- Overload/Overuse ( e.g., excessive training, overscheduling); and
- Chronic Disease & Disabilities (e.g., Type 1 diabetes, sickle cell trait, Paralympics)
Nearly 50 million children participate in sports in the United States. And although a recent poll that shows 91 percent of Americans feel sports participation is important for children and adolescents, 94 percent feel more needs to be done to ensure the health and safety of youth athletes.
Source: American College of Sports Medicine
Posted June 23, 2012
