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Reducing Injury Risk in Youth Sports

By Jane E. Brody, The New York Times, 05/15/18, 12:00PM PDT

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Every child should know and obey the rules of the game and always use proper protective gear, like shin guards for soccer, a hard-shell helmet when batting and a helmet and body padding for ice hockey.

Few parents enroll their children in organized sports with the expectation that they will get injured.

Yet children often do get hurt, and sometimes those injuries can sideline young athletes for months or an entire season and may sour them on participating in the future. The effects of sports injuries may even linger into adulthood. “Injuries are often considered an inevitable part of sports.

However, like other injuries, sports injuries are potentially preventable,” according to Dr. Terry A. Adirim, a sports medicine expert who is now a health affairs specialist for the Department of Defense, and Dr. Tina L. Cheng, director of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.