On May 17th I was interviewed by Monica Ho Ehlers of the Examiner.com in an article, “Preventing overuse injuries in kids who play sports.” Check out the article: http://tinyurl.com/nhp7rf if you have kids who play sports.
I have been the Strength & Conditioning Coach for the College of San Mateo Baseball Team for 8 years and many other high school, college and Professional Athletes for 19 years. It absolutely sickens me to hear about kids needing surgery because of overuse.
Most of the time these injuries are the result of poor posture, lack of flexibility, mobility, overuse of throwing, lack of communication, the wrong or nonexistent flexibility and strengthening programs, parent, coach, doctor, physical therapist, athletic trainer or athlete’s lack of education or comprehensiveness of injury prevention programs, lack of sleep, poor nutrition and year round baseball. Quite a list huh? Yes, there are a number of factors and this may seem overwhelming; however, the reality is that your athlete will get injured and not make it to the next level, whatever that next level is.
Given my extensive experience as an injured athlete from ages 12-21, I believe that it is the parent’s responsibility to understand recovery principles because most of these injuries can be prevented with the right program. The typical recovery or prevention techniques that most advocate are ice, aspirin or Advil. The last time I checked athletes were not deficient in Advil, aspirin or cold? How is their Posture? Flexibility? Mechanics? Nutrition? Sleep? Strength? So many questions…and many different answers depending on who you go to for help. There is more to success than just a pitching or hitting coach these days.
I am here to make sense out of this mess we have created in order to achieve a college scholarship or Pro contract. If you want to discuss a training program for your athlete or talk about rehabilitation or prevention, contact me anytime for a free 30 minute consultation. Keep your kids healthy, make it fun and listen to them if there is pain!
In Health,
Brien Shamp
CEO Optimal Fitness Lifestyle Center
P.S. Tomorrow is our first day of the Baseball Performance Edge Program at the Optimal Fitness Lifestyle Center. This program is for athletes 8 & up who specifically want to improve their performance in baseball and prevent future injuries. Check out the details here: Baseball Performance Edge
P.S.S. If you have an athlete and have a question or want to make a comment about overuse injuries in kids please comment at the end of this article.
