{"id":13901,"date":"2020-03-04T10:01:10","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T16:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/?p=13901"},"modified":"2020-03-24T13:06:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T18:06:08","slug":"incoming-freshman-need-to-know-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/incoming-freshman-need-to-know-injuries\/","title":{"rendered":"Things Incoming Freshman Need to Know: Injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of athletes will have to deal with injuries throughout their careers. Throwing athletes will have shoulder problems, running athletes tend to have knee or ankle problems. Every sport is different. Sometimes, athletes get lucky, and the injuries they experience aren\u2019t serious, nor do they require a lengthy recovery period. But that isn\u2019t the case for the vast majority of athletes. <\/span><\/p>\n

There is no foolproof way to stay free of injury while playing sports. But there are ways for young athletes, or any athlete really, to keep the odds in their favor. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to Dr. Jeffrey Dugas, surgeon, and sports medicine specialist at the Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Center<\/a>, \u201cThey (athletes) have to recognize that this is a marathon, not a sprint. They are in this for four or five years. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>
Dr. Jeffrey Dugas with WWE Heavyweight Champion John Cena.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey have to recognize that the marathon requires them to prepare their bodies accordingly. They have to see it that way. They can\u2019t ignore injuries. That\u2019s the worst thing you can do as a new college athlete or a new high school athlete.”
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Prepare the Body<\/h2>\n

When moving from high school to college athletics, it\u2019s imperative that athletes are preparing themselves for the transition. Athletes will be training a minimum of 20 hours a week between workouts, practices and whatever else the coach requires, which is a lot more than in high school. Since being a collegiate athlete requires more hours, injuries tend to occur more often.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is definitely an uptick in injuries as you move up a level, that\u2019s why the injury rate goes up,\u201d Dugas said. \u201cYou\u2019re upticking the stress on the body. It\u2019s even more important as you get older to focus on flexibility and preparation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re 10 or 12, you\u2019re not going to spend that much time stretching and warming up. But when you\u2019re 18 or 19, and you\u2019re stepping into a higher level of play, you better make sure you\u2019re body is ready for that, and prepare your body for it and make sure you rest.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Weigh the Risk<\/h2>\n

Recognized as one of the Best Shoulder Surgeons in America<\/a> and a Top Doctor in Sports Medicine and Orthopedics<\/a> among many other impressive titles, Dugas works with many athletes and notices common issues young athletes tend to experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs sports medicine physicians, we recognize that there are games that are more important than others,\u201d Dugas said. \u201cBut you\u2019re going to have a hard time convincing us that the first game of the season is the most important game. It\u2019s not. It\u2019s probably the least important one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat ramp up period before you get ready for your first game -when you\u2019re doing all of the work- that\u2019s when you see more injuries,\u201d Dugas said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though it\u2019s important for athletes to compete in their high school or travel ball games to get recruited by college coaches, competing injured is not the best thing to do. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that you have to look at the risk benefits,\u201d Dugas said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to stick a kid in there that\u2019s going to make it worse and be limping around the field and can\u2019t perform at all. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dugas explains risk benefits are different for everyone and are decisions made based on the situation. Take this situation he describes from this year’s Super Bowl: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a guy from the (Atlanta) Falcons who played in the Super Bowl, and he had a fibula fracture, so he had a broken bone in his leg, and he played the whole game. Keep in mind we are talking about the Super Bowl. But a fibula fracture, we know we can deal with that after the game in the offseason. If he makes it worse, we\u2019re still going to fix it… We\u2019re not talking about a regular season game. <\/span><\/p>\n

“We\u2019re talking about the Super Bowl. In the highest level of professional sport, where the benefit is certainly real, and the risk is not that bad. We\u2019re going to weigh the risk and the benefits to the kid at the high school level and if they are just going to make it worse, or there is a real danger of them hurting themselves, we\u2019re not going to clear them to play.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Weighing the risk benefits for young athletes is tough. It\u2019s not an easy thing to do for someone aspiring to be a collegiate athlete. We get it. Athletes need to make sure they are putting themselves in the best position for success long-term. Recognize, there is a difference between high school level sports and collegiate sports. While there\u2019s no remedy to stop injuries, you can get ready for the progression from high school to college by preparing your body for the rigorous increase in stress and hope for the best.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let NSR help you through the recruiting process and find the college or university that is right for you!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lot of athletes will have to deal with injuries throughout their careers. Throwing athletes will have shoulder problems, running athletes tend to have knee or ankle problems. Every sport is different. Sometimes, athletes get lucky, and the injuries they experience aren\u2019t serious, nor do they require a lengthy recovery period. But that isn\u2019t the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":13938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1299],"tags":[1045,10,1049,507,1046,54,1048,892,1047],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13901"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13901"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15126,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13901\/revisions\/15126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}