One Sport Only May Hurt Young Athletes

Are you an aspiring tennis mom or dad? Is your athlete going to be the next Martina Navratilova or Roger Federer? If so, you may want to be sure that your tennis player does more than just play tennis if you want him or her to stay healthy.

A recent study from Loyola University looked at 519 junior tennis players. The researchers found that tennis players who focused only on the game were more likely to not be able to play because of injuries or other medical reasons. This was more prevalent among boys than girls. The players were also 5.4 times more likely to withdraw from a tournament for medical reasons if they had been injured or ill before.

The most common injuries are:

• ankle sprains
• hip injuries
• knee cap instability
• stress fractures in the spine
• wrist tendinitis
• rotator cuff tendinitis

There are different reasons why this may happen. One is the repetition of the same movements again and again, but there is also the overload of the heavy competition schedule.

You can read more about this study and the types of injuries in this article from the Loyola University Health System: Young Tennis Players who Play Only One Sport are More Prone to Injuries.

~~~

Image: PhotoXpress.com