Kids need physical preparation for sport and rest: Says Top NFL Orthopedic Surgeon

By Zach Gallmann

The link below will guide you to a very informative article about a top NFL orthopedic surgeon, Dr. James Andrews.  His message?  Kids need time to be kids. Kids need time to recover. Kids need proper preparation for their sport.  Here at The Spot, we have the same beliefs.  We see it all the time; kids come to us, in middle school and high school, with extreme shoulder issues, knee issues, tight hips, and a host of other issues, and the parents wonder why they aren't performing at the level they should be.  Then, we hear that the child has a hitting coach, or a swinging coach, basically just lots of "skills" coaches, but no coaches who are teaching them to move their bodies properly.  Add to this that they get little to no down time and injuries start to creep in.  What happened to letting kids run free to learn the valuable skill of play?  I know I gained more body awareness and physical readiness from climbing trees and rocks than any sports coach ever taught me.

Another crucial problem we see is that kids are being sent out onto the playing field without any sort of strength training or physical preparation training under their belts.  Would you, as a parent, step out onto a football field without having the proper strength and injury preventative training?  If you did could you withstand, without injury, getting tackled by a linebacker at full speed?  I know I wouldn't.   So why would anyone send their child out onto a playing field without the proper preparation, if they wouldn't want to do it themselves?  This is a question that defies logic and ends up getting a lot of kids needlessly injured.  This is one of the primary reasons that we started our KAAT (Kids Athletic Ability Training) program.  With this program we take kids from 6-11 years old and teach them sound athletic patterns such as running, jumping and most importantly deceleration.  With these patterns we also strengthen these kids thru a properly progressed weight training program that starts with body weight exercises and moves to loaded efforts.  This great program will help these kids not only excel at their sports, but do it without getting injured.

We understand what it's like to want to be a champions, and want our kids to be champions.  Unfortunately, all too often, we see the downfalls of kids being injured from not being properly prepared for sport.  These needless injuries could be prevented if parents would just properly prepare their kids for sport by putting them in a program like our KAAT program.  Our main goal when we train an athlete, at any age, is to make sure they are ready to excel at their sport, safely.  Strength training is one of the best ways to prepare athletes to prevent injury in sport.  An example we use a lot, but I'll throw it out there again is: when a child runs or jumps out of a tree, they exert up to 5x their body weight in compressive forces on their joints.  If that sounds pretty taxing, it's because it is.  Building strength to absorb that force is the greatest way for kids to be able to manage that type of demand and not end up injured.  For more information on our KAAT program CLICK HERE.

Finally, I encourage you to read the article below and think about what Dr. Andrews has to say.  Kids need to be kids.  Kids need time off to recover.  Sure, a college scholarship is great, but not at the risk of blowing out an ACL or two, instead of leading a strong, healthy life.

Click here to read article.