Anthony C

Block 2

English 10

​“Injuries in Athletes”

Its 3rd down, you have the ball and you get tackled. You hear a noise from

one of your bones and you’re in very bad pain. Or you’re running during your

track meet and your leg stops and you’re on the ground in pain. These are both

simple examples of injuries in athletes. Injuries come in many forms, some can

be very acute or some could be very chronic and can not be treated. No athlete

ever wants to suffer from any injury, as it can stop them from playing their

favorite sport or activity. In this paper you will understand specific injuries and

how they are treated by athletes and professional doctors. Also you will

understand how to properly prevent said injuries. I connect to this topic so much

because I want to learn more about injuries in the sports I play. I want to learn

how to prevent Chronic harm so I don’t cut my playing time for football short. If

you are an athlete this report is especially important for you to read as it will help

you with your sports. In order to completely understand sport traumas in this
report will be surveys and interviews from school athletes, parents, doctors, and

parents of athletes.

Most injuries occur in physical sports like basketball, football, and soccer

because if you’re causing contact with someone you have a greater risk of sprain

a bone or breaking something in your body. Injuries in sports can cut players

careers short and most people never want to see a player become injured. A

prime recent example of this is Zion Williamson a College basketball athlete from

Duke. According to “ CBS Sports” on February 20 2019 Zion Williamson had a

knee injury during a regular season showdown between Duke and Unc. Zion

came back before March madness because of proper treatment. Zion could have

not had the injury if he would have properly prevented his injury.

To first understand injuries we must understand how to prevent certain

injuries. Prevention is the action of stopping something from happening or

arising. There are many of ways to prevent injuries from occurring in your bodies.

According to “Overuse and Periodization” on the NCAA website some of the

most common prevention for injuries are:

● Wearing the correct protective gear (mouth pieces, helmets, shin

guards, protective eyewear)

● Make you to always be stretched before and during the game

● Play safe
 ● Never play unless injury is fully healed

● Play with proper technique

● Take periods of breaks

● Drink fluids during practices and games

● Exercise and increase flexibility

Other ways to prevent injury are, taking specific aid or medicine and being

treated by a doctor. Many times in order to properly prevent injuries are given by

doctors or other health professionals. Our very own trainer in Averill Park High

School Rachel Brown is a great local therapist who can help prevent injuries in

your sport. Doctor Andrew Cosgarea who works for Johns Hopkins University

states “ There are generally two different types of injuries, trauma and overuse.

And while traumatic injuries are obviously dramatic scenes overuse injuries are

mainly more common and can be prevented easier.” Him saying this means with

proper stretching and exercise injuries are less common to happen that care to

prevent their injuries than people who don’t stretch and take prescription

medicines. Equally important to prevention is the types on injures and athlete can

get during their sport.

There are many forms and types of injuries a person can get. However

most injuries are classified into two different ways, Acute injuries and Chronic

Injuries. According to “Acute Pain be Chronic Pain” on the Cleveland Clinic

examples of acute injuries would be a “Wrist fracture, an ankle sprain, shoulder

injury and muscle strains”. These injuries are results of a single or traumatic

event. According to Mount Elizabeth Hospital they have a page titled some

examples of Chronic Injuries are Stress fractures, tennis elbow, shin splints,

runners knee, and heel inflammation”. A chronic injury develops more slowly and

constantly is in pain. Also chronic injuries have mild symptoms and low grade

pains. Chronic injuries usually take much more time to heal and are more

complex to be treated than acute injuries are. A local doctor in Averill Park,

named Dr. Jason Thorne, states “ You will know if it is a more chronic injury

because they will swell, have a dull ache and they create more pain when used

during performance.” According to “RICE” on the Michigan Medicine webpage

you can simply treat both injuries the same using the acronym R.I.C.E. The R

stands for rest. Rest is important because it gives your body and b to break and

relax. The I stands for ice. Icing helps with reducing swelling and pain. The C

stands for compression. And finally the E stands for elevation. Weather your

injury is acute or chronic the most important thing is to stop activity and treat and

heal the injury. An example of one of these categories is the concussion.

Another major injury that all athletes can get is a concussion. Concussion

is a injury in the brain that causes temporary loss to normal brain functions.

Concussions happen from a blow to the head or violent shaking of the body.
Concussions were discovered in 1968 by ​Bennet Ifeakandu Omalu. Concussions 

can last from 24 hours or as long as a week to fully heal from the effects. Even 

though concussions are very common anyone should see their doctor and get 

help. According to “Concussions” Mayo Clinic website they can be treated from 

simple medicine like Advil, Tylenol, motrin, ibuprofen and aspirin. If you have a 

concussion doctors recommend that you should avoid temporarily avoid sports, 

video games, tv and socializing. The symptoms of a concussion are headaches, 

decrease cognitive functions, lack of coordination, pupil dilation, nausea and 

blurred vision. Most of these symptoms will not happen until usually a week after 

the initial beginning of the concussion. According to “What Is a Concussion” on 

the Healthline website having a concussion as a baby or child can lead to crying 

when their head moves, irritability and interruption in sleeping habits. Most age 

groups affected by concussions are people from 14-40 years old. If a concussion 

is not treated it can lead major headaches and and fatigue for years. 

Concussions are to never be taken jokingly and should be taken serious no 

matter how mild or major it is. On the other hand injuries don’t have to come from 

just contact sports that cause concussions but from non contact sports. 

Track and Field is a great sport to stay fit and active for seasonal athletes.

This sport also comes with many potential injuries and traumas that people didn't

even know existed. A common injury that occurs to people in Track is runner's
knee. Runners knee is the damage to the cartilage under the kneecap. According

to “Runners Knee” on WebMD there are more than 200,000 cases in the U.S a

year. The symptoms in runners knee include pain when you walk, kneel, squat,

sit, and pain in the knee. Another common injury that occurs when you run track

and field is shin splints. According to Healthline they have a page titled “What are

shin splints” shin splints is a pain in the lower part of your leg or the shin bone.

They are caused by excessive use of the muscle which causes it to swell and

increase pressure against the bone. This also leads to inflammation in the

muscle. The symptoms of shin splints include pain during exercise, swelling in

the lower leg, numbness and weakness in the foot, pain on the shin bones, a

strong ache in the front part of your leg. Usually treatment lasts for 2 weeks if you

treat it properly. Proper treatments include icing, elevation, over the counter

medicine, using a foam roller over the leg and elastic compression bandages.

Proper treatments can cause the amount of time a shin splint lasts to be

shortened by a lot. My friend Kevin Bryant had shin splints last season during

Indoor Track he says “The pain in the leg was horrible but me and my parents

treated it properly and I only was out for about 2 or 3 weeks”. Kevin is now one of

the best runners in Averill Park has on both indoor and outdoor track because of

proper treatment. Track and Field seems to be a casual sport with very little

chance of Injury, little do people know it can offer many complex injuries that can
even cut peoples sports careers short. On the other hand, you have another

sport which is one of the most common sport for injuries that is the opposite of

track, Football.

Football is one of if not the most injury inducing sports and athlete can play

and get into. Football is a contact sport so which obviously makes it involve many

injuries in the body. As a football player football is a very fun sport to play, but

having the risk to get injured every play and even at practice. Lauren Paris a

female athlete at Averill Park High says this about football injuries “I think it's

scary because these players are always putting themselves at the risk of getting

injured.” One of the most common injury in the sport is any form of a sprain.

According to “Sprains and Strains” on the “National Institute of Arthritis” website

sprains can occur in both the wrist, thumb, knee and the ankle. They happen

when your wrist or ankle has a sudden twist, or a blow that forces a joint out of

position. And in football with people hitting you with padding there is a higher

chance for a ligament to be blowed out of place. The symptoms to a sprain is

pain, swelling, limited movement in the area and bruising.

One of the worst and most common football injury is a concussion. There

is a very popular film called “Concussion” made in 2015. This film features Will

Smith as as a player with a concussion who learns what a concussion really is

and the study of it. A very heated debate in football is that players need more
protection. In 2010 there was a total of 159 total concussions throughout the

entire season. Now in 2018 in this regular season there was a total of 139 total

concussions. Obviously with the increase in protection there are less

concussions, but most people think that with these players risking their bodies

and lives they should be offered more protection to the head and body. In

addition to contact injuries, pain and injuries in the body can come from not just

physicality but your very own age.

A big factor that many athletes don't take into factors of injury is age.

Uwhealth created a page titled “Growth and Development” little kids that are

younger athletes have a higher chance to get a more acute injury, where older

athletes have a chance to get more of a chronic injury in the body. The reason for

this is because young athletes bodies are still growing and developing.

Compared to older athletes younger athletes most likely will have an injury at the

growth plates which are sites in the body where bones and muscles are

stretching. Also treatment is different depending on your age. Recovery is also

different because recovery in older athletes takes much longer than younger

athletes. Older athletes need more of a rest after workouts and more time to

recover after workouts compared to younger kids. According to “Developing

Sports Programs for Youth” on the AthleticBuisness website younger athletes

have a much bigger and greater chance to receive overuse injuries in the body
because they are always working their body as older athletes are not. Older

athletes have more joint aches, muscle tightenings. According to “Reasons Why

Aging Athletes are More Prone to Injury” on the 3riversortho website Older

athletes have a decrease in maximum heart rate, they also see a decrease in

maximum cardiac output. They also have a decrease in the overall lung capacity

because as you age you can not efficiently move oxygen through your body to

the bloodstream. Without the oxygen to the bloodstream it will limit the overall

strength and endurance on the body. And finally as you age you slowly lose

muscle and bone mass which leads to a major decrease in coordination, your

flexibility and also your overall physical capacity and capability. In conclusion the

longer and longer you age the less physical action your body can do like running,

biking, and play sports. Immediately after your injury occurs the most important

process is treatment.

If an injury occurs in the body the best thing to always do no matter the

injury is to treat it. Treating an injury properly is the most important thing you can

do to help an injury. According to “Treating Sports Injuries” on the Harvard Health

webpage the most common ways of treatment are “Protection, rest, icing,

compression, elevation, physical therapy until healed”(Treating Sports Injuries).

No athlete no matter the injury or sport should always treat an injury properly.

Other common ways to treat injuries are Pain reliever pills, pain injections and
immobilisation. All of these methods are great ways of treatment but the best one

for an athlete is the P.R.I.C.E method. P.R.I.C.E stands for Protection, rest,

icing,compression and elevation. According to Rachel the Health Therapist at

Averill Park High she recommend the Price method at home for a few days. She

says that using this method for a few days should heal the pain or injury and

takes the least amount of time and effort. According to Sports-Heath a website

that has a title named “Sports Injury Treatment”Protection is important because it

will prevent any future injuries in that same area. Rest is important because it

limits physical action and allows the body and area to heal. While resting avoid

putting stress or weight onto the area affected by the injury. Icing is very

important because it reduces swelling and pain. Most common method for icing

is putting ice in a plastic bag and icing the area. The best cycle for icing is 10 to

15 minutes icing and than spending 1 hour to 2 hours off. Compression is

important because an external force is being applied to the tissue that was

injured. Compression also minimizes swelling and also provides support. People

normally use compression wraps or elastic bandages. Elevation is important

because ir reduces the pooling of fluid in the injured joint. Elevation also limits the

loss of range of motion and speeds recovery. The most effective way to elevate

is too begin 24 hours after the injury occured. For every athlete that has a chronic

or acute injury treatment is always the best thing to do.

 Injuries in Basketball occur more often than people who don't watch the

sport believe. When people watch basketball they think it isn't a contact sport but

it really is. Some of the most common injuries in sports are sprains, traumas,

fracutes, broken acl knee injuries. One of the worst injuries for a basketball

player is a Torn ACL. The most well known player to tear an ACL is MInnesota

Timberwolves guard Derrick Rose. According to ESPN’s 30 for 30 film “The

Fallen Rose” Derrick Rose tore his ACL in the 2012 playoffs of the NBA season.

He was carted of the court and didn't play for the rest of the season. Rose

couldn't play for 2 years but had proper treatment and recovery and returned 2

years after. Unfortunately for ROse the first torn ACL did not help because in his

first season back he tore it again. Rose was considering retirement but continued

to treat his injury and he has returned this season and is playing very well. This

film is emotional but it shows that basketball injuries are no joke, basketball and

all sport injuries are no joke and not one and done. Basketball players

experience more ankle injuries than other sports because the sport involves

pivoting and sliding on defense. Another common injury to occur to players is an

ankle sprain. According to “Sprained Ankle” on the OrthoInfo webpage an ankle

sprain occurs when the ankle rolls, twists, or turns in a way it would usually turn.

This happens most of the time when the defended in the game is sliding abd

slides incorrectly and his ankle twists and turns incorrectly. Basketball does come
with a great rush of injuries because it is such a physical and contact sport and

people don’t even realize it.

As I have show in this report injuries in sports are very important and

should have more attention from sports directors and the media. Athletes are

putting their body at risk for our entertainment and in my opinion they should

obviously be receiving more protection than they are given. As shown in this

paper proper treatment and therapy is very important to return to your sport after

a chronic injury. However with all this research completed questions still remain

how injuries can still be treated and prevented at a better rate.

 
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