Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

Before I go into the 8 expert tips for reducing injuries in youth sports, let me orient your mindset. If you don’t have the right mindset to buy-in to these tips to reduce injuries, then there is no point of even reading them. Moreover, most parents of highly competitive youth athletes don’t have this mindset.

The mindset a parent needs to reduce injuries in youth sports is a mindset that prevents their child from being a proverbial rabbit.

Parents Must Have an “Anti-Rabbit” Mindset

In the sport of track the “rabbit” is an informal term for the formal job of being a pacemaker in a long or middle-distance race. The job of a rabbit is to lead a pack of runners in the early part of a race. The rabbit gets the race off to a good start by giving the other runners someone to chase.

However, rabbits don’t actually finish the race. In fact, if they did try to finish the race rabbits would likely end up in last place. This is because rabbits get off to such a fast start it’s unsustainable.

Now think about this concept of a “rabbit” in terms of youth sports. There is always one young athlete who competes more, trains more, and wins more than everyone else. This young athlete is deservingly the talk of the town. He or she is the best of the best. What’s more, that athlete is also serving as the proverbial rabbit for their peer group.

The truth is young athletes who compete more and train more in one sport are also more likely to develop long term injuries. In addition, putting injuries aside, it takes a special kid who enjoys the attention and pressure of being the best of the best from a young age. Getting chased by peers as they use your child’s success as motivation to work harder is not always fun.

History proves that youth success never predicts long term success. History also proves that a child who is a high achiever early in life has a tougher path to achieving long term success than their peers. It may temporarily feel better to raise a child that sets the pace as the rabbit in their age group, but the risk of injury makes that temporary feeling not worth it.

How the Anti-Rabbit Mindset Reduces the Risk of Injury in Youth Sports

With this in mind, ESPN published a fairly damning article about injuries in youth sports not long ago. The article is titled ‘These kids are ticking time bombs’: The threat of youth basketball.

In summary, the premise of the article is as follows:

Those who were highly specialized in one sport (at the exclusion of other sports) and played it year-round were at a significantly higher risk for serious overuse injuries, such as bone and cartilage injuries and ligament injuries. How much higher of a risk? About 125%.

Marinate on that shocking number for a bit…125%…WOW!!!

As the headline of the article suggest, young athletes who specialize in one sport are literally ticking time bombs with respect to injuries. So, there is only one question a parent needs to answer. What should you do differently to defuse this bomb?

Unquestionably, these children who specialize are the rabbits, and therefore it takes an anti-rabbit mindset to reduce the risk of injury in youth sports. According to the ESPN article, experts had 8 specific suggestions for parents of young athletes to reduce the risk of injury. Furthermore, the combination of these 8 tips will work against your child from being a national youth champion, #1 ranked in X sport going into high school, or being the talk of the town.

This is a good thing. Remember the goal is for your child to win in the end. Not to look like they are winning when they are 10, then quit when they are 16.

8 Suggestions for Parents of Young Athletes to Reduce the Risk of Injury

1. Delay specialization for young athletes until they’re 14 or older.
2. Ensure rest from sports at least one day a week.
3. At the end of a season, take two to three weeks off to give their bodies a rest and let them recover.
4. After rest and recovery breaks, slowly ease back into training with lite jogging, biking and strength training.
5. Participate in a variety of non-contact sports during the summer like tennis, golf, swimming, and volleyball.
6. Spend more time on building skills and less time competing.
7. Prioritize developing basic movements such as lateral movements, changing direction, squats, lunges and balancing on one leg.
8. Break up the monotony of year-round seasons with periods of cross-training sprinkled throughout the year (i.e. boxing, swimming, hiking, and biking)