DELAFIELD, Wis. — Sports injuries are on the rise among children and the place they are most likely to happen is at practice. But a Delafield trainer has some simple tips to make your child safer on the field.
Brooks Blount, 16, spends a lot of his time outside of school in the training room. The teen is a Waukesha West High School quarterback and baseball player. With older siblings who play sports as well, his mom, Angie Blount is no stranger to sports injuries.
"The older daughter had a knee injury from softball," Angie said. "The oldest son had one in football. A torn meniscus. Then concussions. And the older son who plays football has had some shoulder injuries."
Across the country 3.5 million kids each year are hurt playing sports, according to Stanford Children's Health. More than half of those injuries, 62-percent, happen at practice. Lucas Nelson. director of Impact Sports Academy, 405 Genesee Street in Delafield, said it is often from over training.
"What I see now is one sport athletes who practice the sport and play the sport year-round using the same muscles, the same movements it's essentially the same thing all year round," Nelson said.
He recommends playing multiple sports and mixing up their training.
"Three basic things that are so overlooked are proper nutrition, proper hydration and proper sleep," he said.
He also emphasized the importance of scheduling rest days. Which for athletes like Brooks, it can mean to have days just to sit around and take care of even the most minor aches and pains.
"The more they train safely and smartly, the less injuries they get," Blount said.
