General Health & Safety

Kevin Guskiewicz, PhD, ATC., Kenan Distinguished Professor and Director of the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, argues that, while there are trade-offs, contact and collision sports are relatively safe for younger athletes as long as the coaching emphasis is on protective skill development.  He notes that there are very few catastrophic injuries at the youth level, with most occurring among 16-17-18-year-olds who are playing contact and collision sports without having developed such protective skills.  "We need to find ways to keep our kids physically active so they don't become couch potatoes," Guskiewicz says.

Leading youth sports safety expert, Kevin Guskiewicz, PhD, ATC, explains how a certified athletic trainer (AT) is the "quarterback" of a school's sports medicine team, and how it is important for parents and athletic booster clubs to not only advocate in favor of hiring an AT if the school does not have one, but, in these tough economic times, even raise funds to defray the cost of adding an AT to the school's athletic staff.  Guskiewewicz predicts that the percentage of U.S. high schools that have an athletic trainer will increase above 50% in the coming years, in part as a by-product of the passage of concussion safety laws in a growing number of states.

Regular PT visits can help prevent sports injuries and improve athletic performance, says physical therapist Patricia Ladis.

Because one of their most important jobs is to identify and correct muscular and other imbalances, a physical therapist is really an efficiency expert, says Patricia Ladis.