Safety

From ball-handling skills to landing softly on one leg as a way of reducing the risk of an ACL tear, balance training is something every young soccer player should include in their workout programs.

While it is possible that intentional heading in soccer represents a form of repetitive subconcussive mild brain injury which, over time,  could be a cause of chronic traumatic encephalpathy (CTE), the possible cause-and-effect relationship remains theoretical, says a 2012 study.

As US Women's National Team continues in group play at the FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015, athletic trainer Ralph Reiff, ATC, MEd, director of St. Vincent Sports Performance in Indianapolis and former manager of athlete care for the 1996 Olympic Games, offers some important tips for soccer parents to help their kids safe and injury-free.

Soccer has a higher injury rate than many contact/collision sports such as field hockey, rugby, basketball, and football, with players younger than age 15 at higher relative injury risk compared with older players, concludes a clinical report in the journal Pediatrics.

 

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Concussion rates in thirteen high school sports from 1998 to 2008, as reported in three separate studies, vary widely by sport and, in some cases, by gender.

As the best  soccer players in the world compete in the 2010 FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015™, it is important to remember that they would not be playing if an overuse or traumatic injury, such as a torn ACL,  had put the brakes on their careers.  The STOP Sports Injuries Campaign and MomsTeam remind parents that many youth soccer injuries are preventable. 

The risk of severe injury in high school soccer is less than half that in football, a new study finds.

Which high school sports pose the highest risk of severe injury?  Football leads the list, slightly more than wrestling and more than twice the rate in girls' basketball and girls' soccer.  The safest of the nine studied? Girls volleyball.

If it was up to Dr. Lester Mayers, young athletes who suffer sports concussions would be not be allowed to return to play (RTP) for 4 to 6 weeks after injury, a significant departure from current concussion guidelines which allow RTP 1 to 2 weeks after an athlete's concussion signs and symptoms clear, both at rest and during exercise.