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Throughout America, there are plenty of controversial topics that people argue about on the daily. Teen Vaping, Police Brutality, and School Shootings are all examples of this kind of topic. I think an underlying topic that isn't getting as much traction as these popular topics is whether sports among youth are worth the risk or not. You always hear about football, baseball, and basketball injuries in college leagues and professional leagues and never youth right? Well just because the youth injuries aren’t talked about doesn’t mean they’re not there. There are many sports-related injuries in the youth leagues but the real question is, are these severe or even lifelong injuries worth the risk in children?
It is a proven fact that you can get injured in just about every sport. Although this is true, how often people are getting injured and if it can lead to bigger issues during their lifetime is what matters. It is shown after testing 481 pitchers (ages 9-114) that “The cumulative incidence of injury was 5.0%. Participants who pitched more than 100 innings in a year were 3.5 times more likely to be injured” and the injuries include “elbow surgery, shoulder surgery, or retirement due to throwing injury.” This doesn’t include the variable of wrong technique and form. While doing a study over high school baseball teams, “an estimated 131,555 high school baseball-related injuries occurred during the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 academic years, for an injury rate of 1.26 injuries per 1,000 athletic exposures.” Although this shows a chance of injury in baseball it's nothing big enough to worry about. A majority of the injury sites were, “shoulder (17.6%), ankle (13.6%), head/face (12.3%), hand/finger (8.5%), and thigh/upper leg (8.2%)” Even though there is a chance of injury in this particular sport it is the safest out of many sports, with the most common sites of injury at the shoulder ankle and face mostly because baseballs accidentally getting hit right into the pitchers face. The shoulder and ankle are not as severe, whereas the face/head ones are in the sense that they could mess with neural stuff but they are not as common as the first two. Although this is the case for baseball players it probably is the safest sport out of them all because it does not match with the dangers of the other sports in any way.
The dangers of soccer are not as safe as baseball in the sense that soccer is a contact sport. If you don't already know a contact sport means the players are meant to interact with each other in means of hitting and/or tackling. Many sports are contact sports and it shows in the injury rates how bad it is for children. A study shows, “The under 10-age group was seldom injured (less than 1 injury per 100 participants),” This number doesn't seem that bad in the sense that it is only one child out of 100. Also, the statistics in secondary school(high school) show that “the overall injury rate in the players of secondary school age was 7.7 injuries per 100.” If we compare this statistic to the baseball one it is around about 77 injuries per 1,000 players, which is drastically more than the baseball statistics. Although this is the case the severity of the injuries is little to none with the most common area of injury being the ankle which is not too bad.
Another contact sport that could raise an issue and youth sports is basketball. A study shows, “ The overall injury rate was 7.6% (39 injuries among the 510 children aged 5 to 12 years).” This percentage is roughly 7 injuries every 100 children which is a little higher than the soccer statistical average but still a smaller scale rate. A highschool study shows that “High school basketball players sustained 1518 injuries during 780 651 athlete exposures for an injury rate of 1.94 per 1000 athlete exposures.” These results show that the injuries due to basketball-related activity are very small just like the baseball one because contact like tackling and hitting are permitted in the sport but it is still a contact sport. It is also shown that in competition the rate of injuries increases. The study says, “The injury rate per 1000 athlete exposures was greater during competition (3.27) than during practice.” Although there is a higher risk in games and tournaments, A player doesn't play in these events as frequently as they practice. The most common injury site is said to be the, “The ankle/foot (39.7%), knee (14.7%), head/face/neck (13.6%), arm/hand (9.6%), and hip/thigh/upper leg (8.4%).” An ankle/foot injury isn't a major or severe injury as well as the knee and arm/hand injury whereas the only lifelong effects of these injuries could be that they will be more easily hurt in the future, but the head/face issue is decently severe because they can cause lifetime neural damage in the brain. It's hard to say if basketball is one of the safer sports or not but it is very unlikely that your child will be severely hurt from this activity.
The final most common sport among children is football. Football is a contact sport and is one of the most contact sports of the above. A study shows that “ A total of 3805 injuries were reported over two complete seasons (June to May) with an average injury rate of 0.40 per player per season.” This statistic is saying that each player in football has almost a 50/50 chance of being injured every time they touch the incredibly bad field. It also says the rate increases with high school students, “Players in the higher age groups (17–19 years) were more likely to receive an injury than those in the younger age groups (9–16 years).” The most commonly injured areas are, “thigh (19%), ankle (19%), and knee (18%).” Strains and sprains are more common and can cause growth-related conditions, including Sever’s disease and Osgood-Schlatter’s disease, which are long-term. Another more common injury is concussions which make up about, “9.6% in youth and 4.0% in high school.” These percentages are as high as the ones in the previous sports but in football, the chances of getting a concussion multiple times in a single season are very high and can result in long-term consequences.
In conclusion, I think all sports are somewhat dangerous for the youth in the way that your child is getting hurt. Do all sports have long-term consequences and risks that shouldn't be taken on your child? No, 2/4 sports I talked about could be somewhat risky to your child’s health but it is not something to stay up all night worrying about. In most of these sports, the intent is not to hurt anyone and to just have fun regardless of whether you get a few bruises here and there. Now from personal experience, I do think football is one of the most dangerous ones because of how many injuries I have seen happen throughout the season. The list of injuries goes from minor/major concussions to torn ACLs and sprained muscles. The number of injuries I have seen in football makes me think that the only sport you have to worry about for your child is football and maybe soccer but other than that your child should be safe enough in the other two.
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