Keeping Athletes Safe

Posted by Terry Zeigler Sep 19, 2009

Certain sports hold more risk of injuries than others. Sports that are considered "collision" sports (football) will hold the highest risk of injury. Although serious injuries still occur, the equipment worn and training provided to these athletes should minimize the risk of catastrophic injuries.

Contact sports (basketball, soccer) will also have a significant share of injuries. These are sports in which contact is expected, but is not a focal point of the game. Rules have been written into the games (not always followed) to control the safety of these games.

There are also sports in which there is no contact, but catastrophic injuries occur. One sport is that of competitive cheerleading. This sport has one of the highest rates of catastrophic injury of any sport.

In the sport of cheerleading, most of the catastrophic injuries occur from falls from basket tosses or pyramids. The question is "what can be done to make this sport safer"?

Coaching certification should be a mandatory requirement at both the high school and college level. Collegiate athletes are stronger, have better coaching, and are more carefully monitored. But what about the safety of athletes on high school teams? It proper strength training (for the bases) and stunt safety cannot be provided, than maybe these kids should not be performing stunts above ground.

Pole vaulting is another sport in which the death toll is too high. The deaths occur from kids vaulting and missing the pads on the landing hitting their heads on cement. If this is a common denominator for young athletes dying, what can be done better to protect them? If pads cannot be large enough or fitted closely or carefully enough to the vault to protect athletes that may land off target, than this sport than this sport needs a serious investment in biomechanical research and funding to develop padding that can protect all athletes.

Regardless of the sport, researchers in the field of sports medicine are committed to reducing injuries in sport. Even if all precautions can be taken, injuries will still occur. However, there are certain sports that need more focused attention and research to determine what can be done to make them safer.