Ortho on the go
Ortho on the go
The importance of Youth Athletics
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Welcome to the Ortho on the Go podcast. My name is Chuck Dowell, host of the podcast. This is an educational orthopedic podcast focused on discussing both clinical and functional orthopedics. We will discuss a variety of topics within the field of orthopedics, including reviewing interesting cases, hearing from different professionals throughout the orthopedic profession, and discussing common musculoskeletal injuries and complaints. This podcast is meant for anyone that wants a better understanding of orthopedics, including all levels of practitioners, coaches, parents, and athletes themselves. My name's Chuck Dowell. I'm a physician assistant. We're here today at CrossFit Colorado Springs. I'm here with Laura Rennie.
SPEAKER_01My name is Laura Rennie. I'm a youth athletics coach, and I coach kids CrossFit and a number of youth sports.
SPEAKER_00So we thought it'd be good to have a discussion regarding youth athletics and the importance of movement during youth athletics. Laura coaches my kids at a class here, and we had a conversation that I thought was a great conversation regarding how important it is for kids to move and the benefits they get out of that. So what are some of the things you think that they get? What are the benefits that you think they often get from those athletic activities?
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, so kids get all the benefits that adults get, right? So I don't want to belabor the point of we increase bone density and musculoskeletal structures and get stronger heart, stronger lungs, stronger bodies. Um, all of those things, it doesn't matter if you're an adult or you're a kid, you're gonna see those benefits. The things that kids get is very much a neuromuscular adaptation that's harder to get the older you get. So kids are primed for learning, right? They're developing, especially in those early elementary years through puberty and in even into their teens and early 20s, we're primed for learning. And so the adaptations that their brains are going to make are far faster and longer lasting than if we try to make those adaptations as an adult. So an example is you know, if you find uh a friend who's in his 30s and he all of a sudden can do a backhand spring, he likely didn't learn that as an adult. That's something that he did because he was in gymnastics or cheer or something as a youth, and he's learned how to do that. He's made that neuromuscular adaptation and connection, and he's just maintained that, even if he hasn't done a backhand spring since he was 18 years old. Um, so the earlier we can get kids moving, the better they're going to be primed for later in life to have those adaptations already in them so that they can just apply them later.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and we all have that friend that can naturally athletic activities. You know, you pick up a sport and um you meet them and they start to pick that sport up and they're able to play it right away. And and as you said, the importance of that and and or probably where they got that from was being able to do these athletic activities when they're young. So there's always talk about how do I get my kids into sports? What's the most important way for my kids to be introduced into sports? Um I had mentioned to you that I was incredibly clumsy when I was a kid because I was a tall kid, and I got my kids and my daughter into gymnastics when they were young, and they've been able to have much better body awareness because of that. Uh, what are your thoughts regarding how do you get the kids into sports?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, if it's going from not moving to moving, my best advice is find something that they love. It doesn't matter if you played the sport, it doesn't matter if you consider it a sport. I mean, if the kid wants to dance, let them dance. If they want to do gymnastics, let them do gymnastics. If all they want to do is hit a rock with a stick in the backyard because that's their version of baseball, let them do it. Like play is the best way to introduce movement. So if they're interested in it, they're gonna do it. Now, beyond that, um, you know, beyond just basic play, um, what we find is for natural athletic ability, if you want them to be an athlete later in life, if it to give them the the biggest leg up, they're gonna start with something that's body weight, right? Things like gymnastics, dance, martial arts. Um, and that's just because of the proprioception that they gain from that. But like I said, if your kid doesn't want to do that and they want to play soccer, let them play soccer. Um, ideally, we're gonna get diversity in movement uh so that they're not only ever doing the same movement patterns. If you can get something where they're running, another one where they're jumping, something with that they have to move their body weight around, maybe they have to move an external load around. That's fantastic. The more diverse, the better, especially in the early years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think as you said, the most important thing is that the kids have fun when they're young. So they're not gonna want to be able to, or they're not gonna want to participate in sports when they're young unless it's fun for them, unless they're enjoying it, they get the socialization out of it. They don't understand the improvement of athleticism in it. They don't understand the mental, you know, decompression or like the the stress release they get from it. They don't understand I do it because I'm gonna make it make me stronger or better athlete. They do it because it's fun. And so if we can find a sport that allows them to have fun, then they're gonna want to do it. That's gonna uh teach them a um, you know, uh relationship with sports that's a fun and athletic relationship with sports and not a negative, hey, I played basketball, I want my kid to play basketball, and that's important. Um and then as you said, we know from an orthopedic perspective, there's a significant injury prevention aspect to sports, especially participating in multiplanar sports. There's a lot of literature that comes out that's saying if your sport, if your kid plays only one sport year round, they're only going to learn one movement pattern, one planar movement pattern, and that's gonna significantly increase the risk of injuries. And so, you know, you teach uh CrossFit, but also youth athletics, and you mentioned, you know, ballet and gymnastics. What what's your thoughts on the importance of multiplanar movements?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so specialization uh it doesn't need to happen. And this is they're seeing this a lot in literature now, uh, and you'll see it at some of the more elite um training groups is specialization does not need to occur until maybe even at the collegiate level. Yeah, right. Like people who are kids who are multi-sport are far better athletic, uh athletically inclined than the kids who specialize early in sports. And not just that, for like you said, for injury prevention, right? Kids should not be getting ACL repairs in high school, right? They shouldn't be getting elbow reconstructions in high school. Um, but a lot of that happens because they specialize way too early and they don't get that multiplanar movement uh and they overuse certain joints and certain movement patterns far too early. And we used to think that you had to specialize to be good, and it turns out that kids who are playing multiple sports are ending up in the long run as better athletes uh down the road.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for multiple reasons. I mean, they they're better athletes in general because they have better awareness to be to do multiple directional things. They're able to pick things up much quicker. So when they do specialize and they do specific training, they're able to pick those things up quicker because they've developed that body adaptation, that neuromuscular adaptation, as you said. Um, and then from an injury prevention, which I think is the last thing we should talk about, which is probably the most important thing, you know, a lot of parents and a lot of literature, and there's a lot of news articles saying kids get injured a lot during sports and specific sports like weightlifting, those types of activities. I think from a neuromuscular standpoint, or that ability for the kid to learn to find themselves in space, that significantly reduces the risk of injury. And that's why some ACL injuries and shoulder injuries happen because the kids don't learn that when they're young. But also progression, right? You can't have somebody learn how to squat, we talked about this, and then do a max squat on the same day. That's not the appropriate way for them to learn how to do those activities.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. And uh I think too is this is where the the importance of having a good coach comes in, right? Um, and this is not to be negative towards kids sports, but oftentimes it's there's someone who doesn't have the requisite background or experience in it. And I think that as parents, we we should be critical thinkers about the people that we're allowing to coach our kids. Because if we if I were to take my kid to a weightlifting class and they asked them to max back squat on the first day, I wouldn't take them back to that coach because it's irresponsible. Yeah, right. So um I think that it's really important for for parents to have a vested interest in what their kids are being asked to do. Um, and also to keep an eye on like who is influencing their kids. Because I mean, the reason that I love coaching youth athletics is because I know the influence that a coach can have on a kid. If a coach tells a kid to do it, the kid's gonna do it. Even if their parents have been telling them to do it for the last 20 years, right? As soon as a coach says, Hey, you should probably eat some vegetables, the kid goes home and says, Mom, we need to go buy vegetables, right? And so um I think that it's important to have the right influence from coaches and from other parents and other uh other adults who are asking kids to do things physically and making sure that they're doing so in a safe manner and with proper mechanics.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's funny. I I get asked, I'm very tall. I get asked that all the time, how tall am I? And kids ask me, and the first thing I say is I ate a lot of vegetables. And I I hope that translates to the kid going home and eating a lot of vegetables because I'm like, well, I just set the parent up for success there. So uh no, I I think that's definitely a a huge thing. You asked me a good question, and I don't know if I have a great answer to that question, but your question was, how can we decrease the risk of injuries in kids? And I I think kids are always gonna work through things. The first question I ask a kid uh when they come in with an injury to see me in the orthopedic express care is if you had a game tonight, could you play in that game? Because for me, that tells me the severity of injury that the the kid has. Most kids are gonna want to play through injuries. And if it hurts enough that they can't play through it, I'm always more cognizant that, hey, this is more significant of an injury. So I think if you're a parent and your your kid, daughter, son doesn't want to play in a sport, I think that should key into you that they have some level of pain that they should should not push through. But then they also don't want to come out of things. And so we had to introduce pitch counts into, you know, overhead throwing baseball type activities because they would never take themselves out of a game. Um, and so I think as a parent and or a coach, you have to introduce some level of adaptation if they're sore from what they did the day before. Maybe we don't do those things again, as not to overload those joints, overload the soft tissue that's so fragile at that age and potentially cause that injury to happen. What are your thoughts? Do you have any ideas or kind of recommendations regarding that?
SPEAKER_01I you know what's interesting is I think it all very much comes down to knowing the kid. And that's where the relationship of a parent and a coach comes in, because there are some kids that'll push through, uh, and there are some other kids that will try to find any reason not to, right? And so I think um I I really believe in empowering the kid as well, right? Like I want a child to know themselves as well as like not just relying on the coach to tell you what to do and what not to do. Like I want the child to be able to say, I'm sorry than I'm supposed to be, right? This isn't how it's supposed to feel. I'm tired, I haven't slept well enough, I've got life stress. Like there's so much more that goes into it because that's now what we're doing is we're now empowering adults to be able to read that as well. And so um, I mean, it's it's a it's a difficult problem set, but it's one that, you know, with the right coach and with the right parent, you can help kids to navigate through and learn a really valuable life skill about what's right and what's not, what's worth pushing and what's not.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I agree with that completely. I I see that all the time in the express care when people come in with injuries is they maybe don't know their bodies well enough to know if this is a significant injury or a low-level injury because they were never taught that. So I think that's a great advice. And I think until they reach skeletal maturity, it's a little bit upon us as the coaches and or the parents to limit some of their activities because that's when they're going to be more prone to develop these inflammatory changes at the growth plate attachments of their tendons and ligaments. When they reach skeletal maturity, some of those inflammatory or overuse type injuries are a little bit easier for us to treat and have adaptations to. And so I I think that's another importance is as a parent, yes, you want your kid to play and all their activities and be very active, but let teach them to listen to their body.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. I will say too, like a lot of what we've talked about has been about, you know, developing athletes. But let's not forget that even adults need to continue to move their bodies, even if they're not athletes, right? And I think there's a precipitous drop, right, after we leave high school. And for some people, when we leave college, there's no more sport. There's no more organized, there's no more coach, right? And so the more that we can make this a lifestyle thing for the child, where they realize it's not just about organized sports, it's about play. It's about playing pickup basketball with your family. It's about if you want to, you can go for a run with your dad, whatever it is, like just teaching them that movement is part of everyday living. It's not just organized. Um, I think that we can set up uh more adults for success so that after the organized sports drop off, they still have the habits and the lifestyle of movement and they understand, you know, how to keep that going well into adulthood and be healthy, contributing members of society.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because that point the benefits are no longer athletic benefits, they're health benefits, right? We're reducing stress, we're reducing comorbidities, high blood pressure diabetes, other heart problems because we learn that movement is important. And potentially we learn that movement is important, but not exhausting, overwhelming, or stressful. You know, I know when I played basketball and I did it for so many years, after I got done playing in college, I said, hey, I'm gonna, I'm tired of this. I just don't want to move anymore. And I took some years off and then had to get back into it. And I think that's what you don't want. You don't want to get them to that burnout stage where they have a negative feedback with sports or athletics. But yeah, I think that's great. Well, we appreciate you joining us. Anything else you want to add? Any anything else you want to talk about?
SPEAKER_01No, this is fantastic. Any anything that we can do to get more kids moving, I'm on board. Let's do it.
SPEAKER_00And so if anybody wants you to help coach their kids, teach them athletics, teach them weightlifting, how can they get a hold of you?
SPEAKER_01Um, so I coach here at CrossFit Colorado Springs. Um, my Instagram handle is at coach Laura Rennie. I coach specifically with youth right now. I'm doing weightlifting and then the CrossFit Kids class. Um, but I'm always open for opportunities as well.
SPEAKER_00This is a really fun conversation with Laura regarding youth athletics, which I think is a great topic to discuss. I hope uh everybody got uh some good information out of this. I know I did um regarding youth athletics, the importance of the athletics and um multidisciplinary uh sports. Again, just to if you want to get a hold of Laura, um her Instagram handle is coach underscore Laura L-A-U-R-A Renny R-I-N-N-E. Um, you can go to her Instagram and message her that way. Um, she has a Google Calendar link on there where you can make appointments to um uh uh have a conversation with her. She does uh personal training and coaching uh for uh Olympic weightlifting, CrossFit, and just regular uh sports and activities. Um I hope everybody enjoyed uh this podcast. Again, please follow us on Instagram and uh Facebook, Ortho on the Go podcast. And uh next week will be a fun episode. We're gonna try to dive into arthritis. Um can I exercise? Can I be active if I've been told I have arthritis? Will this predispose me to uh progression of this arthritis in a faster fashion? Uh thank you again and have a great day.