(NC)-Staying active is important for teenagers and so is staying injury free. Unfortunately, injury is all too common, according to one study funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). But, according to another CIHR-funded study, innovative training techniques can help reduce the injury rate.
A survey of Victoria teens has found that nearly 40 percent had
sports injuries serious enough to limit their normal daily
activity. Unexpectedly, nearly three-quarters of the injuries -
70 percent - occurred in organized sports.
 Unorganized sports, such as biking, rollerblading or
skateboarding, had much lower injury rates.
Dr. Bonnie Leadbetter of the University of Victoria, who conducted the study, fears that these injuries could discourage teens from continuing to participate in sports, which will contribute to increasing youth obesity rates.
Dr. Carolyn Emery, another CIHR-funded physiotherapist from the
University of Calgary, has found an innovative way to reduce
those injury rates - training on a wobble board.
A wobble board is a disk perched on half a ball, with the
rounded side of the ball touching the floor. By standing on the
board and carrying out dynamic activities while trying to
maintain balance while the board wobbles, teens who play
fast-moving sports like basketball can help to prevent knee and
ankle injuries.
The key, she says, is actually doing it. When a
physiotherapist worked one-on-one with physical education
students in a pilot study, there was an 80 percent reduction in
sport injury. When coaches were primarily responsible for
supervision and progression of training in high school
basketball, 40 percent of participants did not follow the
home-based component of the training at all. While there was a
20 percent reduction in injury rates, this reduction was not
statistically significant, likely related to the poor
compliance.
Now Emery and her colleagues are testing a more comprehensive
neuromuscular training program that includes the balance
training component with competitive soccer players. They want
to know if the more competitive environment, with more parental
involvement, together with a more comprehensive program, makes
a difference.
"Kids and parents who are choosing to participate at a competitive community level of soccer have bought in more to injury prevention," she says.
