A healthy balance is best for kids sports and activities

Youth sports can help kids develop their motor skills, self-esteem, teamwork, and social skills.  Sports participation is also linked to better behavioral, social, and psychological health.

But sports can come with a risk of overuse injuries, concussion, and knee injuries – especially when kids focus on just one sport. Childhood sports injuries can have lifelong effects, including decreased activity in adult years, unwanted weight gain, and post-traumatic osteoarthritis.

But you can help your kids reduce their risk of injury and increase their love of movement says Bri Bren, PT, a physical therapist at M Health Fairview Rehabilitation Services – Burnsville Specialty Care Clinic. Here’s how.

Mix it up.

While it might be tempting to have your child specialize in one sport in hopes of winning a college scholarship, research shows that early specialization can have the opposite effect. Playing multiple sports can improve a child’s overall athletic ability while reducing likelihood of career-ending injuries and psychological burnout, according to studies and sports medicine organizations.

Bren recommends letting activity be fun because she’s seen overuse injuries from children who focus on playing just one sport and just one position in that sport. When tendons and bones are put under extreme repetitive stress, it may lead to overuse injuries in sport.

“A young athlete who over specializes can create problematic repetitive stresses on their body,” Bren said. “A good example of this is a young baseball pitcher who throws a tremendous number of pitches in a years' time. These stresses can lead to instability and may cause subluxation and dislocations in the shoulder.”

Warm up.

Another way to prevent injuries is to encourage kids to warm up their muscles before strenuous activity or sports with cutting, pivoting, and moving direction. Ten minutes of dynamic movement significantly lessens the chance of injury. If possible, drop your child off early so they can warm up with ideas from the PEP Program or FIFA-11.

Just play.

Kids don’t need to play organized team sports to gain skills and healthy habits. Non-competitive activities like playing on a playground, biking to school, or a casual pick-up basketball game with friends also build strength.

Some kids aren’t into organized sports and that’s fine, said Jeremy Peterson, MD, a family medicine physician at M Health Fairview Clinic - Princeton, and health advisor for the Princeton Public Schools. But he still recommends that all kids engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day. Time spent in physical education or playing at recess counts. But kids usually need more. That can be sports practice or more casual activities like riding a scooter around the block or playing tag with neighborhood kids.

Peterson also recommends looking into other activities like fine arts or music to help develop the creative side of the brain and balance out academic work. Whether kids are involved with the school play, throwing clay pots in the arts studio, or playing an instrument in band, they’re working on their coordination and challenging their brains.

“The social-emotional development of any sort of team-based or group-based activity is vastly underestimated,” he said. “The Princeton School District has an awesome robotics program, for example. The kids I know who do that absolutely love it. They’re working with a group on a common shared goal. That’s a great life skill.”