I know injuries occur every year in every sport.  I just feel in the last few years that the injuries are becoming more traumatic and seem to be happening to the superstars a bit more frequently.  But, with all the knowledge on training nowadays, shouldn’t some of the injuries not be happening as much?

Yes, it is great that modern medicine has come along and really helped speed up the recovery for these athletes.  But what are they doing to try and prevent these injuries?  Look at the following list of players in their sports who have had major injuries in the last couple years.

NBA: Derrick Rose (twice now), Rajon Rondo, Danilo Gallinari, Greg Oden, Nerlens Noel (the kid hasn’t even played a second yet in the NBA), and Ricky Rubio.

MLB: Matt Harvey and Stephen Strasburg both stud pitchers who will have had Tommy John surgery.

NFL: Henry Melton, Maurkice Pouncey, Arrelious Benn (second time in three years), Danario Alexander (this is his fourth time having ACL surgery – how is that even possible?), Bryan Bulaga, Jeremy Maclin (second ACL surgery), Aaron Berry, RG3, and Geno Atkins.

There are a ton more players out there I didn’t even name – Kobe Bryant (achilles), Reggie Wayne (ACL), Julio Jones (foot), and Vince Wilfork (achilles).  But, I chose the above athletes because just about all of them are the age of 25 or under (2 are 26/27).

I also chose the ACL injuries for most of them and the Tommy John for the two pitchers because those are injuries that I think your chances of getting them could be reduced if trained properly.

Derrick Rose was very meticulous with his therapy, why wasn’t he not balanced enough to make sure his non-injured knee was still  stable?  I don’t know for sure, but one would have to guess all the therapy for the knee he previously injured was causing an imbalance in the body that allowed the other knee to go.  Wasn’t someone doing some basic testing, maybe a functional movement screen at the very least, to see if he was balanced?

I just interviewed Dr. Pete Edwards who thinks that specialization in sports has played a major role in the rise of the Tommy John surgeries.  Knowing that can’t a trainer try to assess the baseball player a little better to eliminate this injury from occurring?  Yes, they can potentially come back stronger from the surgery, but a full year is gone, plus another year of coming back to form.

I don’t know the answers, I’m just asking questions.

Football is a contact sport, but some of those ACL injuries are non-contact.  Those basketball injuries happen during movement with very little contact.  The information is out there on how to reduce the chances of those injuries occurring.  Are professional athletes prepping their body accordingly and this is just the product of those high intensity sports or are they ignoring that type of training in their workout program?

Meaning, would those injuries be happening anyways even if they were doing the right type of training in their program.  I don’t know.  I don’t know any of those guys, but it would be fun to find out.

These are young athletes.  The body shouldn’t be breaking down like this at that early age.  Or are the years of specializing and not developing the overall athleticism early on taking its toll on the athlete?

Or are these athletes just too big and explosive and their bodies can’t take these awesome explosive results?  The bodies weren’t used to being this explosive?  Wouldn’t the body adapt over time?

Once again, I don’t know, but it is food for thought.  Would love to hear what you have to think in the comment box below.