Injuries are a fact of life in sports.  Some people can get away with acquiring very few injuries, while others are injury-prone.

If your athlete gets injured, do you know what to do?  Besides calling up their pediatrician and seeing what he/she can tell them a lot of people do not.

So before I begin this article let me start by saying if you have an athlete that is injured I always encourage people to talk to a doctor because I am NOT a doctor.  I don’t even pretend to be as smart as one.  Follow their advice and go from there.

For kicks, let’s say you have held off on calling the doctor for the moment and start listening to the spew that is about come out of my mouth.  That’s when things can get interesting.  So I will preface everything I’m about to say with this – if MY son/daughter got injured this is how I would proceed.  Follow this advice at your own discretion.

The Major Injury

This is actually the easiest to figure out.  I have witnessed ACL tears, compound fractures, and serious muscle strains that don’t take too long to realize you have a problem.  You feel and hear a snap or a loud pop, then you stop your activity and set the appointment to see your doctor.

When I ruptured my biceps tendon, I didn’t know I had actually done that, but based on what I felt, it was different than anything else that I had felt before.  I got an appointment immediately.

At that point, you follow the doctor’s instructions and go from there.

The Seriously Painful Injury But Unsure What It Is

These are usually your muscle strains/pulls and or twisted ankles that knock you out of a game or practice.  You haven’t heard or felt any pops or snaps, but you don’t feel a sharp pain go in the area.

The first thing that I do is RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation).  I ice the area for 15 minutes, rest 60, then repeat for as much as I can the next 24 hours.  After those 24 hours, I then start heating the area.  Research is showing that heat is probably more beneficial than ice for rehab and recovery.

I personally would wait before I go to the doctor.  I’d wait at least 7 days.  If it hasn’t improved or gotten worse, then I’d have a doctor check it out.  

If it has improved, then I would keep doing what I’m doing.  I would do ice immediately after an activity and that’s it.  Heat the other times.  The heat attracts more blood to the area and allows it to facilitate all that “stuff” out of there and heal the area quicker.

I Went To The Doctor And Was Told To Rest

Now, when I say go to the doctor, I personally would want to try and find someone who works with athletes or an orthopedic.  Sometimes your pediatrician doesn’t understand an athlete’s body (yes I’m being serious) and will assume you are like most of the slugs on our planet and tell you to rest.

A lot of athletic trainers and sports’ doctors I know want an active rest.  What this means is to stretch the injury as best you can.  Start lightly strengthening the injury and doing some light foam roller.  There are all kinds of exercises you can do to help facilitate the healing process.

I get parents who tell me their kid will be resting for a few weeks from an injury and I pull my hair out.  We can do other things to help this healing process speed along faster than just rest.  Plus, maybe we could do some work on the area of the body that isn’t injured.

You sprained your ankle, then maybe we do some upper body work and vice versa.

I’m not saying to ignore the pain and plow through this injury.  All I’m saying is if MY kid is injured, I would do what we can to get the injury assessed properly.  Then I would modify the workouts to facilitate the appropriate therapy and still try to continue with a proper strength and stretching program as best as I could.

The only time rest comes in is when it is a major injury and some type of surgery is needed.  Then follow the doctor’s orders.

Remember, it is your kid and I’m not telling you what you should do.  I’m giving you my unabashed opinion about what I would do if it were MY kid.  I get you want to make sure you are being safe, but it also helps to be smart with the approach and try a bit of ACTIVE recovery for your athlete.

Photo courtesy of Jon Candy on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/joncandy/