Get Your Smart Play Sports Tips!

Dr. Kevan Ketterling, a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon at FVO, encourages sports enthusiasts to Go Play Like a Pro by practicing injury prevention:

Take Care of Sports Injuries Before They Happen Avoid Injuries & Stay in the Game, for Life

Athletes are bigger, stronger, and faster than ever before. When two formidable teams compete for a win, the result can be a traumatic injury. The focus on sub-specialization in sports also has a downside; when kids play one sports throughout the year, overuse injuries can result. Together, these facts have squarely set the stage for the dramatic rise in sports injuries this country has recently witnessed, particularly in younger athletes.

But most injuries are avoidable through prevention. And playing through pain is definitely not the way to go. As any professional athlete will tell you, if you can’t play at 100 percent capacity because of pain or injury, you shouldn’t be out there.

“Professionals know they have to be at 100 percent to play,” says Dr. Ketterling. “Kids, however, will often try to play at 70 or 80 percent of their capacity. That’s why we encourage younger athletes to use the same measure as the pros to decide whether or not they should be playing.”

“When a tissue is stressed the same way by the same forces over and over again there’s a high risk of failure of that tissue,” says Dr. Ketterling, team physician for the Kane County Cougars. “Variety in play can help decrease the potential for overuse injuries.”

Play safe and stay strong; follow Dr. Ketterling’s sports injury prevention tips:

• Begin with conditioning. The days of playing yourself into shape are over. You must be prepared to play.

• Do core strengthening exercises, stretches, and warm-ups before you go out on the field…this is the foundation of everything in sports.

• Avoid traumatic injuries…wear proper equipment that fits well

• Use proper technique…this is all-important for injury prevention.

• Work in the weight room during the off-season.
• Avoid overuse injuries through cross-training. Have younger kids play multiple sports, and multiple positions, rather than the same sport year-round.

When an injury does happen, it’s vital to seek orthopedic medical attention immediately. As part of Fox Valley Orthopedics’ commitment to caring for athletes of all ages, OrthoFirst™ was launched this summer. A walk-in center, OrthoFirst™ provides immediate care for acute orthopedic injuries, giving students, weekend warriors, and active seniors alike immediate access to expert orthopedic medical attention at the time of injury.

Be sure to check out the ‘Go Play’ site for more on sports injury prevention.