It’s been a while since I last posted! This summer has been crazy. We moved our facility to Gametime Sports and Fitness in Lowell, merged with SLS Fitness, increased the amount of space that we had available and as a result increased the amount of athletes we were able to work with. It was a super fun transition and definitely a learning experience.
With all of these new changes, we were exposed to a number of new challenges with our athletes. It seems like not so common sense that kids shouldn’t be playing the same sport all year round especially at the younger ranks. Early sport specialization has been an uphill battle in the world of physical therapy and strength and conditioning, but the only thing we can do is urge kids not to do it. Often times when I present to parents for our in-house workshops I say something along the lines of, “…I strongly encourage kids to play a different sport once baseball is done kind of like a strongly encourage you to wear a parachute when jumping out of an airplane.” That will get a few chuckles, but the kid is in pitching the next day anyway.
What could possibly go wrong?
Good question. Maybe we are being too conservative? Maybe your kid is a freak athlete like the character “Spike” in the movie “Little Giants”? Unlikely. It isn’t just anecdotal, conservative babble either.
Lacrosse is a prime example. In this area it has begun to take shape and kids are running around town with their “twigs” trying to be the next big star. Awesome! I love all that lacrosse has to offer in terms of it isn’t hockey and it gets kids outdoors. The problem resides in how the kids will hit the ground running and play all year round. They have their school teams in the spring, their club teams in the summer, fall ball in the fall, and indoor in the winter. Here is a movement screen I did recently with one of my high school lacrosse players who has committed to play for a good, Division I college.
See anything wrong?
While playing club over the summer, he had a tear in his Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL). The first thing I thought when I heard this was, great it isn’t your ACL. Nonetheless, the PCL is a necessary component to knee integrity and checking movement of the tibia (shin bone) on the femur (thigh bone). His first big request like all other kids is to be able to accelerate better.
Plan of attack: We finished the FMS and did some other non-ballistic testing to see where he was at. Next we programmed foundational exercises so that his movement quality was up before we started giving him the big strength and power exercises. It is truly amazing how quickly the strength and power numbers go up once you develop a good foundation! As a side note, and I can’t express how crucial this is, I couldn’t have performed a movement screen or any other tests on this athlete without the okay from his physician. Even as a DPT, it is paramount that I follow the wishes of the M.D. so that I stay within the scope of my practice.
To this point we have just begun working on sprint technique and form, but have remained semi-conservative with our strength-speed/power work. Do no harm is the mantra, and in this case, don’t hurt that athlete more than what they are presenting to you with. It may not be sexy or sleek to perform planks, KB deadlifts from a raised platform, or corrective exercises. But, if it gets them safely to their goal without causing further damage, that is what we will do.