I was just talking to my team and we were discussing how to prepare children for return to sport.
The problem we see is many children can develop overuse injuries in their sport. This leaves them frustrated, out of sport and away from social connection with their friends.
I don’t want that for them at all.
I want them to enjoy playing their sport. To socialise and connect with their friends. To reach their potential in the chosen sport and dream of a bright future.
So here is what I want to share with you today:
Tip 1 – Kids will mature naturally as they get older. How can we progress this further?
As kids grow, they will naturally get stronger. This occurs through maturation. This can significantly be fast tracked adding in a progressive strength program. This will reduce the risk of overuse injuries. Also, it will improve their ability to run and handle the training involved. Kids can then run with improved coordination, jump and land with more ease, outrun their opponents and have more spring in their step.
Tip 2 – Teach kids an increased awareness of what their strength and growth areas are.
This is important to learn early. You can start addressing this with fun and progressive exercises. This will lead to increased performance and reduced risk of injury. This can occur through a thorough assessment from a Physiotherapist. From this targetted exercises will be prescribed. These specific exercises will address the issues directly. The flow on from this will be improved performance and keeping them playing their sport.
Tip 3 – Make the warmup and cool downs fun and enjoyable.
By adding in exercises that teaches the kids how to jump, land, twist and turn. This will ensure that they develop good motor skills on the field or court. Have fun with this. Mix it up, play games and watch how they are doing the above tasks. If you notice something is not right, slow it down for that individual and give them a task that is a more simple version of it.
Listen, I hope this was helpful
P.S: Want to learn more about how we can help children to stay in sport, please click the link below.
