Day by day, more athletes are giving up. According to Stephen Borelli “70% of kids drop out of youth sports by age 13” and don’t know why. Most say it’s the parents and or the pressure of trying to be the best and wanting to impress your parents.
Athletes are walking away from the sports they love and spent years playing. This has raised a few flags and concerns because everyone is wondering why? Some athletes are struggling with injuries that make them incapable of playing their sport.
Physical therapy is a great tool for athletes to recover their str
ength, skills, and mobility after surgeries or big injuries.
“People of course know when they’re in pain, but many don’t know when or how physical therapy might help relieve their pain,” says Dr. Corbin Hedt.
Physical therapy is supposed to help you improve your mobility and strength. Preventing injury is a big part of physical therapy too.
Physical therapy could include dry needling, dry cupping, and kinesthesiology taping. These are non surgical approaches to use and maybe try to relieve pain. At first your therapist will evaluate you asking you questions and asking how you got there.
I recently interviewed a student who had good experiences with physical therapy throughout his life dealing with injuries playing sports. Other people always have different approaches to injuries and how they want to deal with them.
When I asked a fellow student, Braylon Ewing, how he responded to sports injuries, he took the relaxed route and said, “Usually I get it treated and just rest at home.”
But “resting at home” isn’t always going to do the job enough to heal deeper scars and wounds. Physical therapy has the ability to fix a hamstring which is a blessing everyone should take. Many people don’t have a plan for when they get injured which is troublesome knowing it can happen at any given moment. Injuries can be a game changer for your career. Injuries can affect your scholarships, your body, your mindset, and most of all your team’s success. I’ve seen plenty of people be stripped of an amazing opportunity at college because of injuries but, there are people who are giving up on their sport instead and I wanna know why? Is it the coaches? Loss of love for the sport? We do not know but more and more people are giving up everyday on sports they have loved since childhood. Each day those locker rooms keep getting quieter and this troubling trend is just starting to begin. If this doesn’t stop I don’t think we are going to have anyone left to play.
Moffatt says, “For a lot of kids , it comes down to the fact that sports become less fun and more about the concept of what success is more from an adult’s eyes than a child’s eyes.”
I think he is completely right because sometimes these kids feel like they have to grow up too fast and maybe try to be perfect in their parents eyes instead of trying to have fun in their sport. Every student athlete should be able to enjoy their sport with no stress having fun and enjoying the love of the game.
