I love playing sports.
To stop playing is very difficult.
Especially when you have an injury, you always feel like you are letting your team down or letting yourself down by sitting out a practice or part of a game.
In kids, injuries from sports runs rampant. In Canada, sports injuries are the main reason for children seeking medical attention and account for 50 per cent of injuries in school aged children in 2011, according to Child and Youth Injury Prevention.
A medical editorial out of the Canadian Medical Association Journal lays the blame on admiration of professional athletes. When an athlete plays while injured, that is sending the wrong message to kids and parents, says the authors, leading them to believe that this is what they need to do to become a professional.
Unfortunately what people see when it comes to athletes taking care of their bodies is rather unfortunate.
Look up any talk of Crosby and his concussion and you will see the negative press and push back on social media basically saying what a wimp he is.
And it still follows him.
Even three years after his injury, different tweets from 2014 including this one from Jacob Valliere @jacobvalliere: “BREAKING: A fan accidentally sneezed on Sidney Crosby, so he is expected to miss 4-6 weeks from a concussion.”
Or this one from Kevin Saucier @KevinASaucier: “Penguins fans breath sigh of relief as Sidney Crosby shows no signs of concussion as Sochi official puts medal on neck too roughly.”
Or this lovely wish for Crosby: Adam C. Henes @HenesAdam: “Sidney Crosby Is A Little Girl He’ll Probably Get A Concussion And Miss The Rest of the year like Always #InjuryProne.”
What little kid is not on social media looking at tweets like this?
One story that Chris Lee brought to my attention is the story of Rowan Stringer from Ontario.
She continued playing after not one, but two concussions and it would be the third one to take her life.
There were signs of her concussion wrote her parents on rowanslaw.ca.
She spoke about headaches from the time she received her first concussion to before playing the third time.
“On May 3rd she participated in an all-day tournament...in the third game she was tackled, removed from play and shortly after complained of a headache. The following Monday she had a game after school and was feeling great and ready to play. In this game someone stepped hard on her head and her headache returned and she suspected she had a concussion but told no adult.”
Rowan’s parents are now trying to get better legislation into Ontario schools with awareness days, and mandatory concussion awareness in Ontario curriculums.
It took the death of a 17-year-old girl to do this.
This is not just about sudden injuries or death but also about long term injuries.
The lasting effects of concussions, joint injuries, and broken bones, especially when a player keeps on playing with an injury can stay with a child well into adulthood.
But we do not have the take care of your body attitude that kids need to understand.
Here is one more helpful hint from Twitter that kids are bound to see: Tink @TinkWonderMut “You getting injured while we play is not an acceptable excuse to stop playing. I suggest you give it a couple quick licks because game on!”
How about we teach kids how to play safely and how to approach injuries.
And I know it is a fine line, especially when kids are just learning how to play.
Pushing them to walk off minor scraps and bruises to keep going is important to keep them driven.
Pushing them past the point of serious harm or letting them play when something is wrong gives them the impression that winning is more important than being healthy.
That is what they are seeing watching professional athletes, this is not what they need from parents and coaches when it comes to actually surviving to be healthy adults.
