What Sport Causes The Most Pediatric Injuries in Florida?

As we have discussed in previous articles, youth sports are growing rapidly across the United States. Northeast Florida is no exception to this, partially due to our great weather year-round. Close to 50 million kids and teenagers play competitive youth sports each year in the United States. (1) Sports keep kids active, they are fun, and they teach many valuable life skills. However, as youth sports participation rises, so do some of the consequences – mainly youth sports injuries.

Unfortunately, millions of injuries occur each year in youth athletics and the statistics show that about 1 in 3 young athletes will be injured seriously enough to miss multiple practices and games each year. (1) In our time here, we have seen that the young athletes in Saint Johns, Florida are no exception to that. As we follow our local high school and youth sports programs, I’m sure we all know a football player who has suffered a concussion, a basketball player who twisted their ankle, a soccer player who hurt their knee, or a golfer who has strained their low back or neck.

Some of these injuries are so serious and traumatic that they end up having to go to the Emergency Room or Urgent Care. Some go straight to their primary care physician. Others seek conservative care from their local sports chiropractor or physical therapist. And some do not even seek care at all as they hope the injury will resolve on its own.

At St. Johns Chiropractic & Performance, we are dedicated to giving the best possible care to youth sports injuries. To do this, we keep up with the latest research and statistics when it comes to all things sports injuries, youth injuries, pediatrics, orthopedics, and more. In this article, we wanted to spread some knowledge about which sports the most youth and adolescent injuries occur in.

We do not seek to present this information to scare you or worry you about certain sports. We simply want the parents of St. Johns and Duval County to be educated and aware about what to expect with youth sports. We certainly believe that the value of playing youth sports heavily outweighs the risks associated with playing.

Treating Youth Sports Injuries in Saint Johns, Florida

At St. Johns Chiropractic & Performance, we help active adults & youth athletes get out of pain quickly & rehabilitate their injuries so they can get back to doing what they love without limitation. Dr. Grant Speer is an expert with youth sports injuries and has an extensive background in diagnosing aches & pains, finding the root cause of the injury, pain reduction techniques, and rehabilitating the injured tissue to prevent further injury.

We have helped many young athletes in Saint Johns, Florida with joint, muscle, and nerve pain and have found lasting solutions to help them stay active without pain!

Sports With The Most Injuries

You may think contact sports like football, basketball, and wrestling would have the most annual injuries in the youth population, right? Well that is mainly true. One source has football just barely edging out basketball for the youth sport with the most injuries at just under 400,000 injuries annually. Another source lists football just behind basketball. (2)

Bike riding and exercising (including using exercise equipment) both came in head of football and basketball on one source. (2) This certainly makes sense because almost all kids at some point or another or riding their bikes while not all kids will be playing football or basketball. No matter what the source is; soccer, baseball, softball, and volleyball seem to round out the middle of the pack when it comes to injuries while wrestling, cheerleading, and gymnastics seem to be in the bottom of the list.

In our experience, it does not seem like any sport seems to have more injuries than another here in Saint Johns, Florida. We have seen an equal amount of gymnastics athletes, basketball players, wrestlers, soccer players, baseball players, football players, and more here at our sports clinic. This of course is only an our sample size which is a much smaller pool of athletes compared to these large studies.

"The value of playing youth sports heavily outweighs the risks associated with playing."

Safest Sports to Participate in Near Jacksonville, Florida

With this in mind, it should be noted that all sports have a risk for injury. All sports also have a risk for minor and major injuries. These previously mentioned sports all have the potential to cause injuries to keep athlete out of practice and games for one or two days or for months.

To use soccer as an example, tearing an ACL in your knee would be an injury that would keep someone out competition for 10-14 months, while straining a muscle in your hip would likely only keep you out for days or a couple weeks. In baseball on the other hand, straining your low back would probably only keep a player out for one or two games, but straining a ligament in your elbow may keep you out for many weeks or months before returning to games.

Should We Stop Playing These Sports?

It may be tempting as a parent to look at sports such as football, basketball, soccer, and baseball and decide to not let your child participate in the sports because of the risk for injury. Of course, we should always do what is best for the child but we should not forget about the many benefits of playing a sport. All sports can teach kids valuable lessons and skills, but no sport will do it as well as the one they enjoy playing the most. It is also important to add that most injuries during contact sports actually happen during practices and less often during games. (1) Practices typically contain much less contact than games themselves.

No matter what sport or activity your young one ends up playing, there’s going to be bumps and bruises and pain and injuries along the way. It’s important to get your children to a sports medicine specialist with an extensive background in athletics so that they can properly diagnose and treat your child’s sports injury. Their goal will be to not only get your child out of pain quickly, but to rehab the injury so that they are less likely to have this injury again!

If you know someone in the Saint Johns, Florida area (Durbin Crossing, Aberdeen, RiverTown, Julington Creek Plantation, Beachwalk, Silverleaf) who is not able to live the active lifestyle that they want because of an injury or pain and could benefit from our thorough approach and comprehensive care, please share this post with them or send them our way!

We are conveniently located just south of Jacksonville in between CR 210 and Race Track Road, near where St. Johns Parkway and Longleaf Pine intersect! Right across the street from Patriot Oaks Academy in the 32259 zip code! Only 4 minutes from Durbin Park! We are committed to offering the best chiropractic care near you!

We help active adults & youth athletes get out of pain quickly & rehabilitate their injuries so they can get back to doing what they love pain-free! So, whether you’re looking to make a lifestyle change, recover from chronic pain, or become a better athlete, our experts at St. Johns Chiropractic & Performance can help you improve.

Do you need a chiropractor in St. Johns, Florida? Contact or call/text us today at 904-217-7078 to schedule your appointment.

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