An injury is damage to your body. It is a general term that refers to harm caused by accidents, falls, hits, weapons, and more. In the U.S., millions of people injure themselves every year.

30 million children and teens participate in some form of organized sports, and more than 3.5 million injuries occur each year, which cause some loss of time or participation. Almost one-third of all childhood injuries are from sports.

Playground, sports, and bicycle-related injuries occur most often among children between ages five and 14 years old. The highest rates of injury occur in sports that involve contact and collisions. More severe injuries occur during individual sports and recreational activities. Most organized sports-related injuries occur during practice.

• In basketball, more than 170,000 children ages five to 14 were treated in the hospitals for injuries for each year
• For football, 215,000 children ages five to 14 were treated in the hospital each year
• In baseball and softball, nearly 110,000 children ages five to 14 were treated in the hospital and three to four children dying from baseball injuries each year
• For soccer, 88,000 children ages five to 14 treated in the hospital in 1999
• In bicycling, 320,000 children ages five to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for bicycle-related injuries. In addition, 225 children ages 14 and under died in bicycle-related crashes in 1997

“I personally think that football is the most dangerous sport because they get hit by boys who weigh 200-300 pounds, the most common injury is concussions because the head is so open and any blow or jolt can hurt it and mess up your brain causing you serious problems now and a later in your life,” explained Nurse Beebe.

To prevent injuries

You should warm up, stretch, hydrate yourself, take care of your nutrition, and rest.Skipping the warm up can result in painful muscle tears that take time and rest to heal.Stretching your muscles after your warm up increases your flexibility while giving you a longer and leaner appearance. The increased flexibility will allow you to perform better during your main workout and minimize the risk of injury.

Trying to work out without drinking water before and during your workout is the equivalent of attempting to drive your car with an empty tank of gas.

Avoid over-training and take at least one day off from your fitness regime each week. You should also take a break if you feel extremely sore and exhausted or if you experience intense physical discomfort.

If the pain or other symptoms get worse, you should call your doctor. Use the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation) method to relieve pain, reduce swelling, and speed healing. Follow these four steps right after the injury occurs and do so for at least 48 hours:

• Rest. Reduce your regular activities. If you’ve injured your foot, ankle, or knee, take weight off of it. A crutch can help. If your right foot or ankle is injured, use the crutch on the left side.
• Ice. Put an ice pack to the injured area for 20 minutes, four to eight times a day. You can use a cold pack or ice bag. You can also use a plastic bag filled with crushed ice and wrapped in a towel. Take the ice off after 20 minutes to avoid cold injury.
• Compression. Put even pressure  on the injured area to help reduce swelling.
• Elevation. Put the injured area on a pillow, at a level above your heart, to help reduce swelling.

“Being hurt really killed me, I use to never stretch before practice. I would also roll my ankles in practice but I didn’t think it was a biggy, but when I really broke my ankle I was devastated because I couldn’t play my whole freshman year,” said Noelle Bost, point guard for the CHS girls’ varsity basketball team.

“I personal think that football is the most dangerous sport because its 100 to 300 pound men bashing there heads together with barley any equipment and they can also get concussions. Concussion can affect you now and later in life, some football players don’t even know if they have them. Any blow to the head can cause this” said Nurse Bebbee