Sports injuries among high school athletes are common. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there are about 2 million injuries among high school athletes annually.

If you are a parent of a high school athlete, you are probably familiar with the pre-season physical. Most schools or sports programs require them, and their basic purpose is to make sure your athlete is physically healthy enough to play a sport.

Many of these physicals are simple and are more geared toward the basic health of the athlete when compared to the general population. Athletic screenings are a little more comprehensive and typically assess factors such as relative mobility and strength, and on occasion cardiovascular endurance.

Although these indices can be important risk indicators for later injury, physicals and basic athletic screens rarely take into account how the athlete actually moves. Movement patterns can be really important predictors of an injury at some point in the athlete’s career – and not just in the immediate future or upcoming season.

High school athletes are often still growing, which can also make your child more susceptible to specific injuries depending on their sport. For example, adjustment to growth can affect balance, coordination and motor control, all of which are important in sports and movement in general. Some high school sports injuries can cause chronic issues into adulthood as well, so this isn’t something to take lightly.

The good news is, a quality screen can prevent injuries in your high school athlete. While no specific athlete screening protocol is perfect, and injuries can never actually be predicted, a pre-season screening conducted by a physical therapist is typically very comprehensive. Physical therapists can identify problematic movement patterns, areas of dysfunction, imbalance and/or weakness. We can not only “pre-habilitate” the athlete and help to prevent an injury down the road, but we can also to help them perform better in their sport right now.

So, what’s the take home that parents need to know?

Pre-screening can play a valuable role here, as identifying an area of weakness, imbalance, or overuse, and can help steer training and recovery days to prevent injuries. Acute injuries that can occur in contact sports aren’t usually predictable, but an overuse injury, a muscle imbalance or weakness, or a faulty movement pattern that can cause an acute non-contact injury is absolutely something pre-screening can help prevent, and treat more easily if we catch it close to onset.

The bottom line is, if you want to help your high school athlete perform at his or her best – and healthiest level – a pre-screening session with a physical therapist is a good tool to have in your toolkit.

Beacon Physical Therapy

At Beacon Physical Therapy, we support our clients in establishing healthy movement patterns that help maintain strength, flexibility and mobility. If you are having an issue, make an appointment today. We’d love to meet you and get you back to doing what you love.