football game player are far more likely to get hurt than other gamy school rival , but the odds of nourish an injury might not be as gamy as you think .
If a teenager plays four years of high school football , chances are pretty good they ’ll confirm an wound of some sort .
In fact , a high school jock is about three time more probable to get bruise than competitors in other major sports .
In addition , that injury is more probable to be to their oral sex or face . It ’s also far more likely the injury will happen during a game instead of drill .
However , it is extremely unlikely the injury will require surgery . And if it does , probability are it wo n’t have any serious linger effects down the route .
Those are some of the conclusions that can be attain by sift through statistics and talk with sports experts about high school football players .
Those experts bring that forward motion in treatment , as well as injury prevention , are helping keep the telephone number and severity of injuries down .
They also mention the upside to participating in sports can make the risk of exposure of injury moderately negligible .
“ The benefits of participating in squad mutation far preponderate the risks , ” Dr. Margot Putukian , F.A.C.S.M. , director of acrobatic medicine at Princeton University , told Healthline .
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Keeping track of injuries
Nearly8 million teenagersnow participate in high school summercater .
That ’s double the 4 million who participate in the 1971 - 72 school yr .
For the past decade , the combat injury substantiate by those athletes have been supervise by the Colorado School of Public Health’sProgram for Injury Prevention , Education & Research ( PIPER ) .
The squad , led by Professor Dawn Comstock , put out anannual reporton the harm confirm in nine major high school sports .
The report has detailed statistics from 100 mellow schools across the country as well as estimated numbers for all high schools .
That datum is gleaned from mellow schooling acrobatic official who report their trauma to PIPER functionary every Monday during their season .
The stats are broken down into number of injuries , the telephone number of “ athlete exposures , ” and the charge per unit of injuries for every 1,000 of those exposure .
Injuries are defined as any event that requires medical attending and keeps the jock from participating in game or practice for at least one day . In addition , all fractures , concussion , dental injuries , and “ passion events ” are considered accidental injury .
photograph are define as one athlete participate in a single game or practice . For example , if 20 players get into a game , then that ’s 20 exposures for that police squad .
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Football first in injuries
During the retiring X , there has been an average of about 4 trauma per 1,000 athlete exposures in contention for all nine sports combined .
For high school football players , the rate during competition has lay out from 11.26 to 13.52 injuries per 1,000 athlete exposure .
The sport with the 2nd high pace is girls ’ soccer , which hovers just above 5 injuries per 1,000 exposures every year .
For football game , the wound pace during drill is flop around 2 incident per 1,000 exposures . That compares with an average rate of under 1.5 per 1,000 exposures for all nine sports combined .
Overall , the Colorado researchers estimate there are more than 500,000 injuries of some kind to gamy shoal football game players nationwide every year .
In most twelvemonth , less than 10 percent of those injuries require surgery .
In 2015 , 28 per centum of the football injuries were to a player ’ forefront or face . Those include concussion .
Another 14 pct were knees , 11 percentage were ankles , and 10 percent were shoulder .
About 68 percentage of the injuries happened while players were tackle . Another 22 per centum occurred while players were block .
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Treatment and prevention
refuge concern were raised last year when it was reported at least11 high school football game playersdied in the United States during the 2015 time of year .
Two years earlier , astudywas published that close gamey school day player had nearly twice the concussion rate as college players .
Still , experts said more advanced medical treatments and good bar programme are hold the line on football game injuries and reducing the rigor of them .
Scott Sailor , prexy of the National Athletic Trainers ’ Association ( NATA ) , says jock are also better physically ready for contact play than in X past , helping cut down on the serious-mindedness of trauma .
When surgery or other aesculapian attending is required , he enounce , there are now safe and better techniques available .
Sailor also told Healthline it ’s important for school to have athletic trainer available , especially during contender . He said only 37 per centum of U.S. high-pitched school currently have a full - time athletic flight simulator .
Some of these precautions are also extending to football practice .
Putukian notes the National Collegiate Athletic Association ( NCAA ) now throttle inter-group communication exercise to twice a week for football game teams .
In plus , Ivy League team do n’t leave tackling in practices .
Putukian said some of the measures may be trickle down to high schoolhouse teams .
She and Sailor also designate out there are new coach technique to help reduce football injuries .
One of them is theHeads Up Footballprogram overseen by USA Football . The program further tackling and blocking techniques designed to make the game safer .
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Parental involvement
Sailor and Putukian agree parents necessitate to take the lead when it comes to their kid ’s sport guard .
Putukian urges parents to scope out both a schoolhouse ’s political program as well as the football coach before their child mansion up .
For lesson , does the coach teach good techniques and put their athlete ’ refuge first ?
“ You need to do your preparation , ” she said .
NATA has launched the programAt Your Own Risk , which provides information for parents , jock , and schooling officials on mutation condom .
Sailor articulate he feel all the measures being taken make football a relatively good contact summercater for high schooltime students .
“ If my Logos desire to play football , I ’d let him play football , ” he said .