Worst Sports Injuries I have seen?

Several of my athletes and I were discussing injuries while we were at the State Track and Field meet this weekend. There were several athletes with major braces on their knees and miles and miles of tape on their shins and ankles. They had asked what some of the worst injuries I have ever witnessed were. I have only seen a few real bad ones, two broken legs in football, several separated shoulders, hyperextended knees, things like that. 

It is always so sad when I see young athletes who suffer major injuries because I know that if not treated correctly it will bother them for the rest of their lives. In some cases even with great rehabilitation it may still give them problems later in life.

So many of the injuries that I see these young athletes with are also very preventable. I am going to guess and say I saw over thirty kids who had one or both of their shins taped in an effort to reduce the pain of shin splints. Many of us former athletes went through this painful injury in our running days. Perhaps some of you are still suffering from them. As has been mentioned over and over again on this site, always stop and ask the question of why. Why do you have shin splints?

Traditionally there are numerous answers to this question, too much running (not possible if you are muscularly efficient) the ground was too hard, improper footwear. The list goes on of various reasons like this. The question then I would like to ask is if it is these reasons, why does every athlete who run not get shin splints. If it is the surface we run on, all of us who may run on that surface would have shin splints right? Wrong.

The answer lies within each individuals level of muscular efficiency. if you have any imbalance in your stride, due to muscular tightness, imbalances in strength, or just proper muscular sequencing, you will be at a higher risk for developing pain symptoms as you run. 

Check out some of the posts we put into our Running Efficiency section for some more information on this topic. In the meantime here is a video of an injury I saw happen on television that made me cringe badly. I pray that none of you ever suffer an injury like this.