Coaching Your Child’s Sports Team? Here’s What You Need to Know

You volunteered to coach your child’s recreational sports team and are excited to make a difference in the lives of some energetic kids. Congratulations! Thanks to parents like you who have stepped up to be a sports coach, community youth sports programs can continue to thrive.

As you begin, it’s essential to prepare yourself with everything you need to help your young athletes succeed on the court, field or diamond. That means getting to know the best warm-ups, practice drills and scoring techniques.

But there’s more. In order to be an effective youth sports coach, you should get to know the most common injuries you might see in your sport — and learn how to prevent them when you can. This is important because more than half of the 7 million sports and recreation injuries each year are among kids between 5 and 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The key things to know as a parent or coach are the signs and symptoms of injuries,” says Holly Benjamin, MD, a specialist in sports medicine and non-surgical musculoskeletal injuries at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s. “Be aware of risk factors for injury or illness, too.”

As a youth sports coach, you have a unique opportunity to identify and address symptoms in their early stages, says Dr. Benjamin, who leads Pediatric Sports Medicine at UChicago Medicine and is Chicago’s first primary care Pediatric Sports Medicine specialist.

Recognize concussion

Concussion is a considerable concern for youth sports — and not just for football players. The relative risk for concussion is nearly two times greater in 18-year-olds than in 13-year-olds, and girls have a 1.5 times higher risk than boys, according to research shared by the National Institutes of Health. Sixty-two percent of concussion injuries happen during practice, says the Youth Sports Safety Alliance.

We picture a concussion happening after a blow to the head, but that impact isn’t even necessary, says Dr. Benjamin. “You don’t have to lose consciousness,” she says. “Many concussions are caused by being a ‘bobblehead’ — having your head shaken after being hit or falling.”

Symptoms — which can include headache, pressure, dizziness, a foggy feeling and ringing in the ears, among others — can happen immediately.

As a coach or a team parent, if you suspect a concussion, insist the athlete not return to play until evaluated by a healthcare provider, Dr. Benjamin says. She adds that it’s important for your athletes to be honest about their symptoms in order to reduce their risk for a second head injury — which can have a much worse outcome.

Prevent injury by stretching

As an integral part of a sports routine, we don’t always recognize the value of stretching, especially for kids. An effective stretching routine increases flexibility and reduces the risk of injury — but there’s more to it, according to information at usyouthsoccer.org. By increasing flexibility, an athlete can increase speed, power and strength.

Start by warming up your athletes with a sport-specific activity, then move into a stretch session. US Youth Soccer recommends using this time to let your team know what to expect during practice that day and don’t over stretch. “You want your athletes to have good range of motion for practice, but this is not the time to try to gain flexibility,” the article says.

Sports physicals are essential!

Many school sports require sports physicals for participation, but that isn’t always the case for community or recreational sports teams.

As a youth sports coach, talk with your team parents about the importance of regular physicals and ensure they have indicated any health conditions their child has on the team registration form.

Kids should have a physical at least six weeks prior to starting the season, suggests Nasreen Ansari, MD, a family medicine physician at the University of Chicago Medicine Center for Advanced Care at Orland Park.

Heat can hurt

When children play sports in hot weather, they’re at risk for heat illness, which is a “spectrum of heat-related medical conditions ranging from heat exhaustion and cramps to heat stroke,” says Dr. Benjamin.

Heat cramps are intense muscle spasms that can develop when a child has lost fluid and salt from sweating — and they can even occur during ice hockey or swimming, according to the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA). A sports drink can help replace lost fluids.

Heat exhaustion happens when children push past their dehydration symptoms and continue playing. Signs of heat exhaustion include loss of coordination, dizziness, fainting, headache nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or intestinal cramping. NATA suggests cooling the child with cold water-soaked towels and having the child lie comfortably with legs elevated above heart level.

Heat stroke results in a rapid increase in core body temperature and it’s very serious. “Athletes who have high temperatures, nausea, vomiting, severe headaches, confusion, clumsiness, stumbling or disorientation, or who collapse or stop sweating (even while hot) need to go to the nearest emergency room,” says Dr. Benjamin.

To prevent heat illness, Dr. Benjamin says, be sure to dress your team in light, breathable clothing, drink lots of fluids and take plenty of breaks during play.

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