As a sports parent, I’ve thought about my two girls future in athletics and the injuries that could come with it. My oldest has played soccer, basketball, volleyball & ballet of course. 🙂 Out of those, I couldn’t see too much injury potential in volleyball or basketball besides jammed fingers or skin burns from the floor. Protecting-injury-prone-areas-in-growing-bodies is part of it. Note: This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
Concerns for injury-prone athletes
Being a former pro soccer player and owner of soccer companies, my concerns with soccer are concussions because they are so serious.
Then I also think about broken bones and sprains. Although, that’s just me being a dad of 2 girls. I don’t want them to get injured like that! I don’t mind the knocks and bruises, they need that, but we don’t want serious injury for them, no parent does.
As a Professional Soccer Trainer, I don’t see too many injuries that are serious.
The main thing you want to remind your child or players is to warm up before every practice.
There is a mix of all the injury-prone areas, so as long as we are aware of each.
Learn and know how to prevent and treat we are in a better situation than not knowing.
3 common injury-prone areas
[+ Learn the “12 Most Common Soccer Injuries”]
2) Ankle Injury
Knowing is half the battle so educate yourself with this FREE knowledge.
Dr. Newman explaining common injuries in soccer + prevention tips ⇓
Injury prevention for soccer players
I think the main point I can tell players, parents and coaches is to make sure it’s a habit to warm up and stretch before playing.
Warm-up by far, will be the best thing you can do to prevent injuries!
There are some injuries that warm ups can’t help, but most muscle injuries will be reduced if you warm up and take care of your body.
There are also injury-prone areas you want to know about. Foot injuries are injury-prone areas that occur from growing and playing a lot of sports.
Being better at the skills and knowledge of the game will also prevent injuries.
Many of the players who are getting hurt are doing so because, they don’t know how to kick the ball properly.
Kicking the ball long or hard is not easy on the hips, ankles or knees if you hit it wrong. Locking the ankle, contracting your core and connecting with good form are important.
Some injuries are going in or up for 50/50 challenges/tackles. Being better at the skills usually means you are playing with and against better players too.
Lower level high school soccer leagues are going to have more injuries because 1) the players rely more on aggression than skills, 2) there are more 50/50 reckless challenges because of the skill level, athleticism and ability to know when to challenge.
RICE Treatment for injury-prone areas
If you’ve read my injury series you have seen that treatment is one of the discussions in that R.I.C.E. (Rest, Ice, Compress & Elevate) is always a go to.
This has to be known for every soccer player, parent and coach because this helps recover and reduce future injury.
In my experience in college and pro, most injured players ice and compress, but they don’t elevate.
Make sure you elevate if you can! It helps get the blood circulated and flowing out of the injured area.
One thing I liked doing and that was easy was to lay on the floor or massage table and put your leg on the wall.
If you are at home don’t put your dirty feet on a nice wall LOL. You can also lay on the couch or bed and put a pillow under your leg as you lay on your back as you elevate.
Put the pillow under your knee and foot, not just foot because it could end up causing your knee to lightly hyper-extend, causing discomfort.
Using a cold tub to treat sports injuries
Cold tub is great for any injury, but the lower legs are much easier to handle the cold water.
Ankle, knee, muscles in legs, back injuries respond well to cold tubs.
Things you can use are small buckets for ankle, trash bins [new/clean ones] for knee or legs, bath tub or cold tub for back or groin.
These injury-prone areas will heal faster when you take good care of them.
Depending on the age, depends on how cold the water should be. Teenagers and adults can handle water with ice, but younger kids 10-12 could just use cold water.
The first time I ever took an ice bath was in college. Never forget that because it’s so hard getting in ice water all the way to your stomach.
Groin injuries, hip or lower back is what will benefit most by getting in water that deep.
Different ways to ice the knee
With knee injuries it really helps to get your leg in ice water because you get the entire knee.
Using an ice bag is easier and used more often.
The best ice is the crushed ice because the bag can form around your leg.
The worst ice is the big ice cubes from the ice tray because they are so big that it’s hard to get the ice to press onto your knee.
So if all you have is the large cubes, put the ice cubes in a small towel and beat them on the floor to crush up the ice. Then pour the crushed up ice into a bag to wrap knee.
Be careful icing the knee too long, especially on the outside of the knee. Don’t go more than 10 minutes to be safe. I have gone 20 and a lot of adult players do, but again that is when the ice is on the front only or the inside.
I remember I had a trainer say when it’s numb it’s done, and then others say 20 minutes. I’m not telling you what to do, but to be careful and telling you my stories.
I am not a doctor, so first always consult with one.
Blister treatment for your feet
One injury that kids and adults get a few times, especially with new shoes, pre-season or Summer camps are blisters.
Check out how some amazing ways to take care of your feet and soccer shoes.
The two main spots of the feet that get blisters are the back of the heel, which is usually from new shoes.
It’s hard to call blisters injuries, but they are. During pre-season and tournaments these are injury-prone areas. Sometimes there is nothing to do except rest.
The other main part of the foot that gets blisters is the bottom of pad [ball of the foot] from camps or pre-season.
As soccer players we are always changing direction, so that part gets a lot of weight and friction.
There are a lot of soccer girls that don’t let the manicure ladies rub off their calluses. The hard callus protects them from getting blisters.
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