Long Term Repercussions of Sports

[Wannabebowhuntr]

This is cool to see, my exact feelings on this topic. I did motor cross (had some bad wrecks), baseball, only 1 year of football thank God, and a lot of general jacka**ery. I also am a heavy equipment mechanic so I have an active and physical job. I’m hoping to get into something easier on the body in the next few years, don’t want to trash my body for a job. Outside of work I put quite a bit of time into lifting weights and putting work into keeping my knees and shoulders feeling good. I’ve also swapped switch weight mods on my bow and am shooting just over 60lbs. I shot 65-70+ for the last few years and decided to drop to 60 for the sake of longevity and see how things go, really liking it so far. If I ever do have kids I’ll keep them from making the same mistakes I did. I feel for you OP, I’ve got some of your same pains of regret. Fortunately I grew up pretty quick and started to prioritize the important things. And I just wasn’t good enough at sports to keep going anyways lol.

 

[Dos Perros]

It's a balance, right? I want my kids to get hurt, feel pain, and sometimes learn to tough through things. But I don't want those things to impact them for the duration of their lives. I certainly don't want serious injury of any kind.

As an example, if my boy were playing baseball and he gets plunked in his lower back, I would prefer him to suck it up and take his base. Similar with other bruise/contusion type injuries. Structural injuries to muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones...those need to be fully healed (or damn near, understanding sometimes there is lingering soreness or tightness) before resuming activities.

 

[Mtnmilsurp]

I ran NCAA D1 cross country and track in college. At age 46 the only lingering effect I have is a daily 5-7 mile running habit. Any injuries I had in college were short-term and as I've gotten older I've learned to continue in the sport and be less and less injury prone by taking better care of my body. I haven't had any kind of injury for the last 10 years of running 45-50 miles a week.

Now my kids are choosing to specialize in running (from broad backgrounds in other sports) as they enter high school and its a lot of fun to race against them and hold them off as long as I can. I really left it up to each kid to choose which sports to keep doing and what to down-select to and when. I'm glad they are choosing a "lifetime" sport.

 

[grfox92]

My children can play any sport they want. Except for football.

Too much research pointing to even adolescent football leading to TBI. Many people play and have no problems. I let my kids do plenty of other dangerous stuff. TBI is not something I will risk with my kids.

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[2531usmc]

My boys play golf! There is so much that can be learned from playing competitive golf in that you are both an individual and a part of a team. It's a grind playing in the elements for 6 hours against your opponent while at the same time carrying on a friendly conversation. It teaches you a lot about mental and physical toughness, controlling your emotions, working under pressure, etc. Best part is it's non contact, so the biggest injury that we see are blisters on your feet! Some players over do it and end up with back injuries, but golf has been great for us.

Golf is also a lifetime sport. It can keep you outside and active into your 70s

 

[NRA4LIFE]

If I could go back in time I wouldn't have wrestled. Many dislocated fingers that now are all disfigured, both my shoulders are screwed up, my knees suck, etc.

 

[GreyBeck]

sports have risks but keeps them out of trouble and situations that have much higher risks. I had to give up sports to work once HS started and regret it. while I have many aches of age from playing hard and trying to stay active and fit, I take the pain over being a spectator. I've made it so my kids don't have to work - their job is their grades and that takes priority. After that, you play a sport or you get a job. Both have chosen to do 2 sports in HS that are overall safer and healthy - swimming and lacrosse. When you spend 2-4hrs a day swimming 5-6days a week they don't have much energy to get into trouble. And physical health = mental health.

 

[Augie]

It's a balance, right? I want my kids to get hurt, feel pain, and sometimes learn to tough through things. But I don't want those things to impact them for the duration of their lives. I certainly don't want serious injury of any kind.

As an example, if my boy were playing baseball and he gets plunked in his lower back, I would prefer him to suck it up and take his base. Similar with other bruise/contusion type injuries. Structural injuries to muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones...those need to be fully healed (or damn near, understanding sometimes there is lingering soreness or tightness) before resuming activities.

I agree, there is a difference between being hurt and being injured. If you have some bumps and bruises then they need to learn perseverance. However when someone is injured and it's usually pretty obvious when that's the case they need yanked and rehabed.

 

[WCB]

Played hockey from when I was 5yrs old into college. Baseball I stopped playing in 9th grade. 2 years of Football. 1 year Lacrosse. I luckily have only minor injuries (broken fingers, nose 3x, fairly mild tear in my quad (played the playoffs 6 games wrapped from just below my ribs down to my ankle on my right leg.

I have seen broken arms, legs, broken backs, collar bones, concussions, broken orbitals, jaws, etc. Saw one kid get the inside of his leg cut so bad by a skate they had to delay the game 20minutes to clean out the bench and shave the ice where he bled (clipped his artery). But this is all over a 15ish year hockey career playing probably on average 80-90 games a year.

Sports therapy, training, and understanding of injuries is way beyond even what we had when I graduated h.s. in 2004. Also, the rules in some of these sports is almost laughable how protected players are. Most if not all of my coaches, trainers, etc were the "are you hurt or injured?" mindset. If there was risk of further injury or risk you were not cleared. Broken fingers etc. tape them and if you can and want to you were allowed to play.

My opinion is you can not bubble wrap your kids. Out of dozens and dozens of guys I grew up playing with and against that I know fairly well, only a couple have things that really still bother them from sports related injuries and none are "major" where it effects standard of living. I know more people that have been in boating, snowmobile, 4 wheeler accidents when we were younger that have bigger issues than anyone I grew up playing sports with who the majority at least played into college and some professionally. Now we are all just getting to 40yrs old so things may change. My daughter who is 4 asked to Mutton Bust at rodeos this year. She did it 6 or 7 times and loved it. Saw a 13year old girl win the Jr. Bull riding at a rodeo and asked if she could try that when she got older I said "100% ...when you get older and if you want to get on a bull, you can".

My biggest problems with my body are my back and neck. Partially attributed to contact sports...but started after years of packing out animals on my back guiding and hunting and also riding horses. Not hunting would fair better on my body at this point than sports.

 

[PlumberED]

I did not play organized sports as a kid because my momma didn’t us boys to get hurt. I thought she was being silly at the time, but now I can see the wisdom in her actions. Many of my friends suffer with sports injuries, mostly with their knees it seems. I have enough trouble trying to deal with back injuries from being a plumber, I’m glad I didn’t play organized sports. I can see some of the benefits of participating in sports but we didn’t push our kids into them.

 

[JackOfAllTrades]

Any sport can cause bodily injuries long term, its just a matter of if they get healed/fixed before they become a problem. In that case, may as well play the funnest ones, football and hockey.
From OP's post, what else could be expected after going through so many injuries, if he had retired after the first 3 major setbacks he would probably be pretty good now.
All Im saying is that just not playing through bad injuries, and knowing when to hang it up will solve most problems, but still allow for a lot of fun.

 

[Augie]

sports have risks but keeps them out of trouble and situations that have much higher risks. I had to give up sports to work once HS started and regret it. while I have many aches of age from playing hard and trying to stay active and fit, I take the pain over being a spectator. I've made it so my kids don't have to work - their job is their grades and that takes priority. After that, you play a sport or you get a job. Both have chosen to do 2 sports in HS that are overall safer and healthy - swimming and lacrosse. When you spend 2-4hrs a day swimming 5-6days a week they don't have much energy to get into trouble. And physical health = mental health.

I've said it and I'll say it again, sports are great and wouldn't discourage them especially from those that promote health and well being. There are many great benefits to being on an athletic team, but certain sports like wrestling, football and others encourage playing through injuries leading to real life altering pain for years long after they are done with the sport. Even if kids want to wrestle or play football that's well and fine, but coaches, parents and athletic trainers need to make sure kids are encouraged to perform while having real injuries to do things that are knowingly detrimental to their health.

 

[Augie]

Any sport can cause bodily injuries long term, its just a matter of if they get healed/fixed before they become a problem. In that case, may as well play the funnest ones, football and hockey.
From OP's post, what else could be expected after going through so many injuries, if he had retired after the first 3 major setbacks he would probably be pretty good now.
All Im saying is that just not playing through bad injuries, and knowing when to hang it up will solve most problems, but still allow for a lot of fun.

I won't disagree in any way that hanging it up way earlier would have been the best choice, but to play devils advocate as a kid you are pressured into decisions without knowing the consequences. My mom was a single mother raising me who never played sports, she badly wanted me to play sports as it would be my only opportunity as potentially getting a college education which she wanted me to have considering our financial situation in life. Hanging it up just wasn't the option at the time due to the success I was having, though knowing what I know now would have been my choice even if it meant not going to school.

 

[Jaker_cc]

32 years old here. 6 sport athlete since 7th grade. Played baseball in college and had a football scholarship also but stuck to baseball. My body is a wreck. People look at me like I’m 50 years old sometimes because of the way I move. I loved it at the time, but I don’t think it was worth the wear and tear on my body.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

And just when you think golf is a sedentary sport, I was playing a practice round and my brother and a couple others were right in front of us. One of those guys took a practice swing and dislocated a knee. That was gruesome.

 

[BugleMeTimber]

Hurt my left shoulder in high school football. Had surgery on it at 35. Tore again at 37 and still not fully healed at 38. Will fully support my daughter with whatever sports she chooses but will be extremely cautious and promote open communication on injuries and to not hide them.

 

[jmez]

I played sports through college. Still active with cross training type lifting. Turned 53 this year.

I played baseball, football and wrestled through high school. Could have wrestled or football in college. I chose football, played Div 1.

I have some injuries, aches and pains. So does every other 53 year old that I know. I have zero regrets and wouldn't change a thing. I have 4 boys. I actively encourage them to play multiple sports but don't force them. They all play baseball, wrestle and football currently.

There is hurt and there is injured. If your hurt you play. If your injured you don't. Pretty simple.

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[Bluefish]

Now 55 and played soccer from 8-18. Road raced motorcycles 93-02. Snowboarded from 87-05 For the most part my body is in good shape. My concern is head injuries. I can’t count my concussions on two hands. The last big one caused some long term damage to my math skills. Not all were sports related. Would I do it differently knowing what I know now? Not sure.

with that said, I would not have a kid play football. Maybe hockey even though I played rec league for a few years. Risk of head injury is high even with the improved equipment.

hunting and shooting sports have their own issues as well. Even today most people have a poor understanding of how impact noise is damaging to hearing and how to protect yourself. I see too many kids at the range with poor fitting hearing protection Or not enough protection. They are doing damage that won’t be undone. I also watch fellow hunters say, it’s just one shot, what’s the big deal, then shoot 3-12 shots per year. Then wonder why they can’t hear well.

I do think kids need to do something competitive. They need to learn there is one winner And if that’s not you, work harder. People who have competed understand what it takes to be better.

 

[Augie]

I played sports through college. Still active with cross training type lifting. Turned 53 this year.

I played baseball, football and wrestled through high school. Could have wrestled or football in college. I chose football, played Div 1.

I have some injuries, aches and pains. So does every other 53 year old that I know. I have zero regrets and wouldn't change a thing. I have 4 boys. I actively encourage them to play multiple sports but don't force them. They all play baseball, wrestle and football currently.

There is hurt and there is injured. If your hurt you play. If your injured you don't. Pretty simple.

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I agree there is a difference between hurt and injured, but what I have seen all too often and experienced is coaches and parents pushing kids to play even when they are actually injured because of ego. I'm happy you and your boys all seem to be making it out healthy.

 

[Jimmy]

Someone once said, "livin's dangerous, ain't for the faint of heart."


I mean, I never played official organized sports, and I still got hurt.

Broken wrist, several sprained arms, dislocated ankle and torn ligaments, stitches in my forhead, punched a hole in my lower lip and got stitches, hurt back in high school, stitches in leg, list goes on.