<p>my H hasn’t had a knee replacement- but he did have a couple screws put in, after his 40 year old body, thought he could go over a jump that as a 20 year old wouldn’t be a problem </p>
<p>I have some problem with my knees, but I always have- genetically I have very loose ligaments & have to train to build the muscle to support them ( I also dont run)
low impact sports however- don’t bother me.
I really want to take up rowing, I am encouraged by those in their 80s who are still competing 
<a href=“http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/281-08092006-695424.html[/url]”>http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/281-08092006-695424.html</a></p>
<p>But Art, if you plan to run for a lifetime, you should not be doing it on pavement. Good shoes & good surfaces will prevent injuries. ACL injuries in women are tougher to prevent, but every serious basketball playing female should be doing strengthening exercise to avoid it. That’s what I mean by sensible.</p>
<p>OK so like mini I have to come to the defense of football. First, there are more injuries in basketball than football. But as far as the coolness aspect- it is more than outweighed by the sheer difficulty, rigor, blood sweat and tears of the day to day grind of practice. On my son’s hs football team, the kids who came out just to put the uniform on didn’t last long (like not past the first week). You really have to love the game to stick with it; there are a ton of ways to be cool at your school without playing football. Football taught my son discipline, courage, and loyalty- not that you can’t learn those things in other ways.</p>
<p>As for Little League baseball, there are leagues where things have gotten out of hand. We were lucky to find a good coach/team. At the minor level and below, it should be all about teaching fundamentals. At the major level (around 6th grade), it gets a little more competitive but is still about learning. But at about that time, the coaches do start letting some kids play more than others, mostly for safety sake (you don’t put a novice at short, for instance). Before that, though, the kids should be learning all the positions, learning how to hit, run, steal, and playing equal time. Spitting?? Maybe seeds… </p>
<p>My heart would swell with pride if my sons were to go on to become volunteer LL coaches. They’ve learned under the best, and it’s up to people like them to carry the torch and teach another generation our national pastime.</p>
<p>I could very well be overreacting – I am not athletic. I was awkward in middle and high school and I now just walk, hike, kayak, swim. My husband is the same – not athletic, no team sports. </p>
<p>I see so many articles on injuries, it can be overwhelming! Plus – for many sports, the equipment needed to make it safer or less harmful can be very expensive. We are very limited on money, so that is a factor. We did take our son to get some shoes for track (he has the flattest feet you have ever seen) and they were $100! quite a shock for our budge. Plus – if our son was ever injured, I am not sure how good the medical care would be. both our kids are on the state medical plan and I don’t think they pay for special sport orthopedic treatment.</p>
<p>I will keep the comments in mind. My younger son definitely enjoys competitive team sports (unlike the rest of the family – although we like to cheer).</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to degrade football – although I did not participate in team sports, I do think that the lessons they teach are very valuable. I encouraged both my kids to do team sports (actually required it for my oldest – hence the horrible baseball experience). I am just a little overwhelmed by the competitiveness, the injuries and the costs. I think our best solution is to just look at each sport carefully for a good fit. as far as one of the reasons for playing football is to be cool – I didn’t mean that being cool was a major reason for playing football – that is why my son wanted to play! he said that the uniform looked neat and kids would think he was cool. Another reason I don’t think he was all that serious. His school may add a football team next year and I will rethinking my decision to allow him to play – depending on the coaching and equipment and stuff.</p>
<p>As far as my older son’s baseball team experience – I know that was out of the norm. I loved little league and my younger son had a great experience. My older son just ended up on two teams with horrible coaches, kids and parents. I could tell when we attended the games that our team had problems – especially when the parents of the kids on the other team were cheering for my son because his team was treating him so badly!</p>
<p>Another thing- there are so many ways to be athletic without playing in an organized league. My kids surf (we live on the east coast), water ski, play tennis and raquet ball at the courts across the street, play pick up basketball (we’ve had a hoop outside since they were 4/5), golf, swim (we have a pool), fish, camp, lift weights at the local Y…there are all kinds of things to do that don’t involve the rat race called organized youth sports.</p>
<p>doubleplay – very true! But I do have to say, my youngest really enjoys the team aspect and the competitiveness – something my older son could care less about. Maybe the key is to keep the competitiveness at a manageable level.</p>
<p>The only reason people think gymnastics is more dangerous is because they aren’t exposed to it below the elite level (Olympics). Obviously, or maybe we’d get a reaction other than “oh, are you going to the Olympics?” LOL yeah me and the other THOUSANDS of girls my age doing relatively high level gymnastics. If you look at the elite level of ANY sport, at least any relatively impactive one, there will be injuries, some relatively serious. </p>
<p>The truth is, the worst injuries mainly belong to cheerleading and football. These are dangerous sports. I would have severe reservations about putting my son in football and relatively few with gymnastics. I know, geez, how many gymnasts, and I never hear of these concussions, overheating, fatalities like with football. At the HIGH SCHOOL level even. But it’s boys, so apparently no one cares. I could seriously say I would have issues, after watching that MTV show about the HS football. I wouldn’t be okay with those practices. I’m not saying the gymnastics world is perfect, but most people don’t really know what they’re talking about. Even now, look at Alicia Sacramone at Brown. She’s perfectly normal and healthy, competing NCAA and looking towards '08 O’s. Gymnastics has changed a lot in the last 10-15 years and even before, what you saw was only the tip of the iceberg, a relative fraction. There are injuries in gymnastics but I see people with sprained ankles from soccer. A lot of times at the lower levels, it’s almost a self fulfilling prophecy, it’s like a minor injury you could get on the street but there’s this image of “ohhh gymnastics, they’re killing these girls.”</p>
<p>And I think to outsiders looking in, gymnastics is strange. This is understandable. Most people can’t comprehend. Even I couldn’t tell you what it is about gymnastics that causes people to love harder and fall out farther than with other sports. I see a lot of fans who still don’t, can’t really understand. it’s a culture, like learning a second langauge. You’re never a native speaker. But gymnastics, for some, is a wonderful sport. I wouldn’t force my kids, but I’d have no reservations.</p>
<p>StickerShock, please send your comment about not running on paved surfaces to my local area parks depts., who seem to be intent on creating only paved multipurpose trails for biking/rollerblading/etc. 
I often find myself running around in circles (literally) on H.S. tracks or driving several miles to go for a run on a softer trail on weekends, which kind of seems against the whole purpose of exercise, darnit.</p>
<p>Oh, and sorry for misinterpreting your hockey comment earlier. Unfortunately, Minn. has moved in much the same direction in terms of the sport becoming very organized.</p>
<p>Princedog, you realize that you just cited a MTV “reality” show (using that term very loosely) about a particularly insane H.S. football program in support your contention that football is a particularly injury-prone sport, right?!</p>
<p>No, not that for the injury part - they didn’t seem to have any severe injuries. Just for the practices part. There are actual statistics that show cheerleading and football are more dangerous than gymnastics. Cheerleading esp more so than football, that really freaks me out, they have the most catastrophic injuries. it’s really disturbing. It doesn’t have to be that way, but there’s no national main governing body, little regulation. Cheerleading is going to have to change, it can’t continue on this path. Although NCAA put severe restrictions on stunting after the incident last year, but it’ll take more along those lines.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.momsteam.com/alpha/features/health_safety/most_dangerous_youth_sports.shtml[/url]”>http://www.momsteam.com/alpha/features/health_safety/most_dangerous_youth_sports.shtml</a></p>
<p>This is the closest I care to find, obviously not the best or most recent but much more is to be had. NY Times just did a cheerleading article with the whole rundown there. Cheerleading and football have the most collegiate injuries. Obviously we need percentages to make any statements because I’m sure more kids do basketball than gymnastics, but I think it’s fairly obvious by observation that football is at least as injury prone and probably has more potential for disaster than gymnastics. Actually under the gymnastics umbrella, I see changes ahead for competitive trampoline, there’s going to be a movement towards inground tramps, it’s too dangerous otherwise. Too much height and rotation. There’s already been some problems.</p>
<p>The only reason people think gymnastics is more dangerous is because they aren’t exposed to it below the elite level (Olympics). Obviously, or maybe we’d get a reaction other than “oh, are you going to the Olympics?”</p>
<p>actually the reason why my impression is gymnastics is more stressful on the body than need be, is from watching older Ds friend who was on a gymnastics team in 2nd grade & broke her arm twice from doing things, that from the sounds of it, she shouldnt have been doing at her young age
( this was at THE reputable gymnastics academy)</p>
<p>& from a soccer team mate of my younger Ds, who also wanted to lightly participate in gymnastics at her high school, and although had already been injured once that season ( from gymnastics) and hadn’t been able to play soccer, while she was trying to recover and lightly resumed practice, her coach made her practice past quitting time and she reinjured herself, putting her out for the rest of the year for any sport.</p>
<p>IMO team sports aren’t as stressful on individual athletes- both physically and mentally</p>
<p>I guess you’d have to know the “per capita” injury rate per sport. I’d guess cycling or downhill skiing… I’d also guess that running would be up there, just from personal experience. Almost everyone I know who runs on a consistent basis has some chronic knee, ankle, or foot pain.
Anyone have per capita stats? That would be a much more useful piece of info to know before deciding the actual personal risk of playing a particular sport.</p>
<p>I expect you probably risk more injury if you are good
by that I mean, you may be more likely to have a coach who is excited about the possiblities, and pushes harder than they perhaps would with an athlete who is participating for the fun of it.</p>
<p>My Ds aren’t disciplined enough to train as much as they should- which also may set them up for injury-
I think trainers are learning more about what works, and less likely to encourage athletes to overstress themselves in general though- given recent research on how muscle is built</p>
<p>Definitely a tie between conditioning and injury, as well as warm-ups/stretching, or lack of, and injury. Almost all the injuries that my sons sustained in sports resulted from a lack of proper stretching beforehand (hamstring/ankle injuries during sprints or long jumping), or after-game care (such as icing down a pitching arm), or insufficient conditioning (too many pitches early in the season). There is a tendency for young folks to not take stretching beforehand seriously. There is a tendency for young players in certain sports not known for danger (like baseball or track) to not take conditioning seriously. Maybe that is why football does not have the high rates of injury one would suspect. Because it is considered dangerous, coaches go to extremes with warming up, exercising, conditioning, weight-training, pushups, windsprints, etc. MONTHS before the season even begins.</p>