Parent Playbook: Supporting Your Student-Athlete

As the school year kicks off and sports sea­sons begin, it’s essen­tial for par­ents and guardians to active­ly sup­port their young ath­letes. Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) Sports Med­i­cine Physi­cian Dr. Antho­ny Big­gs shares valu­able infor­ma­tion to help stu­dent-ath­letes suc­ceed both on and off the field.

Com­mon Sports Injuries

Q: What are the most com­mon sports injuries you see in young athletes?

Dr. Big­gs: The top five sports injuries I encounter are:

1. Ankle sprains
2. Osgood-Schlat­ter (Jumper’s knee) syndrome
3. Knee sprains and oth­er knee injuries
4. Ankle and wrist fractures
5. Head injuries

Q: How can par­ents help pre­vent sports injuries through diet and sleep?

Dr. Big­gs: Pay atten­tion to what your kids eat and drink, make sure they stay hydrat­ed, and enforce ade­quate sleep and rest for them, espe­cial­ly when they’re in sea­son. I always rec­om­mend kids eat most­ly home cooked meals and that par­ents remove smart­phones and oth­er hand­held elec­tron­ics that may inter­rupt sleep from their ath­letes’ rooms before they go to bed. Younger indi­vid­u­als need 9 to 12 hours of unin­ter­rupt­ed sleep per night, and old­er kids need 8 to 10 hours of unin­ter­rupt­ed sleep per night. 

Q: What role does rest and recov­ery play in pre­vent­ing sports injuries?

Dr. Big­gs: Many times, I’m inform­ing par­ents that, for exam­ple, their daugh­ter who par­tic­i­pates in league soft­ball, club vol­ley­ball, and trav­el­ing bas­ket­ball games dur­ing the sum­mer can­not also be doing strength and con­di­tion­ing ses­sions for each sep­a­rate sport and expect not to get an overuse type injury. We want par­ents (and coach­es) to under­stand and pro­mote appro­pri­ate rest and recov­ery inter­vals for ath­letes, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the ​“off-sea­son” and espe­cial­ly for those play­ing in mul­ti­ple sports. Telling ath­letes (and coach­es) ​“no” to restrict par­tic­i­pa­tion at times is one way par­ents can advo­cate for the health and well-being of their student-athletes.

Q: How can par­ents help their child man­age stress and men­tal health relat­ed to sports?

Dr. Big­gs: At lev­els before high school var­si­ty par­tic­i­pa­tion, train­ing con­sis­ten­cy and incre­men­tal skill devel­op­ment are much more impor­tant than win­ning. Allow­ing ath­letes the oppor­tu­ni­ty to grow their love for the game and respect for the process­es are required for improv­ing in their desired sport. 

I tell par­ents that kids have no con­trol over the tal­ent of their coach­es or the tal­ent of their team­mates. Too many kids are under pres­sure to win, pri­mar­i­ly because they per­ceive win­ning as the only mea­sure of suc­cess in sport. Because of this per­cep­tion, we’re see­ing younger kids pre­sent­ing with increased lev­els of stress, anx­i­ety and burn-out. These fac­tors then affect how ath­letes expe­ri­ence, describe, and recov­er from their injuries.

Care at QMG

QMG offers a Free Sports Injury Clin­ic, open five days a week, pro­vid­ing free injury eval­u­a­tions by an ath­let­ic train­er. No appoint­ment is nec­es­sary. For more infor­ma­tion, call (217) 228‑2323.

Hours: Mon­day – Friday
7 a.m. – 9 a.m.

Loca­tion: 1118 Hamp­shire, First Floor, Quin­cy, IL