Essential Tips for Preventing Sports Injuries

How to Prevent Injury in Sports

If you or your children play sports of any kind, it’s important to take certain preventative measures to ensure that sports injuries are avoided. Injury prevention is an imperative step that can mean the difference between a day of competitive fun, to spending hours at your local urgent care, or possibly experiencing years of chronic pain. As seen in these sports-related statistics, It’s certainly worth the additional time to make sure you are doing all you can to avoid a sports injury.

With the pain and inconvenience of a sports injury also comes certain confusion regarding whether or not to see a doctor, or even if a claim should be filed to seek compensation for your medical bills, time lost at work, or for your pain and suffering. With that being said, let’s proceed with trying to prevent those injuries in the first place.

Recommended Tips for Preventing Sports Injuries

Athletic injuries can have various causes such as a quick or sharp twisting of a certain body part like your back, ankle, or knee, or a forceful impact to the head, just to name a few. This can cause common on the spot injuries or physical ailments that gradually develop over the days and weeks immediately following the incident.

Safety guidelines should be put in place no matter what type of sports you or your loved one are participating in, whether it be hockey, lacrosse, football, soccer, rugby, basketball, skiing, or even cricket. No matter what the potential for injury your sport of choice may offer, prevention is the key to keeping you on top of your game. This is especially true with children during the winter months where conditions in Canada can sometimes be less than safe.

Let’s go over a few tips that can help you from becoming injured during your next game:

Know Your Game – Get Proper Training: It’s easy to feel you can jump into an unfamiliar sport and learn as you go, but in reality, it’s best to take some time beforehand to learn proper form and gain insight into any information that will keep you injury-free. This is best done with a qualified trainer, but if that option is not feasible, a friend that is well versed in the sport may be another alternative.
Keeping Safe with the Right Protective Gear: Ensuring that your gear not only fits properly but is also in good shape is essential to avoiding sports injuries. Items such as helmets, knee or elbow padding, special footwear or sports gloves should be worn when needed and sized according to your specifications for maximum protection.
Make Sure You are Adequately Hydrated: Getting and staying hydrated with the proper amount of fluids is important whether the sport is played during the cold winter months or sweltering summer time. Hydration is crucial for muscles to function properly and to avoid cramps. In addition to this, if you become dehydrated, you can experience dizziness, which will also increase your risk of taking on a sports injury. Be sure to always have a supply of water nearby and take breaks periodically to rehydrate.
Pay Attention to What Your Body is Telling You: Your body was designed to let you know when something is not right. In a sense, it has a keen warning system. If you start feeling pain that is not normally felt, then it would be wise to stop immediately to assess the situation, rest, or call it a day. Continuing can possibly lead to a sports injury that may become much worse than the initial pain.
Warm-Up and Cool-Down: Stretching your muscles before and after playing a sport can greatly reduce your risk of obtaining sports injuries and will maximize your athletic performance. Warming up increases blood flow to your muscles and gets them ready for activity, while cooling down helps loosen tight muscles, among other things. Abruptly stopping without a proper cool down can lead to dizziness or muscle injury.

Typical Signs that Indicate it’s Time to See a Doctor?

Sports-related injuries that only display symptoms such as a slight pain can indicate that a little home care will put you on the road to recovery. This can include resting the injured area, applying ice to reduce any swelling, compression if needed, and elevation to promote drainage of fluids.

There are some signs that make it clear that it’s time to seek medical attention. It’s important to be aware of your symptoms and seek medical attention to prevent your sports injury from worsening. Medical care may be needed for slight athletic injuries to severe cases such as obtaining a concussion.

Seek medical attention if you have any of the following symptoms:

Pain that extends past a few days or increased pain
Unable to place weight on a limb or not capable of walking
A suspected broken bone
A feeling of numbness or a “pins and needles” sensation
Extreme dizziness, slurred speech, or fainting
Confusion or apparent memory loss

Can I File a Claim for a Sports-Related Injury?

There can sometimes be a thin line as to who is responsible for a sports-related injury and there are many factors to consider when determining if the injured party has grounds for filing a case.

It could very well be the sports injury was accidentally self-afflicted with no blame to others, or there could be a responsible person, company, or group of individuals who may be to blame. All the factors that contributed to your injury could be assessed by an attorney to come to a reliable answer as to whether or not you should move forward with filing a sports injury claim.

We will be going over some situations where you may have a good case in regards to filing a sports injury claim.

Equipment or Gear Not Functioning Properly

This can sometimes be a straightforward case where a company or manufacturer is clearly to blame. Equipment that malfunctions or becomes unstable and week can cause serious injuries. This is especially the case in rough sports such as rugby, football, and hockey where the helmets or masks are defective and cannot protect the players effectively. This can apply to any sports equipment that is not functioning properly whether or not the sport is considered an injury risk game or not. Items such as skis, rollerblades, and the like are also included on this list.

Another Player is at Fault

This is where the “thin line” can come into play, when another player is being accused of being the cause of the sports injury. Sometimes, it can be viewed as “the nature of the game”. This is the case in rough sports where injuries can be expected. But there are cases where it’s clear that another player’s actions are deemed reckless or even intentional.

An intentional act can sometimes take place in highly competitive sports where a player puts someone in harms way on purpose. This may include striking a player out of anger, throwing a ball in such a way as to purposely hit another player, and so on. An experienced attorney will know if your claim that another player was at fault is indeed justifiable.

Improper Training or Coaching

There have been instances where trainers and coaches have been taken to court and lost due to their negligence. These cases included players being taught improper form or technique, and even the lack of proper supervision has been to blame. Such is the case when a high school student was injured during a football game and received 8 million with his claim of lack of supervision.

Injuries Obtained at a Sports Venue, School Grounds, or Even a Public Park

Every sport needs an area for the game to take place and if an injury occurs due to improper care of the location grounds, you may have a case. A child running during a school track meet trips due to uneven ground and breaks their ankle, a man playing football at a local park falls due to an unseen hole and breaks his leg, and so on. It’s wise to obtain an attorney as you may be going up against the city, state, or government depending upon the location of your sports injury.

Contact Conte & Associates if You Have Obtained a Sports-Related Injury

No matter how big or small your sports-related injury may be, if you feel another party may be at fault, we are here to assist you in making a strong case. You may be eligible for compensation for your medical bills, pain and suffering, along with a loss of wages from missed work. Let us assess your situation for you and take the proper actions on your behalf.