Why I support the Brockton 6K

[Richard Ruquist]

Free Play May Help Athletes Avoid Injury

January 15, 2013 by UPI - United Press International, Inc.

PHOTOS.COM
ATLANTA (UPI) — Young athletes who play an organized sport had fewer
injuries if they also had free play such as pickup games, U.S.
researchers found.
Dr. Neeru Jayanthi and colleagues at Loyola University Health System
near Chicago tracked 891 young athletes. Participants included 618
athletes who sought treatment for sports injuries and 273 uninjured
athletes who came in for sports physicals.
Study participants included 124 tennis players, 74 of whom played
tennis exclusively.
Among single-sport tennis players, the ones who suffered injuries
spent 12.6 hours per week playing organized tennis and only 2.4 hours
per week in free play and recreation.
However, by comparison, the uninjured tennis players spent only 9.7
hours per week playing organized sports and 4.3 hours a week in free
play and recreation, even while having a similar total number of
weekly hours.
“The findings suggested more participation in a variety of unorganized
sports and free play may be protective of injury, particularly among
tennis players,” Jayanthi said in a statement.
Jayanthi presented the findings at the Society for Tennis Medicine and
Science and United States Tennis Association-Tennis Medicine and
Injury Conference in Atlanta.