The growing involvement of children in organized sports and fitness has resulted in more and newer types of injuries. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that 4 million children receive treatment in hospital emergency rooms each year because of sports injuries. The commission estimates that another 8 million are treated by family physicians for these injuries. Sports are the most frequent cause of injury for both male and female adolescents.
Most injuries occur in practices rather than in games.
Organized sports has a 20 percent re-injury rate that is attributed to inadequate rehabilitation and returning to play too soon. The lack of coaching education has been identified as a reason many sports injuries occur. Ninety percent of the coaches in the U.S. have never taken classes designed to enhance their knowledge of the sport they are coaching. Different sports pose different risks, and injuries of children differ from those of adolescents. The number and severity of those injuries differs with the level of competition.