A gymnast's hand rip after it has been treated using tea bags.

At our gym when one of the pre-team girls comes to us with her first “rip”, the coaches usually make a big deal about it, letting her know she is now an official gymnast. Seems silly, but rips from swinging bars is part of the sport of gymnastics. But once a gymnast has a rip, how do treat it?

• Have the gymnast go to the bathroom and wash her hands to remove any chalk and surface germs. Yes,it stings, but it still has to be done. Pat the rip dry with a paper towel.
• Have an adult carefully trim any excess skin using sterilized scissors and apply Neosporin or similar antibiotic ointment. Cover with a bandage and then wrap the bandage with athletic tape to keep the bandage in place. This should get the gymnast through the remainder of practice.
• Once at home, we swear by tea bags to reduce the pain and speed the healing of the rip. Prepare a cup of black tea using a tea bag according to the package directions. Remove the tea bag and place it in the freezer for a few minutes to cool. Apply the tea bag directly to the rip and leave it on there for 20 minutes or so. The tannic acid that occurs naturally in the tea is an amazing pain reliever! The tea bag will discolor the rip area, but only for a few days. It also helps speed the development of the new layer of skin.
• Over the next few days be sure to keep the rip area moisturized to prevent cracking and reopening of the wound. My daughter uses vaseline or her favorite lip balm – like Carmex or Blistex Daily Conditioning Treatment.
• During practice, cover the rip with a bandage and athletic tape or make a tape grip so your gymnast can continue training. It really is good practice for gymnasts to learn to swing bars with a rip because undoubtedly at some point in their gymnastics career they will get a rip right before a meet and need to know how to work through it.

The tea bag method is not the only way to treat rips, however, it is the one that most of the gymnasts in our gym use. You can also treat rips with Vitamin E applied directly to the rip, Neosporin + Pain ointment, and some gymnasts will tell you that Preparation H works well (since it contains medication for pain and to reduce swelling).

Once your gymnast is ready for grips – don’t worry, her coach will let you know when – she still may get rips.  For some girls, working bars with hand grips (I only recommend dowel grips) makes a big difference in their ability to swing bars and cut down on the number of rips.

According to The Australian,

Bright was training in the half-pipe at Aspen, Colorado, yesterday to prepare for this weekend’s Winter X Games, when she missed the landing on one of her standard tricks, a switchback 720 (double spin), and struck the back of her head on the ice floor of the bowl.

She was taken to Aspen Valley Hospital for precautionary scans which cleared her of any serious injury, but she has withdrawn from the X Games, which was to have been her last competition before the Olympics.

Bright played down the mishap as “a bit of a fall” and said it would not affect her preparation for the Winter Olympics.

Let’s hope she has a speedy recovery with no long term effects from that fall and can show off her crazy new skill, the “double cork” in Vancouver later this month.

Here is a great documentary piece on Torah Bright for Roxy where she talks about riding the “White Wave”, her hopes, dreams and her worst snowboarding injury.

Cheerleading used to be all about the cheers, the chants, the jumps and if you had a former gymnast on your team, the tricks. Now, there seems to be a greater emphasis put on the stunting, tumbling and more difficult tricks. Many of the high school cheerleaders are training on basketball courts, hallways and backyards as opposed to training facilities with appropriate matting, training aids (like trampolines and pits) or trained/certified coaches.

If cheerleading is going to continue to grow and become more of a “sport”, then it needs to have the same types of guidelines for training, coaching and safety in place like other scholastic sports. Every sport has its risks and kids can get hurt doing any sport, however, the numbers revealed in the report are definitely alarming and should send up flags that cheerleading as a high school and college sport needs to revamped. I’m not saying it needs to be eliminated – because at the high school and college level, I think it is pretty cool. They just need to re-evaluate the programs to try and reduce some of the risk factors.

What’s your take? Here are some additional articles on cheerleading injury statistics and safety:

• Sports Injury Research – Cheerleading Riskier than Football
• Cheerleading changed by injury
• Cheerleading Injury Statistics
• Cheerleading Safety

We had a tragic event happen in our community this week. One boy was killed and another was gravely injured after being struck by lightning as they walked off the baseball diamond.  The league had followed precautions and had put the game on a 30 minute delay – even though it wasn’t raining and only one smal bit of lightning had been seen in the area.  This was definitely a freak accident, but one that reminds us of the dangers of outdoor sports and inclement weather.

Review the following safety tips from the NCAA’s Lightning Safety Guidelines:

• Designate a person to monitor threatening weather and make the decision to remove a team or individuals from an athletic event.
• Monitor local weather reports each day before any practice or event. Be aware of potential thunderstorms.
• Know where a close safe structure or location is to the field or playing area.
• Awareness should be heightened at the first flash of lightning, clap of thunder, or other signs such as increasing winds or darkening skies, no matter how far away.
• Avoid using land-line telephones, except in emergencies. People have been killed while using land-line telephones during thunderstorms.
• Cellular or cordless phones are safe alternatives to a land-line phone, particularly if the person and the antenna are within a safe structure and if other precautions are followed.
• Safety experts recommend waiting 30 minutes after both the last sound of thunder and last flash of lightning before resuming athletic activities.

Play hard, but play safe this summer!!

Without getting to technical, but giving you a basic overview the stretching before activity camp of fans say that stretching before beginning the official workout help the muscles not only warm but elongate to improve the performance of the activity and prevent injury. Okay, most of us moms that were active in our younger days did this type of warm up and we are still here to tell the story, basically injury free.

The dynamic stretching camp says that the muscles become somewhat  sedated after you sit, and chat and stretch the muscles, therefore a dynamic stretch such as drills etc. get your muscles just as warm and elongated  in preparation for the workout as a static stretch as well, as getting them better prepared for ballistic , fast movements.  Static stretching has its place, but only at the end of a workout and end of a day as a pre-sleep stretch routine to help flexibility.  Which is very important for any athlete’s. If you e-mail me at Trackmom1@gmail.com, I will send you a copy of this pre-sleep routine.

Here’s my personal take on it. YES and NO.

An athlete is an individual and needs to be viewed as such. I believe that for the sake of time a dynamic stretch is a better use of the time and it keeps the kids head in the game or in this case the workout as a routine to become better at their chosen sport of interest. My husband, Coach Henry incorporates a nice static stretch of the large muscle groups within the dynamic stretching part of his warm- up (my idea). We both feel it serves the kids the best before they begin the training phase of the workout.

We do the same dynamic stretches and static stretches every work out. The rationale is to informing the body and the brain what is about to occur through repetition. Either a workout or rest.

I believe there is some truth to the fact of a sedated muscle (although stretched muscle) with a static stretch. Why sit or stand quietly when you need to begin the mental and physical pump up in practice or a sporting activity such as racing, jumping throwing or swimming to name a few.  I also believe that as an athlete comes to know her body and the way it should feel to perform properly.

Perhaps they need a bit of static, perhaps they need none, perhaps parents and coaches should be more open to new information at the same time not willing to throw all  the old.

No one has  the definitive on this very important part of the work out so that is where the coaching and parenting come in use your best informed judgment and your parent intuition. That’s what I always do in the end. It hasn’t failed me yet.

Get more great insight on injury prevention, nutrition, youth sports and of course track, at Dr. Lorraine Williams’ web site, TrackMom.com.

The following are some very good resources for learning more about girls, sports and knee injuries:

• Female athletes and ACL injuries – are they preventable?
• NCAA interactive site just for ACL injury education
• Girls can jump
• Study on the rate of knee injuries in boys and girls
• Highbeam research has links to quite a few articles on the topic of girls and knee injuries
• Girls make comeback from ACL injuries but at what price?
• Warrior girls
• Preventing ACL injuries in girls

And for those girls (like my daughter) who are aspiring surgeons or just want to know more about the way their sports body works, check out Edheads.org to perform a virtual knee surgery and learn more about knee injuries in general.

I have found an excellent source for pediatric braces and rehabilitation products called the Brace Shop.

Lorraine, aka Track Mom, just published a very comprehensive and helpful article on shin splints, what they are and how to prevent them.

Shin splints is a common term used for a half a dozen lower leg problems ranging from nerve irritations to tendinitis to stress fractures.  The most common type that is experienced involves the tearing away of the muscle tissue that attaches to the front of the lower leg.  The beginner runner and the runner that resumes training after a long lay off are most susceptible to this injury.  The connective sheath attached to the muscles and bone of the lower leg become irritated, resulting in a razor-sharp pain in the lower leg along the inside of the tibia or shin bone.

I wish I would have had some of this information at a younger age.

Runners are not the only athletes that develop shin splints. Gymnasts, soccer players, field hockey players, basketball and tennis players are among the athletes that deal with shin splints and similar injuries. Be sure to outfit your athlete in the proper gear and be sure to rest and ice at the first hint of pain.

While sports are great for bodies, there are times when the muscles aches, tendons throb, and the body generally aches. A very common over the counter topical cream can actually be deadly if not used properly.

The following story highlights a tragic, senseless death and there is no way to bring her back or to heal the family’s hurt.

Excessive Use of Topical Sports Cream Kills High School Girl

“Last Year a 17-year-old high school athlete died from accidentally using too much over-the-counter muscle cream. The creams are commonly used by millions of Americans to relieve pain in sore muscles and joints.

Arielle Newman, a star of the Staten Island high school track team, died because her body absorbed high levels of methyl salicylate, an anti-inflammatory found in sports creams including Ben gay and Icy Hot. Though commonly recommended for use by athletes, both exercise and heat can “accentuate absorption” of the drug, and chronic use is said to be more risky than one-time use”. Read the entire article here  New York Times June 10, 2007

Perhaps this story will remind us that drugs of all kinds need to be used in extreme moderation at best. Reading labels and paying attention to what actually in a product that you rub on your youth athlete or have him swallow in the name of general pain relief.

Who would ever think that an over the counter  topical application cream could lead to death? We are sometimes ignorant regarding drugs we purchase in the name of “health and healing” in the “Drug Store”, and ignorance is not always bliss.

My favorite rub is a homeopathic remedy, Traumeel. It comes in a gel or cream. It has no toxic ingredients and works wonderful. Traumeel has a natural anti-inflammatory ingredient called Arnica along with others. You can also purchase Arnica alone in a cream or gel form that works very well for helping the body heal itself naturally.

What is a concussion? According to Dr. Gwenn of Pediatrics Now:

Head injury can cause external injuries to the scalp or skull as well as internal injuries to the brain such as bruises, bleeding, and concussions. Any internal brain injury can be serious but concussions are the most common and can be the least obvious. A concussion occurs when the brain is shaken causing a temporary disruption in how the different nerves talk to each other, similar to a power surge at home. Symptoms vary and often include seeing stars, being dazed, blurred vision, nausea and occasionally amnesia. With more serious concussions, headache, vomiting, balance problems and changing levels of consciousness may occur. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to have a concussion without loosing consciousness and even minor head injury can cause concussions.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta recently discussed this study at his blog and wonders if girls are less protected physiologically than boys (who have bigger heads and tend to have stronger neck muscles) or whether they just report it more often?

Either way, head injuries are not to be taken lightly and in the case of an athlete hitting her head during training or competition, it is always best to err on the side of caution and seek medical treatment immediately.

Here are some additional articles on concussions in girls sports:

• Study shows girls more susceptible to concussions than boys
• Girls Soccer: Concussion Risks
• Kids and Head Injuries
• Female Athletes Bear Brunt of Concussions
• Girls Suffering More Concussions in High School Sports