As an Osteopath with 3 active under teenage kids, I have the invaluable experience of watching my kids develop physically while playing a number of sports: tennis, swimming, ballet, lacrosse, basketball and nippers.
In fact I’m poolside now at 5.50am in a chilly Melbourne Monday morning. Brrrr!
At 12 years old our eldest boy is swimming more than 30km a week, plus basketball and nippers.
30km! Some would say that’s a lot for a 12 year old, especially considering that my eldest is not in the least bulked up with muscle.
How has he got there?
It’s a progression, a build, to get to this point, and it’s a path that the body has to take to accommodate the wants of its owner. He has had some aches and pains and they will always happen when loading the body, but he has never had a major injury and there are a couple of reasons for this…
????Management/ treatment of past major issues and the recording or remembering of them. You would not believe how many people forget a broken bone or an operation!
????Then there is the ‘dad, my arm hurts here ????’ scenario, whereby we immediately nip the problem in the bud with a treatment.
These 2 things are imperative in the longevity of playing sport, and having success in the sport as injuries mean a training and competition halt.
Among other minor events involving prams and floors, or the ‘walking into a pole’ incident at Darling Harbour, at 5 years old he fractured his left tibia and at 9 snapped his left upper arm. I have these two events stamped in my memory, as a parent, but as an osteopath seeing a new patient in front of me, knowing the major and minor traumas that body has gone through including major growth periods, goes a long way to understanding the body and setting the right course of action so that target 100m time is met, time and time and time again!
Now it’s school holidays it’s a great time to books the kids in when they would normally be at school!
Now, where are my woollen gloves and coffee?