Play Youth Sports But Learn to Be Safe
Forty years ago approximately 4 million boys and girls participated in high school athletics nationwide, 7.4% of which were girls. 1 Today this figure has nearly doubled to 7.6 million participants with 41% being girls. 1 For both genders the rate of participation continues to rise at an average rate of 45,000 athletes a year. The importance and benefits of participation in youth sports are well documented. With childhood obesity rates triple what they were a generation ago,
Know the Risks of Cheerleading and Be Safe
While cheerleading once involved leading cheers, modern cheerleading involves a highly athletic mix of dance and gymnastic skills, as well as complex stunt and pyramid maneuvers. With these advances, both the injury rates and the potential for severe injury have increased. Cheerleading accounts for more than 16,000 emergency room visits annually in the U.S. and more than half of the catastrophic injuries in female athletes. Cheerleading injuries are most common in competition
