How can sports medicine extend the career of athletes?
Persuasive Essay
Cole Finkbeiner
Today, on average, a professional athlete retires at the age of 33 (“Professional Athletes Prepare for Life After Sports”). A longer career is very important for every athlete and the technology needs to keep up with the changing times. Sports medicine is growing rapidly and advancements in sports are constantly happening. In the past ten years, the length of an athlete's career has extended due to technological advancements. Each year this field grows. Specialists are working to try to make the career of athletes last as long as possible. Scientists are always conducting studies and trying new ideas. Professionals do this to try and better athletes and create a safer and better future for athletes. Because sports medicine is a growing field, more and more athletes have access to such services, providing athletes with cutting edge treatment, preventative medicine as well as training and nutrition regimes, all of which help prolong the careers of athletes today.
Studies into how athletes sustain injuries and methods to prevent injuries and help to extend an athlete’s careers. More college students are choosing this as their major and professional sports are becoming more popular. Thus, at a time when more athletes are choosing professional careers, the field of sports medicine is growing, giving athletes greater access to treatment and prevention (“Sports Medicine Physicians” 364). Stated in an article on physicians “Employment of sports medicine physicians is expected to increase by 20 to 28 percent from 2010 to 2020... The growth rate is likely to be fueled by the high demand from many professional sports teams, collegiate teams, and individual professional athletes” (“Sports Medicine Physicians” 364). People want to play these sports as a career and with that, athletes need to be able to be healthy. More people playing sports causes more sports related injuries. This causes the field of sports medicine to grow and find ways to treat and prevent each of the injuries. Training to become an expert in this field is not easy: “Their formal training requires an extensive educational process... Upon successful completion of these requirements, physicians must then satisfy the licensing requirements of the state in which they plan to practice” (“Sports Medicine Physicians” 364). There is an extensive training process each student will have to go through in order to start to enter the field of sports medicine. Because the qualifications for sports medicine are so rigorous, athletes now have access to medical care that includes the most extensive diagnostic, treatment, and preventive care to date, as “Technological advancements have provided physicians with the tools necessary to quickly and accurately diagnose athletic injuries... As the health of an athlete can mean the difference between a major victory or defeat” (“Sports Medicine Physicians” 364). The new advancements in technology have helped to create faster results and find out new injuries. The field is growing because of how much of an effect an injured player has on the game. An injured player can change the course of the entire game. If a player is injured it could be the difference between a win and a loss.
Not only does sports medicine work to treat injuries but, specialists work to prevent them from ever happening. The fewer injuries a player has, the more time the athlete can spend playing and improving. Specialist try to prevent injuries before they occur. When an athlete is training or playing in a game specialist and trainers work to help the athletes stay at their peak performance. Trainers also treat the injuries they receive in these activities. (“Sports Medicine Physicians” 363). Physicians have many tasks to complete, and each part is essential to extend an athlete's career. Nakase says in her article that “Most sports injury prevention training programs are composed of plyometric training, balance training, and agility training” (Nakase). Once the injury occurs athletes have to recover so specialist try to prevent injuries. All of this training is based around building an athlete's muscles and keeping them working. By focusing on keeping the body in top physical condition, the body is less prone to injury, thus, preventive measures in sports medicine is key to extending an athlete’s career. Sports medicine is a large field and does not only focus on one task. Injury prevention programs are becoming a major part of the sports medicine field.
Concussions can be career-ending injuries for professional athletes so preventing them and treating them is critical to the length of an athlete’s career. From football and hockey to soccer concussions have ended many of careers. Specialist have learned the downside to both sides of concussion treatment. They either keep you in a dark room or throw you right back into your routine, Both of these methods seem to be unsuccessful (Freedman 12). Concussions have been a problem for years, but until recently, not much was known about the effects of concussions on the brain. Research into how to best treat these head injuries includes: “Moderate aerobic exercise seems to be an effective treatment for adolescents after sport-related concussion” (Freedman 12). Different techniques are being tried to find out what helps the brain heal best. Specialists try many activities in order to find the best way to treat each patient. This is not only being done for concussions but for every injury. Specialist try to find the best recovery for each injury. Different exercises can help to prevent and recover from injuries. Sports medicine will continue to find the best ways to prevent and recover from injuries.
Over the years physicians have realized that training and training programs help athletes to become more resistant to injury. Numerous studies support the idea that consistent use of medically proven training programs are effective modes of prevention and recovery of athletic injuries :“Studies have been conducted on the effects of such training programs on various athletes… the results showed a decreased incidence of sports injuries regardless of sport activity level, sex, and age” (Nakase). This keeps the players on the field longer. For example, “The "11" is an injury prevention program that was developed with the support of the FÄdÄration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and aims to reduce the effect of intrinsic injury risk factors in soccer” (Nakase). Programs like “11” are put into place to extend the career of athletes. These studies are done to see the best way to prevent the injuries of athletes. “ The FIFA 11+provided a >40% reduction in the risk of injury. The training program aimed to improve core stability" (Nakase). As FIFA’s evidence suggests, training programs can greatly increase the chances of not having an injury and successfully recovering from an injury.As time progresses the training programs will advance and the chances of injury will go down. Not only does sports medicine focus on physical recovery and physical training, but also nutritional value, as “Good nutritional knowledge and adequate nutrient intake have been perceived as the key components that play a basic part in enhancing athletic performance” (Tawfik 1). Diet is another way athletes’ careers are extended. Specialists find the best diet for the player, by studying an athletes body and what the body does when eating certain foods. Thern the nutritionist creates a plan based on the results, thereby helping the body to feel healthier and last longer in the world of professional athletes (Tawfik 1).
Sports medicine is rapidly growing and advancing. Many studies are being done into helping these athletes prevent their injuries. Training programs can significantly lower the chance of getting an injury significantly. Over the last decade, the length of athletes’ careers has greatly increased. The advancements and technology made have helped to increase that number. There are many topics sports medicine covers. Physicians deal with everything that can benefit or harm an athlete. As time goes on physicians become better. Scientists do studies on different topics. New ideas arise into their heads on how an athlete can gain that extra edge on an opponent. How athletes can eat, stretch, or train differently. Specialists take these athletes and try new and different techniques on them for the good of other athletes and for the good of future athletes. Specialists try to see how athletes can get that extra minute in the game or another year in the professional league.
Annotated Bibliography
Freedman, Marian. "Aerobic exercise speeds recovery from concussion." Contemporary Pediatrics, Apr. 2019, p. 12. Gale In Context: High School, www.//link.gale.com/apps/doc/A585800104/SUIC?u=va_p_wakef_s&sid=SUIC&xid=9ca1d8f2. Accessed 4 Nov. 2019.
Sports medicine is advancing. With this comes new approaches. In this article, they study the effects of aerobic exercise on injured athletes. This will be helpful to my persuasive essay to give this example of how these new developments can help these athletes recover and play longer.
Nakase, Junsuke, et al. "Whole Body Muscle Activity during the FIFA 11+ Program Evaluated by Positron Emission Tomography." PLoS ONE, vol.8, no. 9, 2013, p. e73898. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, www.//link.gale.com/apps/doc/A478246399/OVIC? u=va_p_wakef_s&si=OVIC&xid=ed8ca495.
Here is outlined a program of full muscle activity. This is a program to help the recovery of athletes. This is another development in sports medicine that I can use as an example in my essay to show that people are trying to find better ways to recover, and they do affect the athletes.
“Professional Athletes Prepare for Life After Sports.” Voice of America, www.voanews.com/usa/professional-athletes-prepare-life-after- sports.
This article investigates the average age a professional athlete retires. They look to see how that number has become bigger over the years. This is very useful to me because I need to see when these athletes retire and how it has become later.
"Sports Medicine Physicians." Career Information Center, edited by Kristin B. Mallegg and Joseph Palmisano, 10th ed., vol. 8: Health Science, Macmillan Reference USA, 2014, pp. 363-366. Gale In Context: High School www.//link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3723700422/SUIC?u=va_p_wakef_s&sid=SUIC&xid=b2bfed27. Accessed 4 Nov. 2019.
This article talks about the overall position of sports therapists. I found this article interesting because of the facts it provided on what they do. This gives me some general ideas to put forward in my essay and provide background knowledge.
Tawfik, Safaa, et al. "Patterns of Nutrition and Dietary Supplements Use in Young EgyptianAthletes: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Survey." PLoS ONE, vol. 11, no. 8, 2016, p. e0161252. Gale In Context: OpposingViewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A460
879964/OVIC?u=va_p_wakef_s&sid=OVIC&xid=889cf9c7. Accessed 6 Nov. 2019.
A study was done to see how important the diet of athletes really is. They go over certain items such as fast food and sports drinks this could help me to show that diet is important. Athletic trainers help with diet and this helps everyone throughout their life. It also helps athletes to play longer.