STOP Sports Injuries

The deve­lo­p­ment of STOP (Sports Trau­ma and Ove­r­use Pre­ven­ti­on) Sports Inju­ries was initia­ted by the Ame­ri­can Ortho­pae­dic Socie­ty for Sports Medi­ci­ne (AOSSM) in ear­ly 2007. Mem­bers of the Society’s Board of Direc­tors, inclu­ding STOP Sports Inju­ries co-cam­paign chair and renow­ned ortho­pae­dic sur­ge­on, James R. Andrews, MD, deci­ded that the issue of ove­r­use inju­ries in young ath­le­tes was beco­ming a cri­ti­cal issue for its mem­bers to address. The Board estab­lished a stee­ring com­mit­tee to inves­ti­ga­te what types of acti­vi­ties and mate­ri­als nee­ded to be deve­lo­ped and in late 2009, the plan­ning and fund­rai­sing efforts began in ear­nest with our renow­ned orga­niza­tio­nal part­ners, inclu­ding the Ame­ri­can Aca­de­my of Ortho­pae­dic Sur­ge­ons, the Ame­ri­can Aca­de­my of Pedia­trics, the Natio­nal Ath­le­tic Trai­ners’ Asso­cia­ti­on, the Ame­ri­can Medi­cal Socie­ty for Sports Medi­ci­ne, SAFE Kids USA, the Pedia­tric Ortho­pae­dic Socie­ty of North Ame­ri­ca, and the Sports Phy­si­cal The­ra­py Sec­tion. The­se orga­niza­ti­ons shared AOSSM’s con­cern about the increase in youth sports inju­ries and came tog­e­ther under the com­mon goal to STOP Sports Inju­ries.

The com­pre­hen­si­ve public out­reach pro­gram focu­ses on the importance of sports safe­ty-spe­ci­fi­cal­ly rela­ting to ove­r­use and trau­ma inju­ries. The initia­ti­ve not only rai­ses awa­re­ness and pro­vi­des edu­ca­ti­on on inju­ry reduc­tion, but also high­lights how play­ing safe and smart can enhan­ce and extend a child’s ath­le­tic care­er, impro­ve team­work, redu­ce obe­si­ty rates and crea­te a lifel­ong love of exer­cise and healt­hy acti­vi­ty. Our mes­sa­ge unders­cores the pro­blems of ove­r­use and trau­ma and empha­si­zes the exper­ti­se of our coali­ti­on of experts.

The STOP Sports Inju­ries edu­ca­tio­nal initia­ti­ve includes public ser­vice announce­ments, pos­ters, brochures/fact sheets, elec­tro­nic news­let­ter and an inter­ac­ti­ve web­site and other online out­reach. The pro­gram will achie­ve a nati­on­wi­de impact through a varie­ty of media out­lets, cor­po­ra­te and indi­vi­du­al part­ner­ships. Howe­ver, local, grass­roots out­reach is the key to the campaign’s suc­cess.

STOP Sports Inju­ries wants to be sure that you have all the infor­ma­ti­on you need to keep kids in the game for life. Whe­ther you are an ath­le­te, coach, health­ca­re pro­vi­der or parent, we have the sports inju­ry pre­ven­ti­on tips and tools to make sure safe­ty is your first prio­ri­ty.

STOP Sports Inju­ries is geared towards pro­vi­ding gui­dance on healt­hy and safe ath­le­tic par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on and should not be con­side­red a repla­ce­ment for spea­king with your phy­si­ci­an, ath­le­tic trai­ner or other qua­li­fied health­ca­re provider.