MAG Injuries and 13....life lessons.

[munchkin3]

DS...injured for most of the year....currently off apparatus while and old wrist fracture heals....patellar tendinitis in both knees. 13 yo, does not like to listen to DMom.

Went to our Pediatric Sports Ortho, and he gave him a general rude awakening....he basically told him that if Gymnastics is important to him, and he plans on continuing going forward, HE MUST learn to be MORE disciplined with the not so fun part.....stretching, stretching and MORE Stretching. He told him to do it 4 times a day. All the time.....while he puts on muscle mass he will become less flexible.....and if he loses flexibility, the injuries become catastrophic....simple.

he put it 100% on him....DO it...........thanks doctor!

Any suggestions on how to get a shortsighted teen to keep his longterm goals in mind??

 

[bogwoppit]

Good luck with that. My dd still has the same knee issue two years after it first showed up. She hates stretching, she ended up quitting gym due to the pain as she couldn't even walk up and down stairs by the time she was finished. Some kids are very compliant with things like stretching, others not so much,

 

[BlairBob]

Fear of god and a stick works well. God=coach. Tribal god of the gym.

Tell him he needs to lay off unless he wants to be a cripple. Once tendonitis turns into tendonosis, you are done. DONE.

You have to lay down the law with young guys. I know this well.

 

[profmom]

Can he do a lengthy stretching/conditioning routine at the gym during his regular practice times? That will both give him the time to do a lot, even if he's only there for half the time he would have been working out, and he'll be able to see what he's missing to keep the fire burning. As long as the coaches won't push him to do things he shouldn't be doing, this might help. My DD logged a LOT of hours of PT exercises at the gym.

As for the short-sight/long-term thing with teenagers, I really hear you. My oldest, who's not a gymnast, dearly wants to make his school's freshman soccer team next fall, but if he doesn't condition over the summer, he won't have a prayer. But it's always easier to say no to conditioning on any given day than yes. We have a plan. He's going to try to do it with two of his friends so that they can support each other, and when they are out of synch, I will do it with him. Can your son find a partner who wants to get stronger and more flexible, even if your son is doing harder stuff? I'd also encourage you to work with him to set a regular time of day for it.