Remember when you first got your license?  You spent several months with your parents getting yelled at, making hard right turns, ignoring stop signs, and maybe almost running over a little old lady.  Through practice and careful oversight you were able to pass your test and get on the road.  Often times you would break the rules, maybe drive too fast or roll through a stop sign, but you knew if you did something too wrong either your parents would take away the car or the law would make your life miserable.

If you sped once probably wasn’t a big deal but regularly ignoring all the “rules of the road” could increase the chances of getting in a serious accident.

Now, let’s imagine that same situation is correlated to the sports activity of today.  It would be equivalent to your young athlete driving off to their test with their seatbelt off, blasting the radio, driving 80 in a 20 zone, texting while driving with the knees, going through two stop signs and a red light while all along you are standing by a cheering them along the way!

The problem with sports injuries are often the consequences are not immediate, they aren’t usually a wreck.  The build slowly over time, analogous more to never changing your oil and your engine breaks down day by day as you ignore the warning signs.  There are no “rules of the road” in sports.  Our culture is pushing harder and harder to get those speed limits well over 100 mph and remove stop signs in dangerous areas.  As a parent, you have to be vigilant and be that lurking officer.  Be aware of the consequence of "not reading the warning signs” or ignoring recommendations of the medical community to “slow down” will only increase the chances of a catastrophic accident or a car that is so broke it can never be fixed.