Coaching young athletes can be very challenging.  Learning new motor skills, developing a complete understanding of the sport, teamwork, and performing under pressure are just a few of lessons taught by coaches to young athletes.  Combining these intentions with adolescent distractions, hormones, and constant interruptions during practice make the process of learning difficult at times.  Now, combine all these variables with one child that is hurt and you have a recipe for distraction.  What is a coach to do?  How do you determine when a child is good to get back on the field?  The parents are putting pressure on you because they want their child to play so what do you do?

The most important a coach can do is establishing communication.  Communicating with the athlete, parent, and doctor, trainer, or physical therapist is where the progress begins.  Lack of communication lends to sending a child back on the field too early or delays in the rehabilitation process.  As a therapist, I establish a very clear line of communication between the athlete and their parents.  This same methodology can be used by a coach to ensure that the right decisions are made with the right information.   As a coach, ask yourself the following questions:

·         What is the injury?  How bad is it?  What did the doctor say?

·         What is the normal process for getting back in the game with this particular injury?

·         Who is the athlete?  Are they driven?  Are they likely to do their rehabilitation properly or skip steps because they are impatient or bored?

·         To what degree does the injury affect performance?  Can a child with a sprained ankle still pitch a baseball?  Does tendonitis mean no throwing or just monitor?

This simple method of asking who, what, when, where, and why when it comes to injured athletes will ensure that a coach can establish an excellent communication that supports a positive environment for maintaining athlete’s sporting interesting while allowing healing.  Consider the following example:

                “A child sprains his ankle while playing soccer.  After going to the doctor, the child is revealed to have a high ankle sprain.  The child returns to the next practice and the coach asks the athlete and the child says he has an ankle sprain.  The coach, remembering from his days of injuries, thinks that in a week or so the child should be ready to return to practicing.”

                This example highlights a very important component of communicating properly to understand the injury.  The difference between an ankle sprain and a high ankle sprain is considerable in the healing process.  While the common ankle sprain can heal up in a week or two for a young athlete, a high ankle sprain may take as much as two months.  As a coach, be sure to ask the parents and the athlete, and if possible, ask for any information that the doctor wrote down.  With the right information at hand, you don’t have to be a medical practitioner to look up online reasonable guidelines for to address a particular injury.  The most important part is establishing good communication so the right decision is made with the most complete information.