Are We Praising Athletes Who Are More Likely To Get Injured?

The WGEM news station here in Quincy, IL recently did a special report on the potential risks of athletes lifting too much weight at a young age. If you haven’t already seen/read the report, you can view it here: http://www.wgem.com/story/23946627/2013/11/12/pressing-it.

In their report, “Pressing It,” they interview different high school athletes and coaches about the potential dangers of lifting weights at a young age and the risks involved with doing so. They argue (correctly) that lifting weights can damage growth plates and can impact the child's’ health as they continue to grow. This is true if the young individual has not been properly taught correct lifting mechanics prior to lifting weights. It is especially true if the child cannot move correctly to begin with. That is an entirely different matter itself.

What I want to address is that I believe we have the athletes focusing on the wrong things while in the weight room. In the majority of the weight rooms that I have been in, there is some sort of “Leader Board” for the kids that have lifted the most weight. For example, there will be a list of the top 5-10 kids that have bench pressed the most weight in school that year. But how did they achieve this?

I’ll give another example. Let’s say Junior Chris prepares to do his squats for the day and someone points out that if he adds 20 more pounds to his squat weight, he can surpass Senior Jimmy for 4th on the Squat Leaderboard. Junior Chris proceeds to add the additional weight in an attempt to leapfrog Jimmy for bragging rights. As Chris descends into his squat, he begins to realize he cannot properly handle the weight and his body immediately starts to look for the “path of least resistance.” He engages his quadriceps (instead of glutes/hamstrings) and forces his Lumbar spine into extension in a last, desperate attempt to regain some form of stability. While this may have worked yesterday, Chris now has an additional 20 pounds to push up today. Due to this, Chris has increased the force on his anterior knee (risking potential ligament/tissue damage that could require surgery to repair) and his low back (risking potential lumbar strains, herniated disks, or fractured vertebrae that could sideline him for an unknown length of time).

That leads me to my question: Shouldn’t we be praising the athletes with the best form/technique instead of the kids that are lifting the heaviest weights? Make the young athletes strive to move better rather than making them strive to lift more and placing their bodies under unnecessary stresses. Coaches, parents, and even the athletes themselves should be pushing themselves to better understand proper mechanics to help reduce injuries. The kid that is less likely to get injured is the one who can move functionally under unexpected conditions, not the kid that can clean/squat/bench the most weight.