5 Things That Physical Therapists Want Teen Athletes To Be Aware of this Fall Season

If you are a teen athlete in a fall sport, you are at risk of injury. Why? Many athletes arrive at practice for their fall sport and train and as if they never left. However, some of these same athletes have spent more time at the beach than doing any structured training. I asked three physical therapists, Kim Tycz, Matt Tycz, and Steve Vance, what can be done to reduce the risk of injury?

1. Warm-up.

The physical therapists agreed that many athletes fail to warm-up sufficiently. “Often, athletes will just run around a bit and think that they’re warm, but a warm-up should last 10-15 minutes until you break a slight sweat,” says Steve. A light jog, calisthenics, or a gentle ride on a stationary bike is a great way to warm-up. Your purpose is to elevate both heart and body temperature. The Tycz’s say, “[Start] low then gradually increase to a moderate level of activity.  Soft tissue (muscles/tendons/ligaments, etc) that are warm will bend then rebound under stress; cold ones break.  Most coaches are pretty good at this now during organized practice/games, so this might be more relevant for when the athlete is doing an individual workout.”

2. Stretch.

A lot.  All year long.  “Most people think about stretching just before their activity but you should stretch two or more times every day when trying to get more flexible and once daily for maintenance.  Hold your stretches at least 15 seconds, use a clock or count slowly to 20- we all count fast.  Flexibility prevents injuries and in most cases increases sports performance,” say Matt and Kim. Steve agrees and has seen many knee injuries due to tight hamstrings. Flexibility is also improved with adequate warm-up (above) and a strong base. (see below)

3. Build a base.  

“Foundational strength is integral to every sport and life activities as well,” says Matt Tycz. Core strength includes not just abs but also lower back, hips, and glutes. These muscles help us balance and are important for keeping healthy knees and spine.  Steve Vance treated Appalachian Trail through hikers who had very weak hips and therefore bad knees. Many of our sports: hiking, cycling, running are about moving forward instead of moving side to side. Take some time for leg lifts, walking lunges, or single leg dips that work the core. 

4. Take Head Injuries Seriously.

Don't ever ignore any symptom after hitting your head.  The list of concussion symptoms is very long and doesn't have to include loss of consciousness. “We are learning that concussions are much more common than we ever thought.   If you hit your head (even lightly) and feel anything other than completely normal (such as headache, nausea, hearing sounds/seeing lights/smelling weird odors that aren't there, trouble focusing, lightheaded, dizzy, not able to do simple tasks/feeling clumsy during sports activities or even something like tying shoes, overly tired, can't sleep, can't concentrate, etc)– tell your coach/athletic trainer/parent. We are talking about brain cells that could be permanently injured,” say Matt and Kim.

5. Don't ignore the pain.

“Most athletes will get hurt eventually, the key is early detection and treatment.  Some muscle soreness is expected with new or hard workouts, but pain that lasts for more than a few days or feels like it is in bone or joint is not normal.  Don't ignore it, tell a coach/athletic trainer/parent and if needed go to a doctor or PT.  Then listen to what they tell you to do and do it.  The sooner you take care of the little injuries the less likely they will become a big one that can end a season or multiple seasons.”

Picture Book List for Young Sporty Girls or the Young-At-Heart!

You may have noticed that Sporty Girl Books blog includes tabs with booklists for middle grade and young adult readers. However, if you’ve seen some of the sportiest girls out there, you know that they start when they are knee-high to a grasshopper and can hardly fit their sports equipment.

(When my kiddos were this big we called soccer, magnet ball and had fun counting how many times a player took the ball from someone on their own team.)

With the right safety and inspiration, some young players grow into healthy young women with a life-long love of sport, while others become experienced and technically savvy athletes. Either way, below is a list of picture books that will inspire sports and history lovers young and old, male and female.

About this list:

• This list is not at all exhaustive. While I was pleased to find picture books about African-American athletes along side Caucasian athletes, it is clear that there are still underrepresented groups including Latinas, Asian-Americans, "out" gay athletes, athletes who identify as Muslim or Jewish and many others. I would love to hear other suggestions from our readers in the comments! 
• The books are listed by author’s last name. The MLA citations and summaries are from WorldCat.org
• Many of the books that I’ve listed were chosen because they have won a variety of awards or been on well-known lists. Some have shown up on the relatively new (2002) ALA Amelia Bloomer Book list that showcases feminist books for young readers. Read more here. http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/amelia-bloomer-book-list
• Except Mia Hamm's book, these are picture book biographies.
• Yes, there are TWO books about Alice Coachman. Give them a look and tell us what you think!

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Adler, David A, and Terry Widener. America's Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle. San Diego: Harcourt, 2000. Print.
Describes the life and accomplishments of Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel and a figure in the early women's rights movement.


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Corey, Shana, and Ed Fotheringham. Mermaid Queen: The Spectacular True Story of Annette Kellerman, Who Swam Her Way to Fame, Fortune, & Swimsuit History! New York: Scholastic Press, 2009. Print.
As a child growing up in Australia, Annette Kellerman was a frail ugly duckling who dreamed of becoming a graceful ballerina. With courage and determination, she confronted a crippling illness to become an internationally known record-setting athlete who revolutionized the sport of swimming for women, a movie star who invented water ballet, and a fashion revolutionary who modernized the swimsuit.


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Corey, Shana, Rebecca Gibbon, and Marijka Kostiw. Players in Pigtails. New York: Scholastic Press, 2003. Print.
Katie Casey, a fictional character, helps start the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which gave women the opportunity to play professional baseball while America was involved in World War II.



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Deans, Karen, and Elbrite Brown. Playing to Win: The Story of Althea Gibson. New York: Holiday House, 2007. Print.
Growing up in Harlem, Althea Gibson was heading down the wrong path until she found her calling. She went on to become the first African American women to be ranked as the number one woman tennis player in the world.



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Hamm, Mia, and Carol Thompson. Winners Never Quit! New York: HaperCollns, 2004. Print.
Shows that being a team player is more important than winning or losing a game.



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Hopkinson, Deborah, and Terry Widener. Girl Wonder: A Baseball Story in Nine Innings. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003. Print.
In the early 1900s, Alta Weiss, a young woman who knows from an early age that she loves baseball, finds a way to show that she can play, even though she is a girl.



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Krull, Kathleen, and David Diaz. Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1996. Print.
A biography of the African-American woman who overcame crippling polio as a child to become the first woman to win three gold medals in track in a single Olympics.



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Lang, Heather, and Floyd Cooper. Queen of the Track: Alice Coachman, Olympic High-Jump Champion. Honesdale, Pa: Boyds Mills Press, 2012. Print.
Tells the story of Alice Coachman, an athlete from rural Georgia who made history as the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in 1948.


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Macy, Sue, and Matt Collins. Basketball Belles: How Two Teams and One Scrappy Player Put Women's Hoops on the Map. New York: Holiday House, 2011. Print.
Raised on a cattle ranch, Agnes Morley was sent to Stanford University to learn to be a lady. Yet in no time she exchanged her breeches and spurs for bloomers and a basketball; and in April 1896 she made history. In a heart-pounding game against the University of California at Berkeley, Agnes led her team to victory in the first-ever intercollegiate women's basketball game, earning national attention and putting women's basketball on the map.



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Malaspina, Ann, and Eric Velasquez. Touch the Sky: Alice Coachman, Olympic High Jumper. Chicago, Ill: Albert Whitman, 2012. Print.
 A biography of the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal, from her childhood in segregated Albany, Georgia, in the 1930s, through her recognition at the 1996 Olympics as one of the hundred best athletes in Olympic history. Includes bibliographical references.



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Rosenstock, Barbara, and Scott Dawson. Fearless: The Story of Racing Legend Louise Smith. New York: Dutton Children's Books, 2010. Print.
Introduces the life of stock car racer Louise Smith, from her first ride behind the wheel of her father's Ford to her thrilling stock car races across the country during the 1950s.



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Vernick, Audrey. She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. Print.
Effa always loved baseball. As a young woman, she would go to Yankee Stadium just to see Babe Ruth's mighty swing. But she never dreamed she would someday own a baseball team. Or be the first and only woman ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. From her childhood in Philadelphia to her groundbreaking role as business manager and owner of the Newark Eagles, Effa Manley always fought for what was right. And she always swung for the fences.

Author Interview: Maria Padian and Giveaway of Jersey Tomatoes Are The Best!

In this, the debut month of Sporty Girl Books Blog, the regular contributors are introducing ourselves by way of some of our favorite books and authors in the sporty book world. Maria Padian is the author of three young adult books: BRETT MCCARTHY: WORK IN PROGRESS, JERSEY TOMATOES ARE THE BEST, and the recently released OUT OF NOWHERE.

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I’m so lucky that Maria lives in my Maine town. We first met on the fields of the local college. We were not playing any sports but walking out dogs. Lucy is my yellow lab and Frisbee is Maria’s Australian Shepherd. For the interview, we met at the Little Dog Café and discussed all things kidlit and sports. Grab a cup of something warm and join us!

Soccer plays a role in Brett McCarthy… and Out of Nowhere. Tennis and ballet are in Jersey Tomatoes Are the Best. Are those sports in your background? What sports are you involved in now?

I’ve played soccer, softball, basketball.  I ski, hike.  Bike.  But the sport I’ve played most consistently, and which I love, is tennis. I started in third grade and play competitively to this day, on a USTA women’s team.  It’s great to still have sports in my life.  Another sport I’ve loved … but lost … is rowing.  I rowed crew back in college, first in Oxford (England) where I learned to row British style – faster hands and a three-part recovery.  I had to relearn when I came back to America, and rowed with a club in Atlanta, Georgia.  It’s a fantasy of mine to return to rowing again … you’re inspiring me, Anna!

How do you use sports as vehicle for character, conflict, and tension in your books.

I don’t usually go about a book thinking that I’m going to make a character an athlete. It’s more that my characters are naturally athletes. I’m drawn to young women who are not afraid to be bold, competitive and aggressive.

In Jersey Tomatoes Are The Best, Henry, a tennis player, is battling personal demons. She struggles to understand the point of competition, to question the expectation that she play tennis, and to win on her own terms. She asks, am I winning the way I want to win, being the athlete I want to be, and am I becoming the kind of person I would admire.

Eva is a committed ballerina, and I never saw her as an athlete but as an artist. Both of them struggle to take ownership of what they have become passionate about [tennis and ballet]. The struggle is between expectations and passion. Do you do something because people expect you to even if you don’t love it? Or, do you do something you love even though you might not be great at it?

Eva, in Jersey Tomatoes Are The Best, is dealing with anorexia. Talk to me about healthy eating and healthy habits for athletes.

You know, I think there is a misunderstanding about eating disorders. I think about this more as a mental health issue than a fitness issue. Anorexia is about dealing with stress and anxiety. Some girls rise above stresses and strains and some succumb to it.

You write the eating disorder as a male voice named Ed inside Eva’s head. How did you come up with that?

I went to see a play where the eating disorder was portrayed as male. The character was smarmy and cruel, dressed in a leather jacket and dark glasses.  He was emotionally abusive.  I tried to write Ed similar to an abusive boyfriend.  Eva is very vulnerable to those negative voices. I think a lot of it has to do with a person’s inner compass. What do we choose to believe about ourselves? So much of sports is about having a mental edge and great athletes are great optimists. I was playing tennis against someone who was better than I was and going at each ball with the thought, “Am I going to get it?” Then the person I was playing with told me to instead think, “When I get there, where am I going to put it?” That mental shift made a huge difference in my game.

Now for the lightning round:

What is your favorite sport to play?

First tennis, but rowing is a close second.

What is your favorite sport to watch?

If tennis is on TV, I’m there. I also live with a bunch of crazy basketball fans so I watch a lot of basketball.

Which athlete would you most want to meet?

Andre Agassi. His book OPEN came out at the same time as Jersey Tomatoes Are The Best and I’m really interested in his story.

I know you have a dog named Frisbee. Is Frisbee a good exercise partner?

Frisbee gets me out of the house on the days that the weather is so wet or cold that I’d normally stay inside. Once we’ve gone for a walk, I always feel so virtuous.

You too can be virtuous by signing up for our rafflecopter give away, which I’ve included in this post. The winner will receive a lovely collection of books including JERSEY TOMATOES ARE THE BEST signed by the sport Maria Padian. I also picked up an awesome pair of cycling tire levers (pink) at the recent women’s ride that I participated in so I’ll throw those in as well.

It is also virtuous to comment below! What do you think: Are eating disorders more about fitness or mental health? How much of your sport is about having a mental edge? I’d love to hear from you. Anna
a Rafflecopter giveaway