Women’s National Team player and Ladue High product BeckySauerbrunn is a well-respected soccer player. All of her talentdoes the team no good if she’s sidelined with an injury.
It’s a fact she wants every young athlete to keep in mind:Injured soccer players don’t stop shots, they don’t move the balldown the field, and they can’t score goals.
“I’m impassioned about injury prevention as an athlete,” saidSauerbrunn, who returned to St. Louis this week to spread themessage about the meaures young players need to take to stayhealthy.
She’s partnered with Signature Medical Group, a St. Louisorganization of orthopedic and other medical specialists, to getthe word out about how to avoid ending up in offices such astheirs. the push is timely, given the steadily increasing number ofathletes incurring serious ankle, knee, back and head injuries.
“Obviously, the name of the game is protection and prevention,”said Dr. John Tessier, an orthopedic surgeon with SMG.
Even as a young player with J B Marine Soccer Club and later asa high school standout, Sauerbrunn was fortunate to avoid seriousinjuries. that trend has continued with the national team and inher career with Women’s Professional Soccer. while some of thatcomes down to luck, she said much is attributable to properpreparation.
“It’s lucky I haven’t been in a bad tackle,” said Sauerbrunn, adefender on the national squad and most recently with Florida’smagicJack team. “I could be prepared, but if my body gets wrenchedin the wrong way, I can’t help that.”
She trains and conditions her body to stay in shape year-round,incorporating exercises that will prepare her limbs and muscles tomove in a multitude of ways.
“Anything you train can be improved upon,” she said. “If you doit over and over again, your body is going to remember these movesand not be surprised in the game.”
Young players should never take shortcuts when warming up orconditioning, she added.
“You’ve got to take nutrition and conditioning and flexibilityand things like that seriously,” Tessier said. “Let’s keep ourplayers healthy.”
Sauerbrunn suggested soccer players can include injuryprevention in their workouts by doing drills that require lateralmovement as well as forward and back motion.
“You can incorporate jumping and cutting before the balls areeven put out in the field,” she said.
Lateral moves can help strengthen the knees and ankles, two bodyareas prone to soccer-induced injury.
“Certainly more in soccer, where they’re running and there’smore limited contact, then you are looking at ankle sprains andankle instability as very common,” Tessier said.
“Some of these are training-related,” he added. “They jump intothe sport without really getting themselves ready. Part of this iskind of not really being prepared to dive into the demands of theseason.”
Core strengthening can help protect an athlete’s back frominjury, or at least make it stronger to withstand the damage that atough hit or fall can incur, he said.
Not all injuries are easily avoided, though.
With the rapid-fire movements and aggressive ball play oftenseen in soccer games, head injuries such as concussions can bedifficult to protect against.
Villa Duchesne soccer coach Tim Twellman knows more about thissubject than he’d like to.
His son, former professional player Taylor Twellman, saw hiscareer end as the result of a concussion sustained in 2008 whilepart of the new England Revolution.
“It’s crazy,” said Tim Twellman, a former collegiate andprofessional player himself who also leads training camps as partof Twellman Soccer. “The sport seems friendly, but it’s not.”
Taylor Twellman suffered lingering effects from the hit, such asmemory lapses, long after the game, and eventually was forced toretire.
Now working the broadcast side of soccer, he’s also behind”ThinkTaylor.org,” an awareness project to educate about thedangers of concussions and the need for proper treatment.
His father said concussions are particularly insidious becausethe signs aren’t visible.
“Unlike any other injury, you can’t see this one,” he said. “Youcan see a sprained ankle, or a broken bone.”
With concussions or any other injury, Twellman and Sauerbrunnemphasized the need for athletes to pay attention to their body’swarning signals.
For a concussion, symptoms such as blurred vision and nauseashould not be ignored.
“If a girl on the Villa (Duchesne) team tells me she has aproblem, she’s out,” Twellman said. “They’re out until a doctorputs them back on the field.”
Many of the injuries that keep an athlete sidelined are due tooveruse, Sauerbrunn said. And the best remedy for that is simplypatience and time off the field to recover.
“Kids are doing so much with sports now,” she said. “They’ll goto soccer practice and then have basketball practice or baseballpractice. They’re cramming a lot into a little time.”
In fact, Sauerbrunn was a three-sport athlete in high school,but she noted that there was more time off between sports then.
“I wasn’t shuffling from one sport to the next that much,” addedSauerbrunn, who is enjoying a five-week break from the nationalteam before training for Olympic qualifying events begins inNovember. “I had downtime to just be a high school student.”
Sauerbrunn, Twellman and Tessier all mentioned the importance ofnot just training, but proper nutrition to an athlete’s overallhealth.
“I stress that so much at the high school level,” Twellman said.”I surprise them at lunch occasionally. What they eat is a crime.They’re so worried about their bodies, but you cannot perform, youcannot go on a field and play 80 minutes or whatever it is and run.You don’t have the energy.”
What young athletes need to realize is that not doing the rightthings — whether in regard to nutrition, training or injuries –may take them off the field or keep them out longer.
“It’s really about getting them back on the field,” Twellmansaid. “We want them playing the sport, because it’s a greatsport.”
Take it from the pros: Injury prevention matters
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