By Sarah Welsh-Huggins ’12

When it comes to injuries, not all college sports are created equally. According to “Epidemiology of Overuse and Acute Injuries Among Competitive College Athletes,” published recently in the Journal of Athletic Training, the type of injury depends greatly on the sport, and on the athlete. Female athletes, it noted also, incurred overuse injuries at a higher rate than male athletes.

At Lafayette, the number of acute versus overuse injuries among the school’s student-athletes varies year-to-year and sport-by-sport. “Overuse injuries are generally caused by poor biomechanics, genetic deficiencies, or overtraining,” Lafayette Associate Athletic Trainer Chris Meny said. “Most of the acute injuries are caused by a sudden force,” during practice or a game.

Mara Kish ‘13, a goalkeeper on the field hockey team, says that the two types of injuries occur equally on her team. “The acute injuries we sustain are from the ball or a stick hitting one of our players. The ligament, tendon or muscular injuries are generally all from overuse or stress,” Kish said, who has suffered herself from tendonitis in her shoulder and a sprained meniscus.

“The injury to my shoulder happened because of the way that I was repeatedly diving to save the ball,” she said. The sprain in her meniscus, meanwhile, occurred seemingly at random. “I kicked my leg out to save a ball, and heard a loud pop, and felt a sharp pain in my knee to the point that I could no longer walk on that leg.”

Kish’s acute sprain resulted in surgery on her knee, which kept her from most of her summer training. Her experiences align with the Journal of Athletic Training report. This study observed that half of recorded overuse injuries were associated with “no time lost.” This implies that although recovery time for major acute injuries often lasts more than three weeks, many athletes with overuse injuries likely return to play or practice well before their injury has truly healed.

Athletes’ desire to decrease recovery time from injuries is common. Some athletes “report an injury because they want to be proactive in an effort to get back on the field,” the Head Athletic Trainer at Lehigh University Tim Doane said. Others, however, delay reporting injuries “because they worry about being removed from participation,” he said.

“There is a high rate of players returning to practice before they are ready,” Kish said. The hardest part of being injured she said, is “sitting on the sideline. Most players can play through pain, so pushing through the pain barrier is easier than feeling useless to the team.”

Unfortunately, playing through injury is sometimes not an option, even for the most dedicated athletes. Long-lasting effects of a severe concussion forced Liz Cole ‘13 to end her college soccer career this year. “I thought I would be better within a week to ten days, because that is the common concussion recovery time,” she said. “I didn’t believe it was a season-ending injury.”

As Cole attested, the psychological toll of an injury can be its most devastating consequence. Jet Kollie ‘15, a member of the Lafayette football team who has dealt with multiple injuries, agreed. “It’s tough not being able to participate in something you love,” he said. For injuries sustained from overtraining, however, there is a simple way to stay healthy: “It comes down to knowing your body and making smart decisions,” Kollie said.

This is a sentiment with which the Journal of Athletic Training might agree. Random accidents are unavoidable, the study suggests, but earlier intervention in overuse injuries may keep more athletes off the sidelines and on the field.