Hurt locker rooms: The four injury risks today's young players face

[scher215]

Interesting article from ESPN on injuries in the NBA and what is possibly causing them from a training/health perspective.

I am posting it here because 1) it's basketball 2) it talks about AAU as a potential issue and 3) There are quotes from Gophers trainer Shaun Brown talking about weight lifting.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13217004/the-four-injury-risks-today-young-nba-players-face

"It's not a fluke," said Dr. Mike Clark, a former physical therapist for the Phoenix Suns, who have what's widely considered to be the league's top training staff.

Brian St. Pierre, director of performance nutrition at Precision Nutrition, echoes the message of a quote by Jacob Riis that has long hung on the wall in the locker room of the San Antonio Spurs, with whom he has worked.

It reads: "Look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before."

As with injuries, St. Pierre said, "it's often not that 101st blow, but it was really the 100 things that came before that set everything into motion."

Many say the injuries are indicative of four key issues players face in today's NBA: poorer sleep, in part because of technology; weaker bones, in part because of low calcium and high sugar intake; an uptick in wear and tear, thanks largely to players specializing in basketball at a young age; and weaker muscles, as a result of shucking traditional weight training for more en-vogue methods."