Catastrophic Injuries in High School and College Sports

Book excerpt: Catastrophic Injuries in High School and College Sports provides extensive recommendations for reducing catastrophic injuries, preventing deaths in athletic programs, and making sports safer and more enjoyable. Data compiled for the first time in one convenient source, this timely resource is based on results of more than 10 years of study by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research. The authors discuss what types of injuries are most prevalent, who sustains the injuries, and why and where they occur. Unlike most of the material available in this area, Catastrophic Injuries in High School and College Sports includes both men's and women's individual and team sports. The authors bring reality to the statistics by presenting case reports of catastrophic injuries at the high school and college level. Readers will learn - how head and spine injuries occur; - the frequency and causes of deaths in athletes; - catastrophic injury data in football; - how injuries are sustained in team sports--soccer, basketball, ice hockey, baseball, and lacrosse; - the incidence of injuries in individual sports--gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, track and field, and cheerleading; and - general guidelines for injury prevention as well as sport-specific recommendations. Each chapter concludes with helpful references and tables of relevant statistics. Catastrophic Injuries in High School and College Sports is the eighth volume in the HK Sport Science Monograph Series.