Page 72 - Summer 2019 Journal

All Thumbs Book Reviews
Minimize Injury, Maximize Performance: A Sports Parent’s Survival Guide
By Dr. Tommy John with Myatt Murphy Da Capo Press
If you are a baseball fan, you have heard of Tommy John surgery. If you have not heard of it, don’t kid yourself—you are not a fan. Why do I say that? Because, in Major League Baseball (MLB), it is pervasive. Twenty-five percent of all MLB players have had the surgery, which replaces a torn elbow ligament with a tendon from elsewhere in the body. The surgery has exploded in the last few decades. That is bad news, but the really bad news is this: Tommy John surgery is being performed more often on young athletes (less than twenty years old) than on professional athletes. Young people under age twenty should never need surgery like that.
If you are a sports fan in general, you will have noticed an increase in injuries in all sports. What is going on? Dr. John (son of the famous MLB pitcher for whom Tommy John surgery was named) covers all the bases in this book and quickly hones in on some of the primary root causes, including love of money. You will almost always find the love of money at the root of major problems. Childhood sports or- ganizations rake in billions of dollars per year and strongly encourage kids to become active in sports at an early age. They push the kids to participate as often as possible and year-round if possible. So, what’s wrong with that?
All sports overwork certain muscle groups and the overdoing is what causes damage. Hu- man bodies are designed to move in certain ways and do a variety of things. We are not
designed to do the same thing over and over with machine-like repetition for hours at a time. Children, especially, should be playing—just playing—not engaging in intense sports com- petition. There are several reasons for this.
Children’s bodies are still developing, and they are still learning the basics of how to move. Most can’t stand with their eyes closed without losing their balance. Most can’t balance on one leg. Children are also still developing mentally and psychologically. When their whole life is soccer or baseball or any one sport, that is all they think about and all they know how to talk about. Well-rounded personalities and social skills require well-rounded experience. Children can play sports for fun but should play a variety of sports, not just one and not just sports.
Research is also showing how damaging electronic devices can be. Video games that require fast reactions (or you’re “dead”) create stress. Sports competitions that require good performance or you disappoint your parents and coaches create stress. They overtax the parasympathetic nervous system, which shuts down your immune system. Intense sports competition requires your immune system to be at its best to recover from any muscle or tendon damage.
The idea that a child must start serious athletic training by the age of five so as not to be hopelessly behind for life is wrong and de- structive. I’ve heard more than one older male comedian joke about realizing—after years of struggling to better their athletic performance— that Little League was the zenith of their career. Why? In many cases, because too much Little League wrecked them.
Horrors, Continued from page 69.
the public aware of vaccination’s risks. English doctor James J. Garth Wilkinson stated in 1876, “This is blood assassination. This amazing act is the homicidal insanity of a whole profession.”
Higgins’ conclusion was that vaccination
should be a voluntary procedure and medical freedom upheld as the inherent right of every individual. If only the powers-that-be could be compelled to hear his simple logic, instead of remaining servants to a for-profit medical cartel. Two thumbs UP for this well-researched book, one hundred years old but still dramatically relevant and valuable to today’s reader. Review by Jennifer Grafiada
Wise Traditions SUMMER 2019
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