I agree with "strength". My daughter has experienced many injuries from tumbling in her ankles, feet, knees, and wrists. Not all at once, but off and on for the last two years to the point where it was at least one of them all of the time after every practice. We made a hard decision to take a year off this year to do exactly what the previous poster said. She is currently healing a broken foot which made our decision all that much easier as she is out for 6 to 8 weeks anyway. Once that is healed, she is signed up with a personal trainer to work on strengthening ALL of her muscles in all of those areas so that she will hopefully not experience so many injuries next year. We are going to do tumbling privates in the mean time to keep up her skills and she is on the high school team, but she will not have to practice and tumble when she is in pain as she would if she was on an all star team. I strongly suggest you have your daughter work out at a gym or get videos of strength and conditioning workouts to build her muscle strength.

My daughter has had knee pain for several years - and cheered through it - and still occasionally has pain, and we do the advil/ice and brace routine as needed. Her issues aren't doing to lack of strength training (although more certainly helps!) but due to a condition called "Osgood Schlatter". This knee condition is VERY common (my son is now starting to develop it) and comes from the constant pounding on the knees while they are growing. Expecially kids who put on inches in height quickly. You can read about it on www.osgoodschlatter.com - on my son he actually has a bulge on his knees that makes it obvious, on my daughter is was discovered through xrays - and confirmed by 2 ortho dudes. The treatment? Rest. Ice. Physical Thearapy to reduce swelling as needed.
Yup - thats it. The docs told her she had to decide - deal with the pain and cheer -(or any sport) or don't and stop for a couple of years until she stops growing. Once the growth plates in the knees fuse, they claim they pain will lesson. And she is 15 now and then pain doesn't seem to be as bad. Needless to say - she cheered through it - The ortho said she really wouldn't cause damage - just suffer from pain.
Good Luck!

my son has had many injuries. Last one was a knee injury. He is an elite tumbler and stunter. I don't know your situation but the ortho sent him for an MRI and physical therapy. The MRI show a bone bruise. The physical therapist showed him how to tape correctly. All I can tell you is it helped. The physical therapy made it worse so the Dr. said to stop. but he learned to tape it right and that helped better then anything. He's had 3 broken noses cracked sternum shin splints acute tendenitis in his wrist finally after 3 years of taping taking time off iceing ibuprofen, vicoden etc. he got a shot of cortisone in his wrist. It was like a miracle. It was a last resort but it worked. Taking time off and MRI to make sure nothing is torn is my best advice. We can all give advise but sometimes you have to use commen sense and rest. Trial and error to find what best works for you. Good Luck.

I had torn my ACL last summer at camp and my pt and surgeon sugguested the stationary bike as an excellant way to strengthen the muscles surrounding your knees. I also wall sits to be a good way to strengthen thighs, putting a giant exercise ball between your back and the wall takes a lot of stess/pain of your knees if any shold occur.

As for dealing with pain, I take ibuprofen before and after practice, ice if swelling should occur, and also use these medicated patches called Salonpas - they work similarly to bengay creams, but without the cream! Very convienent to use, just unstick and slap on your knees and BOOM! it's heaven on Earth.

Hope this helps!

-Kimmie Hoang
Motions Alumni :]

You sound familiar...have you been here before? Anyways, back to the topic about the patches, they sound great! Where can we find them?

To answer "Mom of an Injured Cheerleader" and "re: Mom of an Injured Cheerleader," I have posted previously before and was a member of Motions Sr. Black All Girl Team last year ('05 - '06). I tore my ACL at camp last year (almost to the date!) and worked hard at physical therapy in order to rejoin my team by november.

Long story short, keep to your p.t. routine religiously!!!

Back to business, the PATCHES! My parents always get them at Walgreens, I've never looked for them at Longs or RiteAid, but for sure Walgreens will have them, they were also shortly carried at Costco, but due to public response, they may or may not still carry them.

Salonpas comes in a box that is horizontally striped white, blue, and light green. There is also a 2D sketch of a man with pin points of common pain such of backaches, etc.

Hope this is healthful!

-Kimmie Hoang
Motions Alumni

I just went downstairs and asked my consistant "knee problem, doctor visitin', brace wearing, ice usin', therapy visitin' " child that question. She looked at me like I was a nut and said, " Why would you ask that? OF COURSE it's worth it." and I have to say, I agree. She's on her floor, packing for camp as we speak. She made the High School team with flying colors and does All Stars too. She's having the time of her life right now, getting great grades, holding down a job AND getting to cheer on two teams. Yep, for a 14 year old, this is heaven. It's worth it.

Who knows what the future will bring, but she's living life to the fullest. And how many of us in this world can really truly say that. I bet there are a lot of cheerleaders who can. So yea, it's worth it.

IT'S GOOD TO HAVE AN END TO JOURNEY TOWARD. BUT IT IS THE JOURNEY THAT MATTERS IN THE END. - U. Guin

- OC Mom

I think this thread is fascinating. It really shows how dedicated our cheerleaders are and how much they love this sport.

I am alarmed, though, by the kids and parents that think it's "all better" once they have ligament repair/replacement surgery. What a kid who is 8, 12, or even 17 doesn't understand is that yes, having the knee repaired and going through the physical therapy and everything else will help. But the odds of reinjuring the same ligament are astounding - upwards of 70% at some point in their life, and doing a sport like football, cheerleading, or gymnastics basically ups it to 90-some%. And a kid who is 15 has no idea what it means to have to deal with "bum knees" the rest of their life.

So while I understand that cheerleading is a sport where injuries are bound to occur, I'm really concerned and shocked by "savage" programs that think it's "awesome" to have 6 ACL replacements in a season. What they don't realize is they are affecting these kids and their ability to be active for the rest of their lives!

Proper training and conditioning is so important. You have to have done hundreds of the proper drills beforehand in order for it to even be safe for you to start throwing your full or double full (which are the skills where most cheer knee injuries occur - one slightly sideways landing and *boom*, ACL, MCL, LCL, or PCL can be gone). These drills teach proper technique and build strength in the right muscles to make the skill easier and safer.

I'm really frightened when I hear coaches say things like "You have your layout, let's throw your full," or "Your full looks really nice, try a double next time." It takes literally months for a well-trained elite level gymnast to add a twist to a skill. The coaches that don't understand biomechanics and motor learning (or just don't care - God knows there are plenty of these as well) are literally just walking their kids down the path to a knee injury.

I had a knee injury this year and like most people i wanted to ignore it. I have osteo chrondrides desicans (spelling?) its basically dead bone and i wanted to keep tumblig through the season, however if i were to do that my bone would actually crush and i would end up with a knee replacement at 16, so my mom made me stop. I missed out on the end of a great season which i was so mad about, but im about to go to the doctors today in fact to get the clear to start tumbling again, were if i were to have keept going i probably would have missed out in my last two seasons and the rest of my life. So you have to put things in perspective, if its just pushing through pain then go for it but if its going to take your body out then think about it, and thats hard to say coming from a girl who is still cheering.
Andrea