Help Your Student Athlete Avoid Overuse Injuries

By: Jennifer Gourdin, MD, sports medicine doctor in Maryland at Kaiser Permanente

Fall is here—time to get back on the field or on the court. If your child actively participates in youth sports, there’s a good chance that they will experience an injury from overuse.  It’s important to recognize overuse injuries and know how to help your child avoid them. 

How do overuse injuries occur? 

• Poor technique. Improper use of equipment, likeincorrect form when swinging a baseball bat or throwing a ball, can result in an overuse injury. Poor form during exercise or strength training, such as lifting weights, can also cause injury. 
• Repetitive movements. When your child repeats the same movements during sports activities or training, it can lead to tears and injury. 
• Insufficient rest. Lack of rest between activities and training can lead to injury and delay healing.
• Increase in activity. After a summer of rest and no competition, quickly jumping back into activity, or into a more intense exercise routine, canbe overwhelming and cause overuse injuries. 
• Participating in just one sport. If your child competes in only one sport, they may be more likely to suffer injuries—for example, if they participate only as a pitcher, they could overwork the same muscle groups and experience overuse in their pitching arm. 

What are the symptoms of an overuse injury?

• Muscle stiffness. Muscles or joints may be stiff, sore, or tender to the touch.
• Discomfort or pain. What starts as mild pain may eventually worsen and become persistent.
• Weakness and fatigue. Muscles may feel weakenedor fatigued.
• Decreased performance. Pain or fatigue limiting exercise intensity or duration.
• Changes in movement pattern. Limping or favoring one side.

If your child is experiencing any of these symptoms, and over the counter pain medicine, ice, or topical ointments are not helping to lessen the pain, it’s time to call their doctor. 

How can your child prevent overuse injuries?

• When they’re competing in sports, make sure that your child uses the proper technique and form. 
• Have them ease into practice and exercise to reduce injury from doing too much too quickly. 
• Replace old equipment, like cleats or running shoes, if they no longer provide sufficient support.

It’s important for your child to recognize that they’ve push themselves too far, and when they need to take a break. But understanding how and why overuse injuries can occur will help them take a safer approach to sports—and help them stay in the game. 

Kaiser Permanente is honored to partner with The St. James to help keep our young athletes healthy and thriving, both on and off the field. 

Kaiser Permanente’s sports medicine program offers high-quality care from a multidisciplinary team including orthopedists, podiatrists, physician medicine and rehabilitation specialists, and adult and family medicine doctors with expertise in sports medicine. Everyone works together to help athletes overcome sports injuries so they can get back to the activities they love. 

Learn more about Kaiser Permanente’s sports medicine program.

Jennifer Gourdin, MD, sports medicine doctor in Maryland at Kaiser Permanente

¹The physicians who practice at Kaiser Permanente are recognized as Top Doctors in Arlington Magazine (2025), Bethesda magazine (2025), Northern Virginia Magazine (2025), Washingtonian magazine (2024), and Baltimore magazine (2024).