Why to repair a young athlete's knee asap

This sobering advice from a University of Pennsylvania study:

Young kids who injure their knees so badly that ACL surgery is needed should strongly consider having their repairs asap. This despite the fact that such operations, when performed on youth athletes, can disrupt normal bone growth.

Kids whose operations were delayed more than 12 weeks faced multiple risks, including:

- about a four-fold increase in irreparable medial meniscus tears.
- an 11-fold increase in lateral compartment chondral injuries.
- a three-fold increase in patellotrochlear injuries.

More on the study here.

Bob Bigelow on kids and sports

Bob Bigelow is a favorite in this space. He's part philosopher, part entertainer and full-time youth sports advocate. I met Bob in the 1970s when we were undergrads at the University of Pennsylvania. I was a reporter for the student paper. Bob was the 6-foot-7 star player on the Penn basketball team. Bob was a first-round pick in the NBA draft and went on to play four seasons in the league. For the last 15 years, he has been speaking and writing about the disconnect between what parents want from kids' sports and what children truly need. Often, the message is disarmingly simple. Like the title of Bob's book, "Just Let the Kids Play," Or one of his oft-repeated pearls: "Adults want to win. Kids just want to play."

Here's Bob - in 2 minutes, 22 seconds - speaking about one of his favorite topics: the absurdity of judging the athletic potential of a pre-pubescent child.