Hats Off to Fred Bowen

Fred Bowen is the sports opinion columnist for the Washington Post Kids Post page.  In his weekly column, he explains the complications of the world of sports in language kids of all ages can understand. His March 7 column What You Don't Know Might Hurt You is especially noteworthy because it advises kids to keep sports in perspective.

He offers the following tips:

1.  Avoid injury by staying alert on the playing field

2.  Don't ignore pain.  Even though professional athletes try to play through pain and TV announcers make a big deal of their doing so, kids should never play through pain.  He advises his young readers to tell a grownup if they are hurt.  Let's hope there are fewer and fewer and ultimately none of the Vince Lombardi, "winning is the only thing" coaches in kids' sports who will listen to the injured child and let her or him stay out of the game and give or get help when he or she is hurt.

3.  Get plenty of rest including taking a day or two off from sports every week to let the body recover.

People like Fred and Brooke de Lench at Mom's Team need to be listened to more to make kids' sports inclusive and fun and get more kids to be active.  

Parents of kids in sports ought to read Fred's column every Friday also.