When Young Athletes Push too Hard. More than 30 million children in the United States between the ages of 6 and 18 years participate in organized and recreational sports, which helps keep those children fit and feeling good about themselves. But according to Thomas M. DeBerardino, MD, Associate Professor of Orthopaedics at the University of Connecticut Health Center, adolescent sport-related injuries are on the rise so much that they have become a “silent epidemic.”

The Case of the Cramping Tennis Player. “My calves ache so badly that I can barely stand up. It’s to a point that I’m afraid to get out on the tennis court any more.”

Sorting the Data: Should You Be Recommending Ankle and Knee Braces to Prevent Sports Injuries? Let me start by saying it depends on whom you read and trust. And on what you want to believe. The data is annoyingly conflicting and contradictory. This review has no pretentions that it represents an exhaustive or definite research of the literature, but rather it will serve as a review of some of the reviews and articles to help you best inform your sporting patients.