Teen Basketball Player

Hi, first of all, I would like to express my thanks to all of you for the very kind help and advice you are going to give us.
My 12 years old son is playing basketball professionally since he is 7 years old. Now he is 180 cm long and 70 kg.
He had a backache and we went to an orthopedist. The MRI report says that "L4-L5 right paracentral disk protrusion no bilateral foraminal root compression" and "L5-S1 mild opsterior disk protrusion".
The orthopedist started a physical therapy program for him immediately.
Will you pelase help me with other treatment options ?
Is the physical therapy program a complete treatment to get rid of those disk protrusions?
Will he be able to play basketball again?
Thanks for concerning. I wish you merry christmas and a happy new year.

good afternoon parent of...

Your son is tall and I wonder, has he grown a lot in the last few months?
Has the specialist mentioned his bone age? and what his expected total length will be when he is fully grown?

Children of his age often slouch/slump when they sit, does your son do this?
You say, he is a professional basketball player.... how often does he train in the week and how much of the true game time is actually playing? Does he
sit on the bench a lot?

I agree with the dokter that your son needs to be assisted in what he does with his body. He needs to learn how to know when is is overexerting himself.
Training a lot, bending forward playing ball, or slouching whilst sitting can aggrevate back problems.

BUT there is only one person that can truly answer all your questions and that is the fysiotherapist that will be seeing your son.

In general it is not wise to overtrain a childs body when the child is still growing.
I suggest being very aware of his training schedule and speaking to his trainer(s) about the backpain.
Ask you physiotherapist for advice, let him/her contact the trainer as well.

I too wish you all a wonderful Christmas time and a good, healthy and happy New Year.

kind regards

Esther

Hello, it is very kind of you that you answered my questions ans conserned with this matter.

Yes, he has added at least 10 cm to his lenght last year, as the previous one. He is growing very fast.
His bone age is appropriate with his age.
The dpctor expected that he is going to be almost 190 cm or more.

He my son also slouch/slump when he sits, even standing.
he is a professional basketball player. He has a daily trainig for anour 1,5 hours He sometimes sits on the bench and plays some, we can say that he plays 1 quarter at every match, in average.
The doctor said that he has short upper leg muscles. He said that he has to stretch them. And he has weak abdominal muscles and offered a group of exercises daily.

I aggree with you: In general it is not wise to overtrain a childs body when the child is still growing. He really likes and wants to play basketball. And, to be a professional basketball player, he has to work hard. Is there a way to prepare his body for the trainig before the trainig session, so that his body is not hurt again?

The basketball club he is playing in does not offer a guidance all about these. The trainer is more concerned in the play not the players.

I really very thank you for concerning and showing way.
With my best wishes about Christmas and the new year.

Sincerely,

Berrin Sevgi

Hello Brsevgi,
Estherderu is correct. If your physio is used to children and teenagers and knows sports physio, taking their advice would be worthwhile. I have provided a few thoughts for you in the mean time.
Cross training with pre and post stretching of the opposite muscle groups used
during the exercise is very important. Most highly successful sports people are excellent in one sport and very very good in a second sport. Cross training early in life fine tunes brain training allowing movement patterns that can be used in unusual circumstances. To be an expert in any field it is commonly accepted that 10,000 hours of practise is required. This can be in matches, practise games or even just bouncing the ball. Most good sports people involved in ball sports are rarely without a ball in their hands. The brain is integrating skills all the time.

If an examination of the sports done seems to use one side of the body more than the other eg left / right or front/ back then specific training drills or weights program can address the imbalances. As your son is only just having a growth spurt heavy weights are to be avoided to protect the growth plates. Light weights for endurance and flexibilty would be acceptable - rubber band or tubing eg theratube / theraband or similar brands could be used.
Be aware that it is unlikely that any overtraining problems would occur in the short to medium term, however the damage will be cumulative and is what eventually shows up as nagging injury that may eventually end a promising career before it has even started.
Most important, as you are aware, is to know if he loses interest and if so, why. Knowing why is important as he may want to continue but something else is worrying him OR he may really want to do something else.
Occasionally outside help from a good sports psychologist can sort out glitches. Teenage years are notoriously difficult for parents to sort out such problems.
I hope some of the above ideas will help your son.
All the best for the new year.
Regards,
MrPhysio+