AAP, CPS Issue Policy Against Allowing Kids to Box

Pediatricians seek to KO youth boxing

More proof that doctors can be really, really stupid.

Some of the dumb things suggested:

  • Children under the age of 19 should never box because they might hit their head....even though at 18, sending them to foreign deserts with machine guns is A-OK!
  • Kids who box might develop long-term brain injuries because professional boxers sometimes do...
  • Kids should never, ever do something where the "[I]risk is not zero[/I]".
  • Boxing promotes violence...and [I]"[B]if boxing rules were changed to prohibit punching above the neck -- as they were to protect the testicles, in 1938[/B] -- pediatric organizations might rethink their opposition to the sport.[/I]" [B]Huh??[/B]
  • Hahaha racism...those inner city black kids should stick to bicycling, running, and b-balling because "[I]long-distance cycling and triathlons also foster self-discipline and a work ethic without as much risk, she says, and [B] underprivileged youth without access to such activities can get a lot of benefit from basketball[/B].[/I]"
  • Football and hockey are OK because unintentional strikes to the head are rare...even though for every one boxing injury there are probably thousands of football injuries every year.
Interestingly, all of the boxers interviewed think the study/policy is dumb, say boxing keeps kids off the street, out of trouble, off drugs, and helps them defend themselves in tough neighborhoods (where, I will guarantee you, none of these contributing pediatricians practice).

In a new policy statement published today in the journal Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics, along with the Canadian Paediatric Society, is recommending that doctors “vigorously oppose boxing for any child or adolescent” under the age of 19 because of the risk of concussions and other injuries, and instead steer kids toward non-collision sports.

“There’s no reason why we as pediatricians should be condoning such a thing, when we know that the risk is not zero for these kids, and perhaps the damage may be more long lasting,” says Claire LeBlanc, M.D., the lead author of the statement and the chair of a CPS committee on sports medicine and active living.

The pediatricians based their recommendation, in part, on the number of boxing injuries recorded by U.S. and Canadian health officials. In 2003, for instance, there were roughly 14 boxing-related hospital visits for every 1,000 people between the ages of 12 and 34 who participate in the sport, according to data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The main concern is serious head injuries among kids and teens. Young boxers have been known to suffer concussions, just like the pros, but the data on head injuries is scarce, LeBlanc says. The limited government records in the U.S. suggest that the rate of head injuries among 12- to 17-year-olds, as well as older boxers, is about 3 for every 1,000 participants.

Perhaps even more alarming to pediatricians is the creeping possibility, based on studies of professional boxers, that young boxers could develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition caused by repetitive blows to the head that can lead to dementia-like symptoms later in life.

This just makes me wish I was alive in 1937, and a boxer. They’d call me Ballpunch McGee, I swear.

Hitting the testicles wasn’t banned in 1937, that’s a bunch of hooey. Hitting below the belt wasn’t allowed in the LPR rules, and those were codified in 1838. Then again, these people who don’t want their kids doing anything where the risk of injury isn’t zero (bullshit, if you ask me) will buy hook, line and sinker any sciency article that reinforces their idea of boxing as barbaric.

Same shit different sport. If youth football didn’t make so much money and it wasn’t rooted in our culture they be trying to get that shit banned as well.

[QUOTE=It is Fake;2596260]Same shit different sport. If youth football didn’t make so much money and it wasn’t rooted in our culture they be trying to get that shit banned as well.[/QUOTE]

The funny thing is that I think Boxing is just as deep within American culture than football since it’s only really fallen out of vogue in the last 40 years. Crisis of modernity or something.

White, leftist, faggots targeting another symbol of the masculinity that they could never hope to posses, which results in their vaginas being irreversibly abraded by silicate.

I got bashed in the head loads as a kid as a result of Rugby and I’m totally fasdf with no ill effdf vdv c.

I am with George Carlin on this one: we need more intramural skull fucking on television.

Don’t look now.

Forbes, of all places, is putting the smack down on their reasoning:

Pediatricians Try to Knock Out Youth Boxing – But Should Other Concussion-Intensive Sports Also Watch Out

The American Academy of Pediatrics, since 1997, has called for a ban on boxing. But with the organization’s Canadian colleagues in tow, the AAP came back with what it hoped would be another haymaker against the pugilistic arts, particularly as practiced by youth. On Aug. 29, on the website of the AAP journal Pediatrics, the organization and the Canadian Paediatric Society stated their opposition to youth boxing, “and encourage patients to participate in alternative sports in which intentional head blows are not central to the sport.”

It seems a bit odd for AAP to be picking on boxing again. USA Boxing reports 18,000 registered youth members, a pittance compared to, say, lacrosse, which has more than 560,000 players in youth leagues. My 14-year-old son goes to a gym — for free — that is run by the boxing manager for pro football player/pro boxer Tom Zbikowski, and everyone is darn happy to see him, because there just aren’t that many kids showing up. Plus, even AAP acknowledges that the overall injury risk for boxing, compared with many other sports, is lower than “other collision sports such as football, ice hockey, wrestling, and soccer.” The AAP notes that there is only scattershot data on boxing injuries, but that what exists shows boxing-induced dementia likely peaked in the 1930s to 1950s, when fighters fought more, and that shorter careers, fewer bouts and improved medical care have made the sport safer for its participants.

My son is yet uninjured in boxing, though he’s also a beginner and is a long way from taking live punches, with the experts in his gym insisting his skills are sharp first. Meanwhile, my 12-year-old daughter has her left arm in a sling after landing on her shoulder during a touch football game in my front yard.

But for AAP, the problem goes back to the stated intent of a game: “However, unlike these other collision sports, boxing encourages and rewards direct blows to the head and face.” (As an aside, the AAP also was critical of the risk of young fighters taking drastic, unhealthy steps to lose pounds to make their weight class.)