If your children play sports, you’ve probably seen a few bumps, bruises, strains, and sprains -- or worse.

While preventing injuries in active kids is almost impossible, William E. Garrett Jr., MD, PhD, orthopaedic surgeon and team physician for the Duke and U.S. national soccer teams, offers some advice for keeping mishaps to a minimum.

The basics involve choosing the right team for your child. Do the coaches and referees insist on the proper equipment for the sport, and are they knowledgeable about proper warm-up, heat illnesses, and rest and nutrition off the field? Do they strictly enforce rules that prevent dangerous play?

It’s also important to do a quick check on the adults’ intentions behind childhood sports. “Sports can be a great socializing tool for children,” says pediatric sports medicine specialist Deborah Squire, MD, “but adults’ expectations of performance often bring too much structure and pressure into what should be a fun time for kids.”

Parents should be mindful of their children’s physical limits, she says, whether they’re new to rough-and-tumble sports or strong athletes. “When children begin to show promise in a sport, there’s a strong tendency on the part of coaches and parents to push them to focus on it more exclusively than they might choose to do on their own,” Squire says, adding that kids are as vulnerable as adults to repetitive motion and overuse injuries.

Because girls run, jump, and land differently than boys do, they sustain acute injuries more often on a per-exposure basis. In sports like basketball and soccer, girls’ overall injury rates can be from two to eight times higher than those for boys, particularly between ages 11 and 17.

For example, ACL injuries are much more common in females across the board. “Injury-prevention programs for athletes of both genders are being created and improved throughout the country,” says Garrett, “with a number of teams working with physical therapists and athletic trainers to address this issue.”

For any kid and any sport, Garrett says the following tips can keep sports mishaps to a minimum:

• Start with passing grades. Children who have ever experienced any significant medical problems or symptoms should be specially screened before playing sports -- and all young athletes should get regular physicals. 
• Know the basics. Most serious sports injuries result not from overuse, but from a single awkward step or bad landing, especially among junior and senior high school-age children. Coaches should be sure kids master a sport’s fundamentals, such as running, pitching, cutting, falling, and pivoting.
• Even the playing field. There’s a huge variability in physical maturity among kids the same age -- and among boys and girls on co-ed teams. Injuries are more likely to happen when a 12-year-old who weighs 85 pounds goes head to head with a 12-year-old who’s 120 pounds, so look for teams classified by size, not age.
• Teach kids about pain. Kids should never “play through the pain.” If something starts to hurt, they should stop doing it. Don’t assume that pain is part of any sport; if an injury doesn’t get better in a day or so, see a doctor. 
• Listen to your child. If he or she isn’t feeling well or is poorly rested, mentally distracted, or emotionally upset, don’t force participation in a sports event. If participation in a particular sport seems to be taking a toll on your child physically or emotionally -- or if he or she clearly doesn’t enjoy it -- talk about it. Perhaps he or she would like to try a different sport or way of staying active.

In the final tally, the goals that really matter are the ones your child scores off the field -- nurturing a healthy, growing body and developing a good attitude about health, fitness, and safety.