As athletes prepare for another year of high school sports, doctors and athletic trainers are reminding athletes to listen to their bodies.

That advice, while seemingly simple, is a crucial component of staying injury-free, according to Dr. Jerome DaSilva, an orthopedic surgeon for Rebound Orthopedics and Neurosurgery.

“Successful athletes understand their bodies and know when they’re training too hard,” DaSilva said.

Many professional athletes already know how to take care of themselves, but it appears the younger athletes are still learning — some the hard way.

Dr. James R. Andrews, famous for being the sports surgeon for the stars at his Alabama clinic, told Sports Illustrated that 60 percent of his patients these days are high school athletes or younger.

This spring, Andrews launched a campaign aimed at educating young athletes. STOP (Sports Trauma and Overuse Prevention) has several big names — Charles Barkley, Tom Brady, Bo Jackson, Jack Nicklaus, to name a few — attached as spokespeople, trying to get the word out about overuse injuries.

Overuse injuries are exactly what they sound like: bodies breaking down from too much of the same exercise. Stress fractures in cross country runners, ligament damage in soccer players, strained shoulders for tennis and volleyball players, for example.

Year-round sports, Andrews claims, is a big reason for the rise in overuse injuries.

Most overuse injuries, according to DaSilva, are typically soft-tissue injuries such as muscle strains.

“It leads to discomfort. It leads to frustration,” DaSilva said. “It doesn’t lead to long-term damage, typically.”

The exception to that rule would be baseball players, specifically pitchers.

“Baseball pitchers are a unique subset of athlete,” DaSilva said. “They bridge the gap between overuse and traumatic injury because they are pitching so much. Pitching is such a demanding activity on the arm. The amount of pitching that someone does can lead to traumatic injury.”

Those associated with the sport have heard of injuries to pitchers who have been throwing hard all of their lives.

Jeff Kraayeveld, an athletic trainer at Rebound, recalls a 15-year-old patient of his who threw “way too many pitches” in one game and then played catcher in the second game of a doubleheader — another demanding position for the arm and shoulder.

Those horror stories of overuse are, for the most part, subsiding in the sports culture. Many coaches understand the risks these days, and leagues limit the number of pitches and/or innings in young arms.

But a pitcher — and his parents — also need to understand when downtime is needed. A limit on games or innings does not limit an athlete from training on his own.

Then there are those athletes who might be cautious about overuse but still end up with severe injuries due to mechanics.

Jacob Virtue, who will be a senior at Union High School, underwent major surgery on his throwing elbow in December. A 17-year old, Virtue did not start pitching regularly until he was 14. His dad, David Virtue, said he made sure his son did not overdo his training.

Jacob Virtue theorizes that a football injury to his collarbone his sophomore year might have led to a change in his pitching mechanics when he returned to baseball. That first day he played catch after the collarbone injury had healed, Virtue said he felt pain in his elbow.

Thinking the discomfort would eventually go away on its own, he kept throwing through the spring and summer baseball seasons, not knowing the severity of the injury. The pressure to play, he said, led to his silence,

“I’ve played sports my entire life. The first injury I ever had was my collarbone,” he said. “Me not playing was not acceptable. I kind of ignored the injury until the offseason.”

Virtue underwent a rare surgery that replaced his cartilage in his right elbow with cartilage from one of his knees. After months of rehabilitation, Virtue said he expects to be cleared to start pitching by the end of this month. He won’t play football this fall because he is concentrating on his senior season of baseball. He hopes to play baseball in college.

Some athletes are afraid that if they do not compete, they will lose their spots on a team. That fear is nothing new. But doctors and trainers are being more aggressive about educating athletes and coaches that the I-have-to-play mindset can make things worse.

Virtue said he has learned and he will speak up immediately if he feels any discomfort.

He also is working with Kraayeveld on the science of pitching. Kraayeveld uses video analysis of pitchers to teach proper mechanics, noting that how a pitcher throws a baseball is key to staying healthy.

“Our bodies weren’t built to be up here,” Kraayeveld said, lifting his arm into the throwing motion. “Fatigue can lead to overuse, too. The elbow dips, the mechanics are off, and that’s when overuse injuries turn into something worse.”

As far as the non-traumatic injuries — the muscle aches and strains — DaSilva reiterates the importance of athletes understanding their bodies.

“They have to participate wisely. They have to train properly,” DaSilva said. “They need to cross-train, which is very important to injury prevention. If you’re a runner, and you suffer whatever chronic injury, get on a bike. Maintain cardiovascular fitness, maintain muscle strength, but by using the muscles differently. Then you can get back to running.

“That’s what smart athletes do. They cross-train appropriately when they need to.”

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