Dr. K. Jeffrey Miller
In sports medicine, many activities are classified as contact or non-contact sports. These classifications are handy when studying injuries associated with each sport and their severity.
For example, sports like football, hockey and boxing involve contact that can cause serious injury. Sports like running, volleyball, and ping-pong seldom involve contact and rarely cause serious injury.
Some sports are hybrids of these categories, but hybrid is not listed as a category.
Baseball is considered a non-contact sport, but it is really a hybrid. Players can be hurt during collisions at home plate, hit by a pitch, or when two fielders collide while chasing a ball. Several pitches hit me in my youth, and I once collided with another player while we were both trying to catch the same fly ball. The collision resulted in a broken arm for me.
The sports classifications are helpful in an academic setting, but there are gray areas. I mentioned the hybrids, but there are situations beyond the hybrids where a sport and an injury are entirely mismatched. Specifically, significant contact injuries from sports that seldom involve any contact.
I will use Llyod as my first example of a complete mismatch between a sport and an injury. Llyod worked for a small company owned and operated by his lifelong best friend repairing vacuum cleaners. Lloyd and his boss-friend were close and did everything together.
Llyod was a nice guy but high-strung and touchy. He always seemed up for an argument. I often wondered what type of personality his boss-friend had that allowed him to get along with Llyod for years.
One Monday morning, I ran into Llyod at a coffee shop. His face was bruised, and he seemed to be having trouble breathing. When I asked him what happened to him, he told me he and his boss-friend had gotten into a fight.
As I said, Llyod and the boss-friend did everything together. That included fishing and drinking. They had combined the two over the previous weekend, and a fight developed over which lure was best for big-mouth bass. The argument led to two broken ribs for Llyod.
After Llyod told me the story, he asked me what I thought about it. I told him I had not realized fishing was a contact sport. He was not amused. Llyod and his boss-friend continued working together.
Gerry is my second example. Gerry played golf on Sundays with his father-in-law, brother-in-law (the fellow married to his wife's sister), and a friend. One Sunday, the friend canceled, and the father-in-law asked his son to play in the friend's place. The idea was not popular with Gerry nor his brother-in-law. They did not care for their wives' brother.
Let's clarify because this gets a little confusing. A father, his son, and the two guys married to the father's daughters were playing golf. So, three of the men were brothers-in-law. All participants were doctors and lawyers.
The son had several personal problems and had been a pain to everyone in the family for years. As Gerry put it, “The guy is a jerk.”
When play started, the son began recapping all his troubles and blamed them on his father. He criticized his father constantly for the first four holes.
At the start of the fifth hole, Gerry had had enough. He deeply admired his father-in-law and told the son to stop. By the eighth hole, the son was still yapping. This time, Gerry told the son to shut his mouth, or he would shut it for him. More words were exchanged, and Gerry punched the son in the mouth.
The fight covered most of the green for several minutes. The father frantically tried to break up the fight while the other brother-in-law stood by leaning on a golf club. My interpretation of the brother-in-law leaning on the golf club is he could not bring himself to hit the son but did not mind if Gerry did.
The fight ended with the son running as fast as he could toward the clubhouse. Moments after the fight ended, four gentlemen in a golf cart drove up and perused the situation. Gerry said, “Golf clubs were laying everywhere, my hat was twisted backward, and I was missing a shoe.” After a moment of awkward silence, one of the gentlemen in the cart said, "We'll play through."
Over the past 35 years, I have gathered other examples of contact injuries from non-contact sports. Being a lifelong student, I have taken several lessons away from these cases. The most crucial lesson is to always wear catcher's gear when I fish or golf.
Dr. Jeff Miller is a doctor of chiropractic at the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute and the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia.
I am Dr. K. Jeffrey Miller, a seasoned expert in sports medicine with a wealth of experience and knowledge in the field. As a doctor of chiropractic at the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute and the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia, I have dedicated my career to studying injuries associated with various sports, both contact and non-contact.
In the realm of sports classifications, my expertise extends to understanding the distinctions between contact and non-contact sports. This knowledge is crucial when analyzing the types of injuries associated with each category and their severity. For instance, I am well-versed in the fact that sports like football, hockey, and boxing, involving substantial contact, can lead to serious injuries, while activities like running, volleyball, and ping-pong are generally non-contact and rarely result in severe harm.
I have a deep understanding of the nuances within these classifications, including the existence of hybrid sports that blur the lines between contact and non-contact. One notable example I often discuss is baseball, often considered a non-contact sport but, in reality, a hybrid due to potential injuries from collisions at home plate, being hit by a pitch, or fielders colliding while chasing a ball. I draw on personal experiences, such as being hit by pitches in my youth and suffering a broken arm from a collision during a game, to underscore the complexity of these classifications.
In my academic pursuits, I've encountered the challenges presented by gray areas in sports classifications. I delve into the mismatch between a sport and injury, using real-life examples to illustrate how injuries can occur in unexpected situations. Take, for instance, the case of Llyod, who, despite working in a vacuum cleaner repair business, managed to sustain significant contact injuries during a fishing-related argument with his boss-friend, resulting in broken ribs.
Another compelling example is Gerry, who experienced a physical altercation during a seemingly non-contact sport—golf. I bring attention to the unexpected fight that broke out on the golf course, highlighting the complexities that can arise even in sports traditionally considered non-contact.
Through my extensive experience over the past 35 years, I have accumulated a repertoire of examples showcasing contact injuries in non-contact sports. I use these cases to emphasize a crucial lesson—sometimes, one must be prepared for unexpected physical encounters, even in activities perceived as non-contact. As a lifelong student, I advocate for safety measures, humorously suggesting the importance of always wearing catcher's gear when fishing or golfing.
In summary, my multifaceted expertise allows me to navigate the intricate landscape of sports classifications, providing insights into the unexpected and sometimes humorous intersections of contact injuries in both contact and non-contact sports.
