The New Investigator Award, according to the foundation’s website, “recognizes a researcher who is likely to continue to make significant contributions to the body of knowledge in athletic training and health care.”
“I am extremely honored to be selected for this award,” says Bell, an assistant professor with the Department of Kinesiology’s Athletic Training Program and the director of the Wisconsin Injury in Sport Laboratory (WISL). “It is a wonderful acknowledgement of the positive efforts of our research group. “
In recent years, Bell and colleagues have conducted a range of studies examining the prevention of lower extremity injuries, with a special focus on knee injuries.
Earlier this year, Bell and researchers from across campus produced a groundbreaking study examining whether or not more young people are focusing their efforts on excelling at a single sport, instead of playing a variety through the seasons. This report, published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine, was titled, “Prevalence of Sport Specialization in High School Athletics.”
This one-year observational study found that 36 percent of athletes were considered highly specialized, meaning that they trained in one sport for more than eight months in a year. The researchers also determined that these athletes were more likely to report a history of knee and hip injuries.
“A key component to receiving this honor is the winner’s ability to establish an independent and productive line of research and David has done that with his work on ACL injury, re-injury, and cutting-edge work on sport specialization,” says UW-Madison’s Andrew Winterstein, the program director of the Athletic Training Program. “While this award is a terrific individual honor for Dr. Bell, it also reflects well on his research team, mentors, collaborators, and the Dept. of Kinesiology. We are fortunate to have such a wonderful young researcher as part of our program.”
Bell will receive his award at the NATA Clinical Symposia, which is held in Houston in June. In addition, Bell will present an exchange lecture at the American Medical Society and Sports Medicine conference in 2018.
The month of March may be all about the Madness, but it’s also National Athletic Training Month.
In honor of this month, the Department of Kinesiology at UW-Madison is busy collecting data about high school athletes.
“There’s certain orthopedic injuries that used to be reserved for baseball players with 20 years of experience,” assistant professor, David Bell, said.
“Now they’re seeing them in kids that are 14 and 15,” he continued.
Bell said there’s speculation sports specialization has something to do with this, but there’s little research to back it up.
“We’re one of the first people to publish data,” he said.
“Probably the second group to publish data on this particular topic.”
Though data may be hard to find there are coaches who believe multi-sport athletes make for the healthier teammate.
“There’s a reason these injuries are getting more increased,” Sun Prairie High School coach, Brian Kaminski said.
“One of the biggest reasons is kids specializing in one sport. Using that same muscle over and over [and] not taking a break,” he continued.
Students like high school junior, Nate Verstegen, agreed.
Verstegen attributes playing a variety of sports to being a well rounded athlete.
“I’m working on my body,” he said.
“I’m getting stronger, and I’m also getting mentally tougher as I go along and I’m trying to compete at that next level hopefully.”
Because he plays more than one sport Verstegen may just be able to hold on to that hope. According to the research he’s less likely to have knee and hip injuries.
