<p>Well…I do think serious musicians should not play contact sports, not if they are really trying to pursue music at a conservatory level or beyond. The risk of injury is great, and the hands and wrists really are delicate. My son fractured his wrist as a little guy, long before he was a serious musician, and he still has to be careful with it, because wrists refracture again with little effort. </p>
<p>Usually by high school, kids will have chosen a path of sorts by themselves, and won’t need much steering. Most of the kids we know who did both contact sports and music chose one or the other in high school, particularly if they planned to study performance music seriously. The two simply do not go hand in hand (so to speak! :))</p>
<p>I agree with ordinarylives. Accidents happen, even without contact sports. </p>
<p>3 kids, all three play instruments: guitar, tenor sax, alto sax, clarinet, all at very high levels. All three play sports, at varying levels. We’ve had 3 broken wrists, a broken elbow and a knocked out permanent tooth. Only the broken elbow happened during an actual “sport” situation. The broken wrists happened during normal, kid activities… a fall from a bed, a fall on a playground, a horse who took a step too soon while being mounted. And the teeth were knocked loose/out when DD took a header off her bike, using her teeth to block her fall. (One knocked out, several knocked loose. The knocked out tooth was reimplanted, and the loose ones were stabilized. 3 root canals later, she’s still playing saxophone, and using a mouthguard for ALL sports.) Had she used her hand to block the fall, it would have been another broken wrist.</p>
<p>None of the accidents or recuperation times adversly affected either their sports or musical development, when looked at in the long term.</p>
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Agreed! My S wasn’t so big on music but kept with the piano through HS and now likes to play socially, at parties and such. He was on the swim team (non-contact) and water polo team (high contact.) He got a few fat lips from water polo but no jammed fingers. He is very much a STEM major in college and was known in the HS for being the math whiz, so being on the water polo team gave him “cred” that made it easier for him to move among the social groups in HS. Now at college, it doesn’t make much difference and with his major, he just does IM sports like soccer and also tried jujitzu.</p>
<p>D3 decided to quit lacrosse when she got a couple of knocks that put her violin playing out of commission for a few days. We do know a terrific violinist who’s an even better soccer player, though. As a friend with a violinist child always told her daredevil kid, just make sure you break a bone below the waist!</p>
<p>There’s a great scene in Prince of Tides in which the violinist-son yearns to play football and is finally allowed to. (He’s played by Barbra Streisand’s RL son.)</p>
<p>I think this choice should be a student’s. It depends on the seriousness of the aspirations of the child, too.</p>
<p>I must say, as the mother of a violinist with dear friends who are also serious about their string and keyboard instruments the injuries the kids suffered have been related to their playing and over practicing. Some have required surgical intervention. Some low level sports playing would have actually helped relieve their serious repetitive stress injuries.</p>
<p>It’s good to have variety. Unless the student is a really top musician (who probably would not have time for sports), it seems like like some sports would be low risk. Maybe soccer (not goalie) or track/xc.</p>
<p>We are guitarists and show jumpers in this family. Not a contact sport, but finger injuries are common-- my dad shattered the bones in his fingers when his horse refused a jump and he got thrown forward into the horse’s neck. It’s a disappointment when something like that happens, its much harder for my dad to play now, but nobody is discouraged from doing both. If guitar was our bread and butter it might be different, but we see no reason to kill one hobby for another. My dad is an extremely talented guitarist who could do professional work if he wanted to, but he’s just not that kind of musician, he’s passionate but it’s not his day job. In that case I don’t see why you would force someone to limit themselves if they wanted to do both.</p>
<p>I also do alto-sax and have done show jumping, figure skating, karate, soccer, basketball, softball, hockey-- you name it, if it’s available for girls I’ve probably done it, and probably injured my hands in the process. Personally I think they made me better at my instrument, because I really have bad hands to begin with and they need to be used in as many ways as possible to remain functional. But I was never more than a hobbyist, either.</p>
<p>Worth noting: I fell on my face on the stairs a few weeks ago and hurt my hands, sprained both wrists and both ankles, and messed up a knee, an elbow, and a shoulder. Haven’t been able to type as much as I normally do, which is a problem for the work I do. Were I still doing some kind of physical sport maybe my balance would have been a little better and this could have been prevented. :P</p>
<p>I had to reply because you never know when injuries will happen! My D is a soccer goalie and plays the bass clarinet. She broke her pinkie finger three years ago when a friend threw a ball at her while she was sitting out of a game of dodgeball! She wasn’t expecting it so the goalie reflexes weren’t in top form! Apparently a broken pinkie finger can be a major issue but she was lucky and it didn’t need to be pinned and healed pretty well (it’s still a little bit crooked but not bad enough for anyone but her to notice). It kept her out of being goalie the rest of the fall season and the following spring season, although she did play a field position and danced in a cast after a couple of weeks (I couldn’t believe the doctor cleared her for that, but he did, as long as she was careful not to get hit in the hand). She was back to playing the bass clarinet as soon as the cast came off and it was good excercise for her finger. She also plays lacrosse and I’ve always been more concerned with both her sports with concussions rather than hand injuries. The only concussion she’s suffered was also an accident and unrelated to either of her school sports - an out of control skier ran into her from behind and knocked her down. Thankfully she always wears a helmet and the concussion was “mild”. Still, she had to stop dancing for a few weeks because it set off headaches and no skiing for the rest of the season that year because of the headaches from the dancing!</p>
<p>Soccer is pretty good for directing the inevitable injuries to other parts of the body; head and ankle/knee injuries are pretty prevalent (goalies excepted, of course). My son played high school soccer with a very serious pianist who wore thick padded gloves at all times. I assume that helped, at least psychologically.</p>
<p>As a musician and an athlete I would be infuriated if my parents didn’t let me play sports. I’ve broken/dislocated almost all of my fingers, and I can still play two instruments just fine.</p>
<p>My son is a professional cellist. He played soccer until he started high school. In 8th grade, he decided to pursue cello performance for his career and practicing and school work left no time for sports - his choice. In the summers, he always attended high power music camps and I was surprised to find out that he would play basketball almost every evening. Another summer, the game of choice was soccer. At conservatory, he played on an intramural ultimate frisbee team for 2 years. They can only sit in a practice room for so long and then they need to get out and be active. Son knew that playing sports put his hands a risk. He was careful and he played with other musicians who knew the score. He loved playing. He still plays soccer once a week.</p>
<p>D played violin , soccer and did gymnastics. But broke her arm riding a bike!! Went back to all 3 when healed and never looked back. She cut back on sports in high school as Shennie above said == time limits dictated choices be made and she chose music, and some other new interests, over competitive sports.</p>