The first step to staying safe in sports is using the appropriate, approved protective equipment. Helmets protect your head and brain from injury. To make sure you wear your helmet and other equipment properly, ask a coach or other qualified adult for help. Would you play tackle football without a helmet and other essential protective gear? —No. It's important to wear an appropriate helmet when riding a bicycle, for example. In some places, it’s the law. Your parents or another grown-up in charge of you can get in legal trouble if you do not wear your helmet.
A cup and a jockstrap can be worn to protect your genitalia (a boy's private area on his body). A cup, which is shaped to fit over a boy's penis and testicles, will protect a boy from being hit with a ball or puck, for example, in his genitalia. It might seem too inconvenient to wear a cup and jockstrap, but if you’re slammed in the testicles with a baseball you will deeply regret not wearing it. If something like that occurs, you could potentially have a very serious and extremely painful medical problem on your hands. Irreversible damage to a boy's genitalia can happen.
It is also important to stretch your muscles before playing sports. Your coach can explain how and what muscles to stretch. If you don’t have a coach for your sport, you can find information on a reputable website, such as a sport’s official site; don’t hesitate to ask a trusted adult for help finding it.
Also, don’t play sports if you already have an injury, because you could accidentally worsen it and make it take much longer to heal.
