Anyone have any advice about skipping and shin splints?

[PacificState]

DS (17) is doing a lot of skipping and thinks he has given himself shin splints (pain at front of leg sort of behind the shinbone). Is there any advice about trainers to help mitigate this problem? He's already found advice about jumping lower and trying to skip on softer surfaces.

Proper shoes.

Stretch, stretch, stretch

Look online at a good physiotherapists YouTube channel, for calf stretches.

Yes - stop skipping until it goes way!

Two main points here - strength, and cushioning.

Firstly, if his key muscle groups aren't strong enough, the bones will take more of the impact, hence the shin splints (and possible stress fractures to follow). So he should be focusing on his glutes and calf muscles, building them up so they're coming into play. Squats with a pretty heavy weight are good for this, also the leg press at the gym.

But while he's doing that he also needs to think about cushioning the impact. Skipping is pretty high impact, so I'd go for a cushioned running shoe (ie not a basic gym shoe) and add some insoles too if he needs even more. Enertor ones are good.

Brilliant, thank you so much - will pass all of this on. He has what look like big calf muscles to me, but definitely isn't wearing running shoes and I know he's not stretching. Wouldn't have occurred to me to think about glutes either.