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Kids at risk of overtraining
Overuse injuries and burnout are growing
problems among the estimated 30 million
to 45 million athletes ages 6 to 18,
according to a clinical report published in
2007 in the journal Pediatrics.
Up to 50 percent of injuries seen by
paediatric sports medicine doctors are
related to overuse, the report states.
Children who play the same sport year-
round often suffer repetitive motion
injuries, said Dr. Stephen Howell, an
orthopaedic surgeon and sports medicine
specialist at Methodist Hospital in
Sacramento in the US.
“There’s never a down season for a
particular joint,” he said. “I think it’s more
common because you have kids playing
on a junior high or high school team, and
they’re also playing on club teams. That’s
a lot of games, a lot of practices.”
The most frequent prescription for overuse
injuries is something an ambitious athlete
likely won’t want to hear - rest. “They
need to avoid all aspects of training, and
sometimes that’s a very difficult decision,”
Howell said.
The physical effects of overtraining are
only part of the problem, however. Young
athletes also are at risk of developing
burnout, said Dr. Matthew Hay, a
paediatrician with the University of Texas
Medical Branch in Galveston.
“Severe burnout in children looks exactly
like depression,” he said. Symptoms
include fatigue, non-specific pain
for more than two weeks and poor
academic performance. Burnout often
arises because parents put unnecessary
pressure on a child. The parents envision
their child getting a scholarship or making
a professional or Olympic team. That
goal is unrealistic for a majority of child
and teen athletes, since fewer than one
percent of high school athletes eventually
make the pros, the Pediatrics clinical
report states.
Given that statistic, parents of young
athletes should instead encourage their
kids to enjoy their sport without pushing
them to unrealistic limits, Hay said. “The
whole point of sports is to have fun,” he
said.
Here are some tips for parents based
on recommendations from the American
Academy of Pediatrics:
• Make sure your child takes at
least one to two days off from
competitive games, practice
and training each week.
• Encourage them to vary the
sports. Using different muscle
groups will help prevent
overtraining injuries and
burnout.
• Training goals such as
repetitions and distance
should not increase by more
than 10 percent per week.
• The child should take at least
two to three months off from
a sport each year.
• Limit the athlete’s sports
involvement to one team per
season.
Prevention is Key
Many sports injuries are due to an improper
warm-up or stretching routine or because
the level of intensity of the workout was
increased too quickly. Therefore, the
best way to avoid sports injuries that can
keep you out of the game for weeks or
months is to stretch adequately before
and after your workout, and to pace
yourself according to your level of skill
and experience in the sport.
!
Top 10 sporting injuries
There are hundreds of different sporting injuries,
but there are certain parts of the body that are
more prone to damage than others. In fact, the
top three categories comprise more than 80% of
all sports injuries, according to
AskMen.com
Number 10: Achilles Tendinitis
Number 9: Concussion
Number 8: Groin Strain
Number 7: Shin Splints
Number 6: Lower Back Pain
Number 5: Pulled Muscle
Number 4: Tennis or Golf Elbow
Number 3: Ankle Sprain
Number 2: Shoulder Injury
Number 1: Runner’s Knee
Insight
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