Managing Younger Athletes
Injuries can hinder a child’s development, both physically and sports specifically. Load management should be the number one priority, in both preventing and managing injuries in young sports players. This will enable them to have lifelong participation in sport or to excel when the time is right.
Overloading our players through periods of peak growth can have significant detrimental effects. Our adolescent and youth players are at a more vulnerable phase of their sporting life. There is an overabundance of sporting opportunities available to them. The benchmark of organised sport for players has shifted significantly over the years with a high-level structured approach, increased level of intensity, increased demand on time and increased specialisation at a younger age. This is combined with a player’s peak skeletal growth, at approximately 11 years (girls) to 13 years (boys), and their developing bodies (musculoskeletal systems), when they are more exposed and susceptible to injuries (including chronic overuse injuries and severe and debilitating injuries).
More information and guidelines are available through:
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Sport NZ – Balance is Better
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ACSEP Position Statement – Sport Specialisation in Young Athletes
Basic rules of thumb to assist with managing your players load
Overloading is not always bad. When undertaking training and conditioning, an overload needs to occur to allow a training adaption to take place – planned, purposeful and periodised training will elicit the appropriate adaptation.